Match Report

They came they saw they ‘Kilconquered’

Blenheim Park Cricket Club travelled to the delightful setting of Elie in Scotland to play cricket on the beach against the Ship Inn. Previously the club visited in 2013 and lost a controversial game due to some sort of a local rule, they had twelve players!!

Playing at Elie is considered to be elite in the echelons of cricket fixtures as you can see from this fixture advert. 

 

Elie are very serious about beach cricket and were playing the Free Foresters the day before and there are some important local rules as follows:

A six hit into the sun terrace earns the player their height in beer.

A one-handed catch by a spectator earns the same.

Any player getting a duck has to do the walk of shame. They have to return the long route around the sand dune rather than the steps.

Anyway, enough said, and to the game. Skipper Malcolm West lost the toss and the home side decided to bat in their finest green outfits. Local knowledge is very important, and Elie amassed a very good score of 197 off 30 overs, our keeper Rob Kerr starred with the ball and took 3 wickets in a cameo bowling performance. It is fair to say Rob is a very enthusiastic celebrator of wickets and this delighted the large crowd as he circled the playing area jumping and cheering his wicket taking. He also took 2 stumpings and a catch to complete his fielding duties as a keeper. 

There were some good batting by G Riddle retiring on 52 with good contributions from Jack Currie hitting 36, Ian Murdoch 28 and Liam Kerr 25. There were notable bowling efforts from the skipper with 2 for 22 and a miserly 0 for 4 from the wee man Phil Spearman as well the previously mentioned staring role of Rob Kerr with 3 for 16. 

Just to mention each player had to bowl 3 overs hence why Rob Kerr swapped the gloves and Phil Reay ably deputized for the 3 overs needed.

Just to show the reader/s how serious beach cricket there are drinks breaks at 15 overs to enjoy pints of Thatchers’ Cider who were the sponsors of the weekend. A barrel was provided in the VP lounge for the whole day’s cricket and evening. Tea was fantastic, with scones, scotch eggs (obviously), and sandwiches a plenty.

 

 

The Blenheim squad was 16 strong, or weak, depending on your take, featuring 10 past or present Woodstock inhabitants. As mentioned in the title of the article (Phil Spearman’s pun), everyone stayed in two villas at the Kilconquhar Castle Estate and were bussed to and from the Ship Inn at Elie beach.  Amongst the squad were organizer Phil Boardman, club chairman David Hughes and Woodstock local celebrity Stan Angol. VPs included Caroline Priday and Sarah Brammeier. One would claim to be a senior VP but not getting into that!

At last, you exclaim, the Blenheim Innings. Well to be fair we struggled with the local conditions at first and were not sure of our best tactics. The Spearman’s of Phil and Finn opened the innings and quickly Phil perished trying to play correctly through the covers and Phil Boardman soon followed in a similar fashion. Andrew Woodcock and Finn took the score to past 50 before the former was well caught on the boundary and Finn was out for 38. This brought the skipper to the crease with memories of his duck 11 years previously, not sure if anyone had mentioned it. Sadly skipper Malc banished any fears with a first ball 6 and helped bring the score to over 100 with Jake Spearman hitting the majority of the runs. 

The wonderful commentary was performed by the Ship Inn supremo and organizer Graham Bucknall’s wife Rachel and informed all that the run rate was about level, anyone’s game! Suddenly the emphasis changed as tall Tommy Weedon strode to the wicket, he has been known for big hitting. Can the Ship Inn afford his height in beer? Jake was batting serenely the other end and then B Tait began to bowl, his first 4 deliveries (as per Ben Stokes) were dispatched for huge sixes over mid-wicket and suddenly we were in the box seat, what could go wrong? 

56 needed with 5 wickets left and 12 overs to go, Jake was then out, and another wicket fell. Tom continued to hit sixes and, no, he is caught behind but reprieved sportingly by the keeper. Reaches his 50 and then has to retire, we are down to our last 2 men of Rob Kerr and Stan the man. The score is nurdled and edged until 5 is needed and Stan is out allowing Big Tom back in. 

You guessed it, a huge 6 from Tom and the game is won, a fantastic innings of 58, including 8 sixes and 1 four win the game. One of the sixes is just wide of the sun terrace, so long Tom did not win his height in drink but had the consolation of the man of the match champagne.