‘Listen mate, the only time you walk is when you miss the bus’.

Under a blue sky the Pelicans welcomed Lord Gnomes to The Meadow, with the toss duly taken Skip unbelievably decided to bat.

Opening for the Pelicans we had the welcoming site of Asad and Raheel, it didn’t take long for both to get into their stride and pepper the boundary, Skip leaned back in his chair and relaxed into the afternoon. Obviously as everyone knows this is a dangerous attitude to take and proved again as in the fifth over Raheel was pinged LBW for 8. Still no need to worry as Yusuf took to the field and eased himself into the batting with two fours. Asad meanwhile continued to hit the boundary until a straight drive almost had him caught, Skip was twitching slightly in his seat as Asad then slapped the ball towards mid-wicket only to see a very good one-handed catch taken by the Gnomes skipper, 59 for 2.

Yusuf, having started with all the purpose of a German Panzer division continued in the same vein with 4 following 4 following 6 following 4, you get the picture. Anyway, Yusuf had now been joined by Ali, who was welcomed to his first game of the season following a toe injury. As ever always a pleasure seeing Ali’s smiling face. It is also fair to say Ali can bring a degree of randomness which can be fun. Today though was a little bit off the random scale even by Ali’s standards.

With Yusuf knocking the Gnomes bowlers all over the place Ali settled back and watched the carnage backing up well and watching the score fly along. With the game ticking over nicely and Ali at the crease the Gnomes went up for an LBW appeal which was expertly ignored by Umpire Adam, Ali meanwhile overruled Umpire Adam and walked having decided it must have been LBW. This caused some confusion in the clubhouse as obviously something must have happened which we had all missed, as it turned out this wasn’t the case, and this had been the first instance anybody had seen a batsman walk on an LBW appeal. If only Ali had listened to the wise words of our Australian player only 7 days earlier.

With Pelicans wobbling on 89 for 3 Niron entered the attack and with Yusuf took the score to 110 a nice partnership unfortunately finished too soon as first Yusuf was bowled after scoring an excellent 69 and then Niron soon followed, this was followed by a quick cameo from Sush who we welcomed back the Meadow following a many year layoff, hopefully he will be back again shortly.

Josh too having last year scored 103 this year went one better in the unit’s column but ignored the 10s and hundreds column.

A steady hand was required and thankfully this came from JG who hit the bad ones defended the good ones and stickled the score along with singles……easy.

Unfortunately, Toobes who had now joined him didn’t last long and was soon removed bringing Adam to the middle. We then witnessed a partnership of Adam taking the odd single and JG scoring the runs. With the score ticking along into the 170s JG was finally bowled for an excellent 23.

Now cometh the hour cometh the man, and that man was Waz. This gladiator fully pumped up to unleash his own form of hell with steel in his eyes and adventure in his heart strode like a lion to the wicket, he then ran back to the clubhouse realising he had forgotten one important item, his bat.

When he finally did get out to the wicket, he was bowled leaving Adam left like a jilted bride and the score on 171 All out.

Tea was provided by Niron and what a superb spread it was, absolutely fantastic. Washed down by beers provided from the Nags, what more could you ask for.

With 171 to defend the Pelicans opened with Toobes and Josh. The bowling was tight and the run rate low as the Peli bowlers took to their task. It wasn’t until the 10th over that Josh finally made the breakthrough an excellent ball that bowled the opener, the Gnomes were 18 for 1 after 10 overs.

With little success on the wickets front Toobes was removed from the attack to bring the Chesham Prince into the game, meanwhile at the Nags End Josh continued his spell which then saw him remove the other opener. This time it was an excellent catch from Yusuf behind the stumps that came off the underside of the bat. This was then followed by another excellent ball in Josh’s final over to take his third wicket and finish with figures of 8 overs 3 for 17.

With the Gnomes wobbling JG was brought into the attack from the Nags End meanwhile Asad continued plugging away from the Railway End but found little success, meanwhile after two overs JG was removed from the attack in order to take the Railway End later in the game and Raheel took over from the Nags End.

This brought an immediate result as the number 4 batsman decided to take on Asad’s arm, a foolish decision as a rocket was duly delivered to Yusuf and the bails removed. With the score on 123 for 4 Raheel and Asad took the attack to the Gnomes.

Raheel then took his next wicket a quick piece of work from Yusuf who stumped the number 5 bat followed by another Yusuf catch to dismiss the number 6 batsman and sportingly walked after not been given out.

With Asad’s spell finished Toobes came in and finished his spell but with no success to allow JG into the attack, meanwhile Raheel got his third victim LBW and JG took his first scalp as he removed the number 8 bat.

The game was now extremely tight but unfortunately the Gnomes stood firm and took the victory.

Special shout out to Waz who patrolled the boundaries and stopped more runs than most of our batsmen scored with some excellent cover fielding.

Yusuf whose display behind the wicket was as ever superb.

Niron for the tea and jerk chicken salad in particular.

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Reports are intended to convey an entertaining picture of the day’s play. No disrespect is meant, but if on occasion we misjudge matters, please take it in the friendly and humorous spirit in which it is intended.