The Gladdies put themselves into a great position to keep the season going, bowling out Wood Duck County for 226 on a small ground, and safely getting to 0/9 at stumps week one.
The Ducks came out aggressively, but the Gladdies fielding was up to the task, effective an almost professional-looking run out, to start a clatter of wickets. Marty bowled very, very well, and finally got a break to pick up a bowled, and a brilliant caught behind thanks to Kunal. When Rob picked up the remaining opener, Wood Ducks were 4/77 and on the ropes. Cue a century partnership that took them to 180, with 20 overs to play. But cometh the hour, cometh the bowling changes, and Jimbo adroitly mixed things up to keep everyone guessing, both with bowling changes and his own repertoire. He snagged 4/31 off 10.4 overs and we took 6/46 to take the honours on day 1. Kransky and Kunal were solid til close, and are set to open up next week.
And, we’re done.
Sadly, the Gladdies fell fairly well short of the target week two to finish season 2017-18 with something of a whimper. Most guys got a start, and, as you’d expect from a solid batting lineup, most hit the ball pretty well. Unfortunately we mostly hit it well directly at fielders, often in the air, and to Wood Duck County’s credit, they hung on to all but one of those chances.
Wickets fell pretty regularly from the start, and at 5/55 it looked like we’d be done by 10:30, risking a potentially catastrophic… wait for the pub to open. But Dan and Brendan got together for a 49 run stand that kept our hopes alive, and took the sun over the yard arm. At least until Collapse Part II came, wherein we lost 5/42. An innings of three thirds you might say. While he played a fairly strong hand in our two run outs, Dan was also by far the stand out on the day, scoring 70 when the next best was 16. And that was sundries.
On the bright side, we didn’t cheat, then try and cover it up, then try and pretend it wasn’t that big a deal and assume that because we said we’re sorry and promised not to do it again (ever, we promise) everything would be fine and we can all just forget about it. So it could have been worse.
