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V&A v The Unabombers

ollie unabombers

V&A PLAYERS: Henry Turpie, Rob Taylor, Matt Wright, Nick Stoop, Lachlan Neiboer, Nick Derewlany, Christiaan Jonkers, Ollie Marsh, Adam Knight, Joe Tetlow, Andy Jones 

Having been away for a few weeks I was rather surprised to see the colour of the outfield upon arriving back at Stonor. Not, however, as surprised as Andy Jones was when he seemingly woke up out of chance rather than any forward planning on Saturday morning. To be fair he didn’t provide the magnums of rosé just drank them, and to be even fairer he didn’t lock himself out of the house without his car keys, something a sober Ollie Marsh failed to achieve. One way or another a full team arrived in relatively good time.

We lost last year and so fielded an unusually youthful team, a tactic immediately noticed by the opposition. It doesn’t take much to appear intimidating at this level of cricket, thank goodness. Nick Derewlany was skipper, won the toss, and put us in to bat. Marsh and Tetlow did nothing to change The Unabombers’ outlook with the latter looking rock solid and the former looking frankly like he’d probably get a century. That said, catches were dropped in the opening period that could have changed the game. It took our own skipper, kindly acting as sub fielder, to make the breakthrough. Tetlow (33) had gotten nicely into his stride when he rather dollied one to Derewlany at mid-off who simply couldn’t, in good conscience, get out the way. 

We were 124 -1 when Henry Turpie came in. He had been heard earlier warning the team of collapses when we have depth in the batting order, and played with an appropriate focus, whilst piling on a sizeable total with the dominant Marsh who did indeed get to his century. He then seemed to decide he fancied a break and was caught just before lunch. Jones left the remaining over, playing mind games with the oppo. 

Nicky Bird once again provided lunch, the classic roast beef/salad/cheese/bread combo (with some particularly good horseradish) and gave a speech both insulting (“morons”) and complimenting the visitors. The Unabombers seemed to appreciate the spirit of it and were very pleasant company during the break. As the temperatures unwaveringly remained around 30 degrees both sides imbibed huge quantities of water (and some beer) before getting back out there. 

It seemed that lunch did a lot more good to the bowling side as wickets began to fall quickly after the break. Jones (0) exclaimed “sweet relief!” and Lachlan (0) probably wanted to get back to sunbathing. Both were caught off the bowling of N. Holmes who looked quite handy but not as handy as Hunt who proceeded to bowl Turpie for a very well made 66. Sadly the remaining V and A batsmen put up little resistance and Hunt rather tore through the rest of our (still quite strong) tail to take five-for.  Thanks mostly to the top three we managed to set them 247 to win. Game on.

Adam Knight opened up from one end with Jonkers at the other. Both found rhythm and wickets quickly with Jonkers getting both openers and Knight their number three. The Unabombers were 22-3 off of 5 overs. However TK and Lever held the opposition steady with a feisty left-right partnership, withstanding a fierce and accurate spell from Lachlan “second-change” Nieboer. The two of them batted until tea, which was an absolute treat courtesy of the Taylor’s (mainly Sandra) and included ice cream and homemade cookies! Truly a meal worth relishing. 

Clearly feeling the need to contribute more – Rob Taylor removed the longstanding partnership, bowling Lever (17) whilst TK (46) was caught. Stoop came into the attack and got the ball to move around on both the X and Y axis, bamboozling the bombers getting out T Holmes (0) caught and J Williams (2) stumped (or run out depending on who you ask). Jones made a cameo with slightly more enthusiasm than his batting and got a wicket for his efforts. Turpie then came on to finish things off with another batsmen out caught this time in dramatic fashion by Derewlany diving to his right one handed. Great to see a skipper lead by example in the field as we ended up with 7 catches (though Marsh could have made it 8). In the end we won by 104 runs quite convincingly. Marsh (pictured) was man of the match, with his decisive first century for the V and A. It won’t be his last. 

Written by Matt Wright