On a glorious summer day the Kings Road ventured back to leafy Dulwich for the second week in succession, with hopes of a different outcome this week against South Bank CC.

On a flat wicket Captain Brown, with his parents among the spectators, had visions of a triumphant day, and having won the toss duly elected bat. After agreeing with the opposition captain to be lenient on the wides he strode back from the middle hoping for a high score from which his rampant pace attack could bowl the road to victory. Cricket can be a simple game in the head, but little did Brown know that his bowling attack would include a spinner not even in the XI that started the game.

Openers Raju and Chris MacNicol made a slow start in the face of excellent tight opening bowling, piling on the dots to reach 5 off the first 5 overs. Raju finally freed his arms cracking four through the covers, before being caught next ball.

What followed was a remarkable passage of 7 balls. First MacNicol was comprehensively run out. After sticking around to argue with everyone that he wasn’t out, C Mac eventually dragged himself off the pitch, but not before securing the tantrum award of the day for himself.

Next in, de Silva pushed one into the on side to get off the mark only to look back on completing the run to see partner Sherman hopping off the pitch claiming “I heard it pop” and something about “a three-eyed raven”. Small replaced Sherman (who had now been dragged into the distance by Hodor) but was out first ball with a waft to slip.

With Pete Jackson Eastwood not padded up, Jamie Keating stole his place in the order. Two balls later de Silva was also back in the hutch after a leading edge to point. 5 batsmen lost for 1 run. PEJ and Keats steadied the ship but when PEJ missed a straight one he was quickly triggered by umpire snake. No arguing with the umpire like C Mac, but plenty of toys in the pram’s vicinity nonetheless.

With Matt Andrews walking out to bat at effectively 17- 6, things looked bleak but the newly-christened Mando’s was in cheeky mood, taking the road past fifty with some excellent strokeplay around the wicket. After Keats was out for 11, Oscar Newlove joined in the action looking to put the ball into orbit (whence he came) above the leg side and the Road passed the hundred mark.

After Andrews was out for a classy 42, Newlove accelerated further, peppering the mid on boundary, including a massive six over cow corner. After Brown was out for a duck missing a straight one, Tyzack ably stuck around providing Newlove with more opportunities to show off his leg side repertoire (and even a cheeky single to the off side!). A fifty was on the cards, however the snake hissed and holed out at short cover leaving Newlove stranded on 49*. The road finished on 145, unthinkable a mere hour ago.

When the Road took the field MacNicol had taken over the gloves from Sherman, whilst Spectator Rossi was coaxed into Sherman’s spare whites to make sure 11 players took to the field. Brown and Tyzack opened brightly with the Bowler Constrictor Trapping S James for 5. Brown at the other end was bowling accuracy and fire, knocking over number 3 Scarborugh’s off stump. Brown bowled through his 8 overs with no further reward for some tight bowling, despite some very close LBW calls being turned down. With temper somewhat frayed Brown finished his allotment conceding just 15 runs.

Andrews replaced Tyzack from the other end, choosing to bowl cutters at cover drive happy Dan Cohen, eventually he got his man chipping a catch to Keats at backward point. At 54 – 3 King’s Road were in with a sniff, however opener Mike Dollin remained a thorn in the side, patiently seeing off good balls and pouncing on anything short. Together with Paul Charlton, South Bank rebuilt the innings, seizing back the initiative.

At this point Newlove was into the attack and after an uneventful first few overs switched on the rockets and started to exterminate the South Bank with his pace. Dollin was finally out spooning up a simple catch to Andrews before Wragg’s stumps were disturbed.

A spectacular run out saw a bullet throw from Andrews in the deep deflected onto the stumps by Matt Small to put further pressure on the opposition, and in the subsequent over Newlove continued his Death Star like destruction, trapping Pai plumb in front and then ripping out Turner’s stumps to finish his 8 overs with 4 wickets for 35.

With South Bank having collapsed from 98-4 to 117-8 it was anybody’s game, however with Newlove now out of overs, try as they might the Road could not prise out the final wickets. Small, Tyzack and Michael Rossi all bowled well but could not stop Charlton and number 9 Ben Hayes from scoring the final 30 runs required to take South Bank through to 2 wicket victory with almost 3 overs to spare.

Awards:

Man/Alien of the Match: Oscar Newlove

Tantrum: Cmac giving umpire PEJ a volley for several hours

Embarrassing: Rossi waddling off the pitch for a toilet break mid-innings

Champagne Moment: Smally/Mandrews run out

Full scorecard here:
http://kingsroadcsc.play-cricket.com/website/results/4053874