Login

Civils lose tight 'thriller'!

Well...'thriller' might be over-egging it a bit, but a good, competitive 16-over match was lost to Coquet with 4 balls to spare at a glorious sun-baked Blue Flames on Thursday evening.

Missing the big-guns of Miller, Scott and Halford, Stand-in skipper Johns lost the toss and was asked to bat on a sun-baked strip that looked full of runs. Unfortunately looks can be deceiving where the civil service batting order is concerned and the ten man opposition produced a miserly opening spell with Angus bowling straight through going for only 11 and Chapman bowling his first 2 for only 4 runs before bringing Mclelland into the attack. Ward was first to go, stumped (or was it run out?) off Angus for 3 in the first over, followed shortly after by Luke for 2, caught somewhere in around the square, off the same bowler.

Ferguson provided the cement and bricks from the other end and began to slowly hit his straps. De Jager was promoted to number 4 to give the stalled innings some impetus, but holed out to mid-off for a duck. Unfortunately, some fortification was required, despite the slow scoring rate, so Johns was next in at 20-3 in the 6th over. The scoring rate slowed even further, despite the best efforts of both batsmen to get on with it. Once Angus had been seen off, 6-aside mode was the order of the day.

Fergy suddenly sparked into life in the 10th over hitting three successive fours but at the end of it we were still only 45-3. The opposition brought on the junior member of their attack, Ward to bowl who was managing to get the ball to cut back quite a long way and Johns was struggling to lay bat on ball. Fergy finally fell to the youngster miscuing a full toss to midwicket for a vital 33. At least another 50 were going to be required to make a game of it, but with wickets in hand and some big hitters to come I was confident of getting to at least 100.

Resident football pundit Townsend came and went for a quick 4 and Jossy then strode to the crease and smashed a quick fire 13 before sacrificing his wicket, run out, with Johns finally starting to find the middle of his bat. Newcomer Trevor then acquited himself very well in the remaining couple of overs, playing some nice looking shots and running well between the wickets. Johns even managed a couple of successive 4's to finish unbeaten on 36 and take the score onto 102-6. Below par, but defendable.

The 'new' ball was chucked to Jossy who bowled a really tight spell (4-1-11-1). Joe took the first wicket (bowled) in the second over before Todd started to get after him and runs began to flow. Jossy maintained the pressure at the other end and soon removed the number three, rattling the timbers. The opposition skipper, Chapman was next to the crease and though unorthodox began to take the game away from the Civils with some lusty hitting through the leg side.

A change of bowling did for him with Laingers removing him for 20 - odd. Laingers kept the pressure on with some tight, pacy bowling. Neil tested out his dodgy back for an over before Johns turned to De Jager who kept it tight but couldn't provide the breakthrough. The key was getting the opener Todd who continued to bat sensibly knowing if he was there at the end victory was assured. A run out provide the final breakthrough and 18 was required off the last two. Clever running and the odd bad ball meant the opposition won the game with half an over to spare with Todd unbeaten on 45.

A good effort with a weakend batting line up and an enjoyable game.

Decent Victory

The hottest day of the year saw the Civil Service travel to the picturesque Percy Main cricket club to take on bogey team Kingstonians. A match duration of 16 overs per side was decided on as it was agreed that the rain would hold off and the light would stay favourable.

Waite opened the bowling, his first ball alluding the gangly Dejaegar at mid off and going for 4. His opening partner Laing was treated a similar way by the impressive looking Kinsgtonian opener before Laing bowled him with a slow full toss. The Civil Service thought this was a key wicket and Waite and Laing soon got into a decent rhythm, limiting the batsmen to singles on a good wicket and a lightening outfield. The pressure soon told with Waite dismissing their number 3 who played on attempting a forcing shot off the back foot.

Waite and Laing bowled out their spells for an excellent 28 and 17 respectively. They were replaced by the back-from-injury Malcolm and the under used Dejaeger and both settled into a goove. Runs continued to come at a steady pace, however, with some quite dreadful outfielding in combination with a large outfield allowing some easy 2s and 3s. Despite this, Dejaegar bagged a wicket as Kingstonians looked to step up a gear.

After 15 overs, the Civil Service were quite happy with the 104 they had conceded but a monumental effort from Kingstonians saw them take 20 off Dejaegar’s last over and the Civil Service were left chasing 125 for victory, albeit on a batter friendly wicket.

Scott and Miller opened the batting and Scott found his straps almost immediately, with Miller happy to stay in and try and give the swashbuckling South African as much of the strike as possible. Kingstonains had little answer as Scott dealt mainly in boundaries, cutting and pulling anything short and drivng anything full. Slowly, Miller also began to come to the party and the opening bowlers were seen off with the Civil Servive well in charge of the game.

A change of bowling did little to help the opposition’s cause and Scott moved into ruthless mode as he hit the change bowler for 5 brutal 4s in his first over, moving to a fine 50 in the process. The Civil Service won by 10 wickets at a canter in the 13th over with Scott finishing on a man of the match winning 68 and Miller on 44.

Don't. Point. Your. Bloody. Spears. At. Me.

The Civil Service put out a strong side on Monday for the game away to Monkseaton. Strangely, the weather had been belting hot when most people had left for the game but by the time it started a depressing sea mist had spread across the ground, leaving Miller and Mcgilvery looking foolish and cold in their summer shorts. Miller promptly lost the toss and his team were asked to field with only 9 men due to the lateness of Ferguson and Sattar.

Waite and McCarten opened the bowling with immediate success. Waite clean bowled the Monkseaton opener in his first over and had the no. 3 caught in his second. In between, McCarten lured their other opener into being caught at mid off. 3-3 looked a good start. Eventually, Sattar and Ferguson appeared, the former running from Monkseaton Metro at full pace to get ready only to be overtaken by an ambling Ferguson on the way to the changing room.

Both opening bowlers continued to bowl well, picking up one more wicket each before the end of their spells and leaving Monkseaton in some of its own outfield’s dog mess (and broken glass). One notable ball from McCarten reared off a length and smashed Scott in the face, only for the brave farmer to spit out his two front teeth and get on with the game without showing any pain.

They were replaced by Sattar and Halford who continued where the others had left off. Despite Monkseaton’s efforts to play a few shots, the two bowled well with Sattar picking up 3 wickets and Halford 2. A farcical run out for Monkseaton compounded their misery and The Civil Service were asked to chase 72 in their 14 overs for victory.

They began brightly with Mcgilvery and Ferguson maintain a strong run rate in the fading light until debutant Mcgilvery played on for 8. Scott joined him and soon began to show signs of his old self, the highlight of which was an all run 4 from a dropped catch that produced an angry overthrow. The next ball, Scott offered the fielder the same catch and this time he made no mistake with Scott departing for 15.

Ferguson was joined by Lord and they soon began to pick off the runs despite some close LBW calls, all turned down by Waite at umpire. Lord hit the winning runs and the crowd went wild with the Service winning by 8 wickets, Ferguson undefeated on 25 and Lord on 19.

Win at Adders

Noman Sattar was supossed to write a match report but didn't.

Anyway, they won the toss and batted and got 105. Noman got some eickets and Richard Malcolm bowled very tight.

The runchase stuttered along with Lord and Miller getting about 30 each. Noman and Ricahrd scrambled a single off the second last ball to win the game.

Match Report from Cup Tie away to Beamish.

Andrew Waite's take on the Beamish cup tie debacle. Suitable disclaimers apply...


The game was played away to the highflying Beamish who were top of Division 3. It was yet another ridiculously warm evening. Many of the Civil Service team were in UN chartered territory up in the sticks.

The wicket looked like a bit of mine field (although a lot better than Wallsend). Colin won the toss and decided that we would field. With quite a strong bowling line up. Paddy opened the bowling from the Allotment end of the ground and bowled 2 overs for 20 runs with boundaries coming between the odd ball that did a little off the wicket. Terry Waite opened at the other end and some how managed not to take a wicket. Joe Fox and Martin Dejager dropping catches off consecutive balls. Waite beat the bat with regular ease and still managed to go for 39 from his 4 overs. It was a small ground although there may have been mistakes in the score book too.

Joe Fox replaced Paddy at the Allotment end and bowled 2 overs for 25 runs taking one wicket, with Paddy taking a marvellous catch. Barry Halford replaced Joe at the same end and didn’t bowl his best conceding 48 runs from 4 overs taking one wicket. Colin Ward taking yet another catch in the deep.

Noman Sattar replaced Waite at the other end. Bowling 4 overs for 35 runs taking a wicket in his last over. He bowled really well without much luck and was by far the pick of the bowlers. He also provided the highlight of the evening in the field with a token dive for a ball that was 20 yards away and had already crossed the line. As they say he has real feet but fake legs.

Throughout the evening the crowd of charvers had gathered to a crowd of about 50 or so. Everytime the ball went to the boundary there was really loud charver type music played as well. At times the music might as well have been constant as we conceded a lot of boundaries. Beamish totalled 175 for 3 in 16 overs.

The Civil Service got off to a start. John Ferguson hit a 4 off the second ball of the innings. Duncan Scott was out in the second over for 2. Colin Miller quickly came and went for 2 more. Once out he pointed out that he felt that a lot of people would have flags on their cars. This was a sure fire bet. Colin Ward quickly got into his stride hitting 3 fours before being out for 12. John Ferguson was fourth out and the score was on only 32. Barry Halford quickly came and went and all of a sudden we were 34 for 5. Andy Townsend and Hansie took the score to 44 before Andy was out for 1. Noman Sattar again provided the highlight of our innings. He was given out LBW for 0 and showed a little dissent in shaking his head and then complaining bitterly that he had the ball. Paddy Meredith was 8th out for 0 with the score on 48 and then yours truly and Martin put on 8 for the ninth wicket. Martin was 9th out and he top scored with 19. Joe was last out for 2 with the total on 59.

I think everyone was quite happy to get out of there at the end of the day. The only real plus point was that we now have an umpires coat for the second team to use.

Terry