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Coquet v Civil Service

"Don't run your partner out. There is much carelessness and ignorance about running between the wickets, yet the rules are simple and should be learned and obeyed" - From Cricket on the Green by RS Young, published 1947.

On a miserable night at Wallsend (the weather was fine and the breeze warm but we were at Wallsend) Coquet won the toss and inserted the men from the ministry. This seemed like a good decision as the opening partnership of Ward and Horrocks lasted 2 overs before Ward, doing a pretty decent impersonation of Father Ted's Mrs Doyle "Go on, Go on, Go on!" ran Andy Horrocks out for 5 by a good 18 yards.

Worse followed as steady the steady left armer got John Fergs 1st ball with a beauty which cut away from the batsman and uprooted off stump. John's facial expression of sheer disgust was joyous. Duncan(12) and Ed Lord (2) soon followed into the pavilion (?!) but fortunately the steadying influence of the Ginger Jock Mr Miller was beginning to restore a sense of calm to a floundering innings. He and Hansie DeJaguar added a few before the Original Civil Service South African perished for 5. Meanwhile Miller continued to squirrel away runs into his nest and when joined by Mr Laing (21) took the score to just short of 3 figures. Mullers (5*) weighed in with a nice 4 to mid-wicket before the innings closed on 103 (ish). Mr Miller run out for 30.

The opposition started brightly and we looked to be struggling to contain the big hitting opener. However a match winning 4 overs of no wicket for just 16 runs from Barry Halford meant Coquet needed to up the rate and wickets then began to tumble. Joe Fox (1-22) gave Barry good support before Ian Laing (3-19) and Hansie (3-10) took advantage of some interesting batting to restrict Coquet to 70. Mention should be made of Mr Fergusons whole hearted efforts at deep square as he fashioned 2 of the three run outs with a sprint in and straight throw to the right end, though the running between wickets did assist somewhat. A fine team performance. The midweek X1 now turn their attention to the cup (semi-finalists last year) and a trip to Beamish (A decision on whether we need to dress in the style of 1913 has yet to be made)


"Thank God there is a place in cricket for comic incompetence"- Cricket on The Green by RS Young 1947

Rubbish run chase hands game to Kingstonians

At a rather breezy, but bright Blue Flames ground, we lost the toss again. Just typical, as the opposition had just 5 players - and with the rather short boundaries, we could have knocked a few boundaries. Anyway…

Their openers were rather lucky with a few shots in the air and slogs, and our bowlers settled down well. Joe Fox seems to have been coached well by Fairless with his nagging line and clever bowling. As for Mulligan the tramp, he managed to get his spinning (ahem) donkey droppers on his area outside off stump and was a bit unlucky. I don’t know how Hansie with his shovel hands dropped one at long off….his hands may still have been wet after having his usual piss behind the sight screen.

Noman bowled rather well on the pretty good surface, clever bowling. Got 2-3 wickets, Colin caught a rather clean catch, rolling on his back to make sure it didn’t slip out.

I thought Hansie bowled like the drain I was fielding on for the first over, but settled down and the boy did good. Laingers bowled as if Mike was standing 1 yard to his left…or was I mistaken?

Anyway, we defended the boundaries well and the fielding was solid….

…Unlike our upper order batting. The total was 108, and the skipper instructed us to play straight - “plenty of time boys!”…. Andy Horrocks departed with an “off with his head!” shot after one over, bringing yours truly in, feeling good (and smelling good), I was wary of Ed’s running from experience, so he does his speciality of picking out a fielder, thinking “that felt good, I will run”..the ball going into the fielders hands and got himself run out. Duncs came in and did his normal attacking batting, hit a good shot, called for a second run, I was a bit slow and got run out – it was my call really and I must say NO more often. Duncs was out soon after, Colin and Noman came to the crease, when it was about 38-4. They were solid and brought the score up to the 90s. Nice play, batting sensibly (as per instructions) and straight mostly. The bowling was nowt special until Dave Swan, the wily old bowler, befuddled us somewhat, the wily old guy had style and made it difficult to get the last 20 or so. Colin was unluckily out in the last over, with 8 to get and unfortunately Joe and Laingers found it hard to get a bat on the experienced bowling of Dave Swan.


So, should have been a win, nearly got there. Good bowling and fielding, but the upper order didn’t quite do it, and we fell short.

Civils Progress In Cup

Eager to re-enact Luke Mitchell’s heroic efforts last year, the Civil Service took on Gateshead Cavaliers on a perfect May evening in their second Midweek league fixture. On a flat pitch in the middle of a very large field, Hennie Strauss opened the bowling in the final appearance of his very illustrious, albeit short, career at the CC. After Hennie took an early wicket, Gateshead consolidated and scored at a fairly reasonable pace. A strategic bowling change by captain Colin brought on Ian “first ball your out” Laingers, who lived up to his reputation by knocking the leg stump towards the boundary and claimed the second wicket. Ian continued to bowl well supported eagerly by Paddy Meredith who showed no signs of his age. Unfortunately the bowlers were let down by some poor fielding and the invisible 11th man, allowing Gateshead to increase their run rate. Hennie finished with a last wicket but Gateshead were able to notch up 133/3 in the 16 overs allotted.

The CC started off slowly and unfortunately John Ferguson was unable to replicate his magnificent 50 he made the previous week and was out early. Duncan Scott was able to increase the run rate with a quick 39 but lost his wicket to a superb catch in the Gateshead outfield. Meanwhile, whilst 45,000 Newcastle fans saluted their hero in Shearer’s benefit match across the Tyne, a new hero was emerging in the form of Colin Miller. Steadfastly Colin began to exploit the large gaps in the field ably supported by Luke. After Luke’s wicket fell, Hennie came to the crease and illustrated that swinging and missing the ball does not make runs. A few words of advice in the middle by the seasoned campaigner and Hennie, inspired, began his crucial innings.

With 10 runs required off the last over, a well timed 4 eased the pressure. Finally 5 runs were required of 5, and some excellent running allowed the CC to level with Gateshead with 1 ball remaining. Causally, if not nonchalantly, Hennie eased the winning run into the darkening wilderness of the Gateshead outfield and won the match. Hennie finished his final game 17*. Colin, unbeaten on 47*, was the man of the match.

Ferguson pips Waite to man of the match

Civil Service Vs Monkseaton Saints

We turned up at the sunlit Wallsend Sports Centre for a 6pm start and all was rosy. The travelling contingent (most of them) had arrived from Washington. Unfortunately Andy Townsend and Noman had travelled in the Tactics Truck and gone down the A19 instead of the A1 and they didn’t turn up until the start of the 2nd over.

Colin won the toss (I think) and chose to field even though we only had ten men. The cockney Zanetti and the loveable Beever opened the batting with Hennie charging in to open the bowling. Hennie nearly managed to get one of his first 4 deliveries into the far half of the wicket. However the loveable Beever decided to play the hook shot and managed to pick out a fielder. This was a remarkable achievement as we only had 6 at the time, as Duncan reminded him as he made his way off.

Terry came on at the other end and with his quality, style and control managed to pick up wickets at regular intervals during his 4 over spell, finishing with quite remarkable figures of 4 overs 3 for 19. Noman having found his way to the ground (eventually) came on to replace Hennie and managed to turn the ball square. He then complained about being the unluckiest bowler in the world. He was able to pick up a wicket with the worst ball he bowled all night getting the big hitting Leppan caught at deep midwicket by John Ferguson with an excellently judged catch. Meanwhile at the other end Laingers had been brought on to replace the ever-dependable Waite. He managed to pick up a wicket first ball. Unfortunately the rest of the over wasn’t as successful and went for 13. In the meantime The Saints continued losing wickets at regular intervals, one of which was a run out by Towny when he only had one stump to hit and it was never in doubt. Barry replaced Laingers and went for 11 in his only over and this meant that Hennie bowled the last over. Again it was a bit of a mixed bag, with the last ball being a high full toss. However he managed to pick up his second wicket with the extra ball. This left Monkseaton Saints on 100 for 8 from 14 overs.

The Civil Service went back out to bat and were chasing 101 from 14 overs. Ferguson and Miller opened the batting with the reliable Tim and Hennie umpiring and Terry (the pro) scoring. They started off the scoring at a rate of knots. Ferguson hit a mammoth six in the first over. Duncan then held up the score of 31 off the first over and although we had started well it wasn’t quite that good. The lads continued to score at a reliable rate until Colin got bored and played a wild slog at the ball from Hewitt, which went 50 foot up and was caught by Bob Zanetti. Some comical fielding with the highlight for everyone being when Beever watched the ball go over his head for 4 helped the run rate a little. Duncan was out caught behind after hitting a big 6 and a big 4. By this time a group of young charvers had gathered near the team and had decided to amuse themselves, the highlight being when they asked Mr Laing if he was homosexual. Meanwhile, out in the middle Towny had quickly smashed 10 before he was bowled. This brought Barry to the middle and Terry to middle to umpire. (balls). John Ferg’s continued to pick up runs with ease. Beever came on at my end and Barry took a liking to his bowling straight away and smashed him to all parts. Barry ended up on 17 not out and Fergie got 50 with Noman (the batting coach) Sattar ending on 2 not out.

All in all it was an enjoyable night.

See you soon. Terry

Season Begins With Close Win

The newly-promoted Civil's got their Division Two campaign off to a satisfactory start on Thursday evening with a 3 wicket victory over CCC in the customary early season darkness at Blue Flames.

CCC made 105-4 from their alloted 14 overs. There were wickets for debutants Strauss and Sattar, one for wily Joe Fox and a run out off the last ball of the CCC innings. A reasonable performance in the field for the first game.

In reply Colin Ward got us off to a flyer with a quickfire 21. Wickets fell at regular intervals, but the score ticked over, helped by some less than robust opposition catching. Sturdy contributions from Scott and DeJager saw us home with 6 balls to spare.

Full details to follow (Colin?)

Yes, thanks Johnsy. After telling me you weren't going to do I match report I've just spent my lunchtime doing one. Here it is:

The traffic was terrible in Newcastle at rush hour and as a result only 7 players were ready to face CCC come 6 o’clock yesterday evening. Brief stand-in skipper Scott lost the toss and when I arrived we were taking the field.

Shy South African import, Hennie Strauss, opened the bowling and despite having rushed to be ready found a good length and some lively pace almost immediately. From the other end, Joe Fox was equally consistent and the Civil Service kept it very tight in the early overs. This was soon rewarded when Strauss yorked the CCC opening bat with an excellent delivery.

Fox bowled a good three-over spell and was replaced by Halford who struggled to find his line, the CCC batsmen captialising with some well hit boundaries through the leg side. Strauss bowled out his spell for 24 runs and was replaced by leg spinner Noman Sattar who settled into a fine spell varying his pace and trajectory superbly. Halford, who by his own admission bowled “a bag of spanners” was replaced by the reliable Steve Johns.

It was not enough to produce any wickets immediately and the CCC started accumulating a decent total before Sattar had the CCC danger man caught in the deep by the alert Dejaeger. Fox bowled the last over after replacing the now unreliable Johns and was also rewarded with a wicket at the death. A run out off the last ball saw the visitors finish on 105 for 4.

Ward and Miller began the run chase, with the former smashing three fours with characteristic gay abandon in the early exchanges. The latter simply performed gay and couldn’t get it off the square. Soon both were back in the hutch, Ward caught off a skyer at gully, Miller holing out at mid off.

This brought Scott and Wiseman to the crease and both were able to open their accounts for the season (after difficult weekends). Wiseman didn’t last too long and was LBW leaving the Civil Service in some trouble. Halford hit a couple of nice early shots and Scott began opening up, hitting a huge six to the short leg-side boundary.

However, Halford was soon out and Ed Lord took up where he left off. The wobbles continued as Scott was caught behind and the introduction of Dejager at least kept the crowd amused as he and Lord embarked on some comical running between the wickets. Lord fell soon after and was joined by Sattar as the Civil Service inched towards their target. With 1 run needed Dejaeger spooned one up and was caught, prompting a brief episode of bat throwing as he left the field. Strauss joined Sattar and watched as his partner hit the winning runs in the final over.

A good effort and while Scott picked up the man of the match, Sattar emerged as the people’s champion.