Snaps # 3

1998 and its the Cricket Museum at Lords in London!!

We did the ground tour, sat on the players balcony, spotto'd Jonathon Coleman [who?] walking past the tavern wher we enjoyed bangers and mash surrounded by Fosters logos and lager[eerie].

It's a very small brownish bakelite looking urn which I had also seen at the CBD Westpac Bank HQ in Sydney in 1988 BUT nothing compares to seeing them at Lords!!

Hostilities resume Thursday 23rd November in Brisbane!! [Australia 3-1]

Not everyone knows I played cricket from Year 10 in High School until I turned about 37...

I enjoyed bowling early and long plus batting in the middle to late order scoring either 0 or 50!!

Perhaps my favourite match was one day at Mt Pleasant St in Maitland where we played with 7 players. We batted and didn't go too well making approx 130 off our 35 overs. In an inspired hour we had the opposition pinned down and came close to winning the match!! Until we just couldn't sustain the accuracy we were well in the hunt...

Yours truly had 7-30 when the opposition had scored say approx 70 runs but we couldn't keep taking wickets and they krept up to the required target!!

Second on the list would be playing Newcastle C&S at Greenleaf fertilizer company oval [you can imagine how good the grass was] with a shiny factory floor bright green concrete wicket!! We needed between 10-12 runs per over for 10 overs with only 3 wickets in hand... we were on track right up until the final two overs [taking 18 and 21 off a couple of overs] and dispatching Australian Schoolboy cricketer and future Newcastle senior rep bowler John Alanson for boundaries all over the ground! It was an exhilerating and proud day... the bowler at the opp end was a skilled and tidy operator who had to resort to a legside full line to restrict our scoring in the final run home.... we got within 15 or 17 runs from memory... though the details fade with age...

I also remember 98 not out at Chinamen's Hollow [though the last 12 or so were extras past the opp score!! and being sent in outright and batting for 2 hours for about 3 runs but holding on at Tomago...

Finally choking off the runs for my Science teacher who was a renowned opening bat for our arch rivals and I kept him scoreless for 45 mins before he skied a desperate shot and was caught and bowled!!

Those were the days...