Outside the Rope by Bobby Swarbrig Swings and Roundabouts. Before I start I should congratulate readers who spotted the deliberate error in last week’s lesson. In 1582 the number of days removed from the month of October by Pope Gregory was, of course, ten and not fifteen. He arranged things so that the days between the 4th and the 15th of October in that year simply ceased to exist. Prizes are winging their way to the observant scholars even as you read this. And so to business; supporting The Hills could never be described as ennuyant, indeed it could be described as being akin to being on a six month roller-coaster ride. On Saturday last Leinster visited us in Milverton and we witnessed a performance from the home side which brought us to the top of the track, with, it must be said, a few wobbles on the way up. The sun came out to play making the day even more enjoyable as the middle order sought to rectify the damage done by Ward and Kenealy in removing the openers Nicolaas Pretorius (34) and Patrick Byrne (15). Jonno Andrews (6) teamed up with Cormac McLoughlin (128) for a brief cameo before being needlessly run out. An extra single in a 60 over match is never worth a wicket as early as the 20th over. Max Sorensen (87) joined Cormac and in the next 26 overs they added 132 priceless runs with a combination of shot making and power hitting before Max holed out at long on while going for another six. Declan Moore (38*) came aboard and soon another productive partnership was formed, these two adding 97 until, in the 59th over Cormac finally succumbed. Declan went on to add ten more in the company of Naseer and Darryl Calder and The Hills innings closed on 335 for 7. Leinster opened with Mallon C. (118*) and Delaney (3). Ward (22), McDonnell (52), O’Dwyer (24) and Johnston (24) laboured hard alongside their leader but the target always looked to be just outside their grasp as Osama Khan saw three of them back to the pavilion for a total of 64. The other two wickets fell to Max, 1 for 34 off his 12 overs and Manu Kumar 1 for 48, also in twelve overs. Leinster fell short of the runs required by 66 despite the persistence of their gallant captain who carried his bat with honour. So that was the high point of the roller-coaster ride for the weekend. Monday brought The Hills to Bothar Mon for the league match. I have very little to say about this encounter because I didn’t see it, suffice to say that 263 for 8 in 50 overs proved too little a score to defend against a talented Merrion batting outfit. Ben Ackland (97) and Thompson (121) proved to be the main architects of the home victory, achieved in the 48th over. Without Osama Khan, Tomas Murphy and Mark Dwyer the bowling attack of The Hills would seem to be a bit thin. One of these days we’ll see a new phenomenon; The Hills will manage to field an unchanged side, one that will include all of its first eleven. There’s another double weekend coming up, on Saturday we’ll make the arduous trek across the hill to The Inch to visit our cousins in North County and Sunday will bring Bready down from their North-western fortress for round two of the Bob Kerr. Na Cnoic Abu C’mon The Hills Komaan Die Koppies
Posted on: Wed, 04 Jun 2014 16:15:24 +0000
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