Match Report
Crusaders were soundly thrashed by a well organised Catford Wanderers on the opening day of the season, succumbing to a nine wicket defeat, with Catford requiring only twenty overs to knock off the 154 target.
A late cry-off from 'Bad Man' Glampson left us one short, with an eleventh player kindly supplied by Catford, in the shape of young Raven Walcott.
Wajih had obviously not made any New Year's resolutions with regards to Cricket Time-keeping, but instead of the usual 'stuck on the South Circular excuse', he opted to omit the use of a car altogether. The inevitable text arrived informing that all was not well on the Public Transport network and a journey involving pretty much every mode except a helicopter, would deliver him to the ground some time after the projected start. This put the maverick vice-skipper Pommie at the helm, who recognising our indifferent looking line-up, opted to bat first. The sound reasoning behind the decision was that they had thrashed us all around the ground last year and Pommie was not prepared for a repeat. In hindsight and against most opinions of his judgement, his decision proved wise.
Spud was press-ganged into opening with Chand and a steady start was made. Unfortunately for Spud, all the steadiness was coming from Chand and he had failed to trouble the scorers (despite bottom edging a single that was given as a bye - no sour grapes Damon you blind git) when he popped up a simple catch to Silly Mid-off.Goldie played some expansive shots in an entertaining 16, but thereafter Chand got little support and decided to take the game to Catford. A swashbuckling innings of 79 enabled us to at least post some sort of target, with Damon (17*) and Raven (9*) topping up the score in the last couple of overs.
Tea was the usual splendid array of Chicken and Pasta, giving time for Wajih to ponder exactly where the required ten wickets were going to come from.
The result of his pondering was to start with the opening pair of Pommie and Harpreet. It was about as good as it got. Harpreet struggled with both line and length and although Pommie managed to remove an opener, we were unable to take the few chances that Catford offered up. A couple of flying edges eluded even that most agile of Slip cordons that consisted of Whale and Greggains and when Ali replaced Harpreet he couldn't hold on to two sharp return catches.
A level of resignation descended on our fielding efforts and runs came at a canter, with Clarke (80*) cashing in. Damon supplied some light relief with more of his calamitous comedy glovemanship. After he had missed a stumping - though apparently it wasn't a chance - he wallowed gracefully to the leg-side to claim his fumble as catch, much to the bemusement of the Batsman and Umpire, not to mention his own side.
It seemed appropriate that Chand be given the opportunity to complete a worthwhile all round performance. He duly obliged, handing back half the runs he had accumulated in two boundary laden overs that brought the game to a close.
It is difficult to take positives from such a hammering so I won't try.
