The Highway Hurricanes
— vs The Centurions – with only 9 men

After last week’s wash-out Griff and his merry men ventured into the wilds of Church Village to take on the Centurions. Now of course this is ‘injun country’ for us city boys, and when we got under way with only 7 players it seemed that some may indeed have lost their scalps.

Griff won the toss and in view of our depleted numbers (was there any connection between the large number of drop-outs and the football being on TV?) made the wise decision to bat first and hope that the cavalry showed up in time. Jim and Jaffa opened the innings and were looking good as the score mounted rapidly into the 30s. However, the wickets then started tumbling – despite a typically quick-fire innings from Chris – and things were looking a bit grim until Imran was spotted approaching (with hair still attached thankfully) and he just about had time to get his pads on before going in to stage a last wicket stand with Sully. Greg also subsequently appeared – having spent about 30 minutes driving round Church Village trying to find the ground – but wasn’t required in the middle as Imran lauched a swash-bucking assault on the Centurions’ attack that took us to a healthy final total of 112.

At this point it is my sad duty to record that one our longer-standing members, the legendary David Stagg, simply didn’t make it through. We know this for sure as he’d phoned earlier to say he was leaving work and was ‘on the way’ – darn those pesky injuns. There will a short memorial service and a minute’s silence to remember this Hurricanes stalwart before tomorrow’s crunch showdown with the Cavaliers. Still – at least he died with boots on. Any cruel rumours that he simply couldn’t face the humiliation of turning up without Herchelle Gibbs (did he really think we’d be fooled by that cardboard cut-out he posed with) should be treated with the contempt they deserve.

The Centurions made steady but slow progress against an excellent opening spell from Chris and Will – though one hard-hitting opener was looking dangerous until he forced off with a pulled hamstring. Despite the batsmens’ best efforts the innings continued in a similar vein and they never looked likely to challenge the Hurricanes’
total, especially as Griff had shrewdly held back his two main strike bowlers (Jim and Danny) until the end when the pressure was on. This was a first class effort in the field with only 9 men, with Greg in top form behind the stumps and Will continuing his remarkable progress towards the top of both the DC and the run-out tables.

Man of the Match has to be between Chris and Imran. Important runs from Chris plus top class bowling at the start of the innings (2 overs out 3 were maidens I think) put the Centurions under pressure from the start. However, despite a couple of DCs, I think on this occasion it has to go to Imran. As wagging tails go he was an afghan hound and without his effort with bat and ball we’d surely have sunk to only our second defeat of the season – and he also had quite a bit to do with that come to think of it.

Finally, away from playing matters, I’d pleased to report that the phone-in poll that Jim is running to discover the best-looking Hurricane (the Hunt for the Hurrican Hunk as he’s snappily called it) has had an excellent response – with the switchbord being overwhelmed with the number of calls at times. I can reveal that the current situation is that the two Nathans are neck and neck vying for second place, though both are a long way behind the runaway leader – Chris. However, some irregular voting patterns have been noted, with a large number of call (about 80% of the total) appearing to come from the same private number somewhere in Gabalfa. This is currently being investigated.

— Danny