I’m a cricketing legend
Last Saturday the Sandy Bay Swallows played Derwent at Brighton. We spanked them, but the most important thing that happened that day was that I scored a run.
This was only about my tenth game, so I feel like I’m progressing really well.
I went out there as the last batsman (a place on the team I feel I’ve earned) and took a swing at the first delivery that came my way. Deftly clipping the top of the ball (ok, I nearly missed) I sent it scurrying along the ground behind me, eluding the wicket keepers gloves like a little round baby chicken running from a snake. Or something like that.
Eventually it dawned on me that this presented my first opportunity to score a run. I was partly helped in this by the desperate screams of my teammates, on and off the field, to "run, you deaf bastard, RUN!".
Off I went, and we both made it fairly comfortably.
The crowd (which consisted almost entirely of the rest of our team) went wild. I got a bigger cheer than Nudge, our best batsman of the day, got for reaching his half century. Not one to leave praise unacknowledged, I humbly raised my bat in salute. Our umpire asked "What milestone was that?", so I told him it was my first run, ever. He congratulated me, and the bowler laughed, but I bet he got a bit of crap from his teammates afterward.
Unfortunately my teammate then hit a ball way up in the air and got himself caught, destroying any chance I may have had at increasing my score. Still, no hard feelings. I know he doesn’t mean to keep getting out like that. And hey, while he’s got a better run rate than me I guess I’d better keep my mouth shut. After all, they don’t call him the Butcher for nothing.
The rest of the game went fairly well. I didn’t screw up, and we obliterated the opposition with Stu bowling a team record of 4/5 off 8 overs.
It’s nice to win. Hopefully we can try it more often, though the season is now nearly over. I’ve been wondering what sort of sport I could take up during winter, but the best I can come up with is Lawn bowls. Yup, I like to keep pushing the envelope.