Bedouins v Beacon – Wednesday June 16th

Beacon won by 30 runs

We tend to forget what a dangerous sport cricket can be. Over the years Bedouins have had their fair share of facial injuries from top edges. Who can forget Vernon Currie’s black eye, or Bill O’Neill’s split lip. I seem to remember a certain B. Susman’s nose also having an altercation with a ball on one occasion. Whether that was a Bedouin’s game I can’t quite remember. It didn’t spoil his good looks anyway.

The game with Beacon on Wednesday night was pretty unremarkable. It was quite a high scoring affair, but mostly it will stay in the memory for the injury that befell Mick Robertson. It was nasty as the picture shows, but it could have been so much worse. More on that later.

Beacon brought a strong side to Enville. Batting first, they quickly got runs on the board, although two quick wickets may have tipped the balance in favour of the Beds for an over or two. Skipper Bywater opened the bowling despite an injured hand (another cricket injury) and was rewarded with a wicket in his first over. At the other end George struggled with a dodgy shoulder and came off after two overs to be replaced by Gregory, who also claimed a wicket in his first over.

Beacon then got a grip on the game. One of their openers retired on 32 and three batsmen further down the order got to the 30 mark, or close to it, with some hard hitting. Ask Mick Robertson. He was on the receiving end whilst bowling. The batsman in full flow, hit the ball straight back to Robertson who instinctively tried to catch with his favoured left hand. With the ball hit so hard, all he managed to do was deflect the ball onto his shoulder. He was lucky, very lucky that it was his shoulder it hit. The picture shows Mick a couple of days later with the huge lump still clearly visible. Beacon continued to pile on the runs and ended with 152 for 3.

Bedouins start to the run chase didn’t go according to plan. Branch and Gregory were both quickly back in the pavilion but after that bad start Bedouins fought back with Hill J (30) displaying a fine mix of straight bat and bit hitting, well supported by MacConnell (30) who was back in the Bedouins line-up for the first time in a few years, and looked in good form. Earlier he had also held a catch. There haven’t been many of those from Bedouins this season.

Stanier regularly found the boundary before he was run out on 27 but by this point the required run rate was rocketing and the rest of the Beds batting order failed to reach double figures although the team did finish with a respectable 122 for 6. Now onto another Sunday fixture with the boys from Kinlet. Get well soon Robbo.