Bangers get off to a flyer!

“Let’s get the C2 bus” says Caroline, “it will be much quicker”

“That’s a good idea” adds Cheryl

Cut to 6.50pm and over three quarters of the team aimlessly wandering the streets of North London! Luckily, we made it just in time and well, the rest is now sporting history. After a measly 5 minute warm up the Ball Bangers kicked off a new campaign with a hugely impressive score of 11 in their first innings.

Craig Jones could only manage 1 in reply and the game, so early, looked as good as over. The Bangers were unable to match that impressive first innings effort throughout the rest of the match but kept picking up points in almost every innings to keep a healthy lead until the game petered out to a thoroughly deserved 19 – 6 victory.

Honourable mentions have to go to Robbie ‘Coach’ Maynard for two superb catches in the outfield, Allwyn Fernandes and Ned Spires for a solid pitcher / first base partnership and finally Cheryl Gill and Kelly Wardman for a massively impressive contribution of 5 runs between them. The management committee then had the unenviable task of picking out one individual in such a fine team performance, and a deserved winner of the much coveted ‘MVP London-Eating in association with Beechwood Free Meal for Two Award. However all present were privileged to witness an all round performance of extreme excellence. Cheryl Green, sporting a brand new lung following her sad divorce from Benson & Hedges last year, was on fire from the first innings of the day. Solid with the bat, making it round the bases three times with a visible extra yard of pace, and cheater like in the field, most notably with the impressive run out on third base just before having her legs harshly swept away from a desperate oncoming runner. Congratulations Cheryl and enjoy your MVP award of a meal for two at a Nandos of your choice!

Dishonourable mentions unfortunately have to go to Les ‘Money On The Ball’ Abraham for a truly woeful catch effort at short stop in the first innings, Howard ‘Have You Restarted’ Phillis for getting absolutely no where near a regulation take in the outfield and Yolande ‘Where The Hell Is She’ Hunter for a disappearing act Penn & Teller would be proud of.

In every department it was a most promising start to the season though complacency is not the name of our game so there is, as ever, always room for improvement. However with a number of additional squad members still to come in there is no reason why we can’t kick on from here and all look forward to a promising and enjoyable season.

Your match reporter and trusty scorer,

David

Quote of the match:

Cheryl Gill “Thank God we’re not playing with that ball, it’s so hard. I like playing with this tennis ball”

Craig Jones – 6
Bangers – 19

Home Runs: 0
Catches: Maynard 2
Drops: Abraham, Phillis, Fernandes, Astwood C