Ecstacy at Ellon

At the toss the Ellon skipper predicted "a lot of runs today". Ellon were in the fortunate position to "select" their strongest line up this year so perhaps this was the reason for his comments.

Put in on this hard track they began at a brisk rate, and despite Sajid and Ed getting early wickets, they began to get away from us. Bowser had the beligerant Clark caught behind, but this only brought Young Harry Wolridge-Gordon to the crease. Harry is coached at an English Public School and is a wonderful batter to watch. Unfortunately this is the second year running we had to watch him dispatch anything that was not just marginally short of a length to all points. Fortunately we kept at it and wickets fell regularly at the other end and the "Pie N Chips man" led us to believe that short on side is now "his" patch with yet another sharp catch. Jalal finally got Wolridge-Gordon for a classy 89 and shortly after that Ellon surprisingly declared after 39 overs at 219-9.

I was subsequently told by an Ellon senior player that their skipper looked at the team we had (or rather who we were missing - Mike Churchill, Andy, Grant and Dodsy were mentioned) and felt that this total was more than enough for the motley bunch we had turned out, and to be fair at tea nobody on our side would have argued with him.

What came next was almost as big a shock to us as it was to Ellon. Ed and Saj started likes bat(er)s out of hell. The first four overs produced 40 runs, and they continued batting sensibly but punishing any loose ball unmercifully. Ed departed on 42 with the score on 143 (I suspect a record first innings stand for PCC) but Sajid marched on and, having seen K P going down with cramp at Headingly, he obviously thought this was the way to go and had a wee fit before hirpling to his century. Simon had taken on Ed's secondary role and when Saj departed for a brilliant 115, Jalal continued taking the fight to Ellon and had the pleasure of hitting the winning runs a searing smashed 6 to mid wicket. Even the father of one of the Ellon boys lept to his feet to applaud us.

Saj said this was his first ton in any cricket it included one 6 and 20 4s . Those of us present will like him never forget it. Neither, I am glad to say, will 11 Ellon players who, not for the first time, underestimated an "under strength" Portcullis.

Monday, 07 August, 2006