8 no match for 11 as Glenpark XI succumb to Helensburgh
Helensburgh v Glenpark XI
Western Cup
Saturday 20th April
In a sorry flashback to last season Glenpark arrived for their match with Helensburgh with a team of eight and, with only one player between the ages of 18 and 45, this did not bode well for a competitive game. The premonition proved true as Glenpark succumbed to what will hopefully be their heaviest defeat of the season.
In the hope of early wickets on a damp pitch Glenpark fielded first. The opening bowlers were Sandeep Singh and a “not-fully-fit” Dave Sharma (a phrase so common perhaps it should be changed by deed poll!). Dave managed to eke a couple of wickets and Sandeep was unlucky to have a catch dropped (there was further exasperation for the bowler with two further misses in his second spell). William Goan then came on and had success with a beautifully flighted delivery but, when he was joined by Kieran Wylie, the two bowlers struggled to find their length and the next eight overs went for 109 runs. In spite of a few late wickets Helensburgh finished with a likely insurmountable total of 288 in their 40 overs.
Glenpark approached their reply looking primarily to gain some batting practice and respectability. Peter Hempsey and Dave Sharma started steadily and saw off the Helensburgh openers, but then Dave pulled a full toss too close to short leg and was well caught. Bizarrely Peter soon after repeated the error and fell to an even better catch. There were few batting highlights after that until the final wicket pair of Sandeep Singh and William Goan wagged the tail and almost got the total to three figures.
So pretty much a predictable result but hopefully this will be the last time Glenpark will field an incomplete team, and they might have gained some kudos for ploughing ahead with the match. The team make-up did however throw up a couple of interesting statistics to check out in Wisden: there are likely few examples of teams where the oldest player is five times the age of the youngest player, or the aggregate age of the first four batsmen is 210!
Helensburgh (2 pts) 288 for 6 (40 overs) R Lewis 107, D Willoughby 91
Glenpark XI (0 pts) 98 (32.2 overs) D Bowles 3 for 28
Helensburgh won by 190 runs
Glenpark XI Man of the Match: No real sparkling performances. Sandeep Singh and William Goan had bowling success and batted well, but the award is shared by Peter Hempsey (catch, stumping and top score) and Dave Sharma (two wickets and a catch) – with both players combining for the run out.
Scooby Award: The shell-shocked team forgot about this important tradition. Little I can think of from personal recall except Kieran Wylie looking to text Neil Flack for an update on the 1st XI score, when all expectation would be that he was on the field of play!
'The Snake'
