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Double Trouble for Livingston: Part 1

Thankfully the weather was dry at Barnton on Saturday and although we lacked a grass wicket the good old batting paradise that is the astro turf pitch was going to be used.

Gus standing in again for Giggsy proceeded to lose the toss and Livingston decided to throw us in to bat.

With his wife’s contractions at 20 minutes apart and the immanent birth of his son looming, the wise decision by Gus to put Big Tim Hancock into open with Jason paid off nicely.

The 2 opened superbly with Tim’s big hitting and Jason’s fantastic strike rotation meant the score board ticked over nicely. Even though he had rode his luck slightly giving 3 decent catching opportunities Tim was first to reach his 50 (off 44 balls) with a massive 6 down onto the rugby pitch.

Tim was eventually given LBW on 63 where after he was summoned home as the contractions had gotten closer… however we continued on with young Ozzie and Jason.

Jason struggled a bit in the middle part of his innings but only due to a severe hangover from his birthday celebrations the night before and was promptly told by young Oz to ‘get on with it!’

Jason clearly took the advice and started to hit out a bit more and rotated the strike brilliantly with young Ozzie and they really applied the pressure to the fielding side.

The pair stole runs magnificently and edged to total on to 165 before Birthday Boy Jason went for 20 more runs than his actual age (58).

Ozzie wasn’t far behind Jason and reached his 50. It has to be mentioned that he tormented the Livingston Skipper all the way through his innings with his field placements. Having pushed a few past 1 st slip the skipper moved him to 2 nd… much to our delight Ozzie showed some real class and started playing the shot through 3 rd slip as if to tease the poor fielder who didn’t quite have the spring in his step to dive for the ball.

With the skipper out in the middle with Ozzie they pushed on the total further as the 2’s got to 185 for 2 with 15 overs still remaining.

The 2 nd LBW of the day saw young Ozzie leave the field with 64 runs to his name allowing Westy into the game.

Gus and Westy continued with the example set by Jason and Ozzie earlier on and did well to steal runs where they could. Gus was bowled on 33 though and left the field with 4 overs remaining.

Whalo made a streaky 4 off the bat to get himself off the mark but was bowled next delivery. Tricky supported Westy well for 2 overs but was run out after he slipped pushing for a 2 nd run against the arm and fielding of Livingston’s worst fielder.

Matt Hansen eventually got Winnie to ‘sit’ and ‘stay’ as he came into bat. He was soon back with his beloved pooch as he got his first golden duck of the season.

Finally Joe Kinghorn was run out on the last delivery of the day after he rightly pushed Westy for a single… how ever he was sleeping and sent Joe back to preserve his own average.

So tea time and the news filtered through that Tim was unable to hang around for the 2 nd innings as his wife’s contractions where now 5 minutes apart. Hugo Edgar Hancock did however wait till Monday before he turned up and like his dad he looks like a bit of a bruiser!

Fazal Malik kindly stepped in as 12 th man and did an excellent job for us.

But he didn’t have long to field as Gus and Bamo both got off to a fantastic start to the innings. The innings lasted just 15.1 overs as the pair dismantled the Livingston attack with a superb spell of bowling.

Bamo was first to strike with a ct behind with Hansen taking a regulation edge into his gloves. But Gus struck twice in the 2 nd over leaving Livingston reeling with only 2 runs on the board for 3 wickets.

The demolition job was on as another wicket tumbled as Gus took Livy Skippers bails off. Arun Jay then took a catch at 2 nd slip to give Bamo his 2 nd of the day.

Bamo ended up taking a fantastic 4 for 23 but was out shone by Gus who took 6 for 9.

Game done, points in the bag and a Presidents Cup tie to be played the next day against the same side… they didn’t look like they where too happy about having to face us the next day … but in that sort of form who would be!!