It’s a shame that its only real use these days is for football and having seen the local standard on TV, Brazil can sleep easy.
The guys at the Sir Viv’ assured us that the wicket at the Rec’ was the flattest around and it turned out to be true. On winning the toss Cowden chose to bat, much to the delight of the touring party. A score of well over 250 was possible knowing that Bolands CC were of similar standard to Jennings.
Neil Russell and Bangor’s Jordan McKeown opened the batting and again the ball was hit to all parts as both got quick fire forties against reasonably quick, but anything but sharp bowlers. The amount of bouncers bowled with 3 slips and no deep square was astonishing.
Both openers feel in quick succession, Russeller pushing on to make sure everyone got a bat, he really is a hero. This brought Tetley to the crease and he continued where the others had left off, crashing several boundaries en route to fifty. Most of his runs were scored in the ‘V’, which was indicative of how flat the wicket was.
Turk was unlucky to get the only ball of that game that misbehaved and shot along the ground to bowl him, “no luck meeaaate”.
His once Carrick teammate, Cowden replaced him at the crease and together with Tetley the score keep trucking along nicely to a healthy target. When Tetley feel for a well played 59 we had stalled slightly with boundaries drying up. Knowing how flat the wicket was we tried to push the scoring rate up again and Ray McCavery and David Dawson feel cheaply sacrificing their wicket for the greater cause.
Davy Haire and Cowden finished the innings off unbeaten with some lusty blows towards the end getting us up to a respectable target of 246 although at 80-0 after 8 overs we had designs on something a bit higher.
The interval, which we liked to drag out for as long as possible, has finished and after skulling 3 gallons of water each, the players took to the field again to have a crack at the Bolands’ batters.
Boultwood and McCollum opened the bowling and with an imposing total to defend the skipper splashed out on an attacking field. Again Boultwood bowled with good pace and control but had little luck in his opening spell. CI should be licking their lips at the prospect of their new signing. Nicky McCollum, nephew of Ireland great Ross, was a bit more fruitful with his medium pace. He picked up two wickets in his first over. Bowling regular 9 ball overs hasn’t been witnessed since the era of Bradman etc but McCollum is a traditionalist and decided to bring them back himself. He finished off with a Kit-Kat to his name 4-34 with only 4 runs scored off the bat.
Flairso was ‘keeper for the day and grabbed 4 victims to his silky hands, the likes of which would be welcome at one of the many massage parlours located around the island.
No Boland batter scored over 23 and subsequently the game fizzled out as we won by a comfortable 121 runs. It seems that there is a lot of bowling talent here but the batting is light, they want to hit every ball for six instead of building an innings. We aren’t complaining, two from two and hopefully there will be tougher challenges ahead. We play an “Antiguan XI” in a twenty over bash under light son Tuesday at the Sir Viv’. Fingers crossed for three from three.
Mark Nixon
Ulster Grasshoppers 246/6 (40 overs)
Russell 43 McKeown 42 Terrett 59 Cowden 57*
Bolands CC 125/10 (22 overs)
Boultwood 2-13 (5) McCollum 4-34 Haire 1-10 Dawson 1-39 McKeown 1-5
Ulster Grasshoppers win by 121 runs.
