Shell v Carib Beer XI - 18th July 2006 - Regents Park.

The Carib Beer XI returned to Regent's park today for our now annual challenge against an assorted group of our Captain and Manager, Martin Haigh's, co-workers and email contacts. As the game was about to start we discovered that many of the team had had to be specially flown in from abroad just for the occasion. Although initially concerned that this was perhaps stretching the spirit of the Kolpak ruling somewhat, we decided to take on the challenge. On most occasions facing a team half composed of overseas players would have been cause for concern, however, on this occasion we needn't have worried too much, as it turned out that the overseas imports included a German, a dutchman and a nice young lady from the USA. We were without Mr Cordey, who was forced to miss a match due to becoming a father, and for the fifth time this year, Mr Weaver again didn't bother turning up.

As usual, our Captain and Manager Martin Haigh correctly called the toss, and we elected to field first. Shell began their innings slowly as some tight bowling by Carib Barry and Carib Rob gave very little away. The two overseas openers did their best to smite every delivery for six, however, and it being a very hot day, the breeze this created was much appreciated by the close in fielders. Eventually, however, both Rob and Barry managed to get a ball on target and both openers departed without troubling the scorers too much.

Shell's number 3, Simon Kane, however, stuck around for a while, eventually scoring a respectable 24. This was assisted by a bowling change which saw Ringer Moss bowling a series of high full tosses that Simon was able to batter down to square leg without risk. Martin Haigh, our captain, directed proceedings from first slip in true Inzamam style. Unfortunately, the similarities didn't end there, and a valuable chance was missed when a looping edge flew in his direction. Martin's arms flapped around wildly, as if attempting to intercept the ball mid flight, but to his great disappointment, his feet remained firmly stuck to the turf as the ball plopped harmlessly, three feet in front of him.

However, the Shell innings never really got going, and wickets fell regularly and the visitors were finally bowled out for 51 runs from 16 overs. Carib Richard finished with four wickets, which now means that this season he has taken more wickets than he has scored runs, i.e. 4 wickets to no runs, but that's a statistic you don't see very often, and surely worth a mention. Also, Martin's strategy of removing bowlers from the attack after having taken two wickets in two balls seems, thankfully, to have been abandoned during this match, as Martin was very keen to continue bowling after having struck twice in two balls. Unfortunately, the hatrick ball was safely kept out, meaning that no-one has yet managed to secure the much sought after inaugural Martin Haigh & Carib Beer XI Hatrick.

The Carib's reply also began slowly, with wickets falling regularly. But with only 52 required to win, a Ringer Bowen 12 and a Ringer Mark 10 meant that we were never struggling with the run rate. This was further assisted by one or two of the Shell overseas players struggling to come to terms with this new fangled cricket thang. Shell Felix (Holland) was prompted to ask the umpire, after delivering four shot putted wides, how many wides actually constituted an over, only to be somewhat dispirited by the reply that an over actually constitued six non-wides. Nevertheless, the Caribs found themselves 7 down for 50, with only two to score to secure a victory, and believing victory was in the bag, Carib Willis very kindly got out to allow the impatient and padded up Carib Peter the chance to knock off the winning two runs.

Unfortunately, this was not to be the case, as Carib Peter played straight over the top of a middle stump yorker first ball, leaving the team 8 down, and facing the prospect of an embarassing defeat. Luckily, our leader and captain, Martin Haigh, had kept himself back, and, as usual, he was able to smash an elegant cover drive for four to see us home by an uncomfortable two wickets. Martin, our leader, has now scored 70 runs in four matches, without being dismissed. This is roughly 20% of all the runs scored by the team, and demonstrates again, the art of leading from the front.

Overall, the match was much closer than we would have hoped, but, given our defeat to the same team last year, next year's clash will surely be a much oversubscribed event, maybe even attracting players from ever further afield than Europe and North America. Even though it was a narrow victory in a low scoring game, it was surely one of the most enjoyable fixtures of the season so far.