THE COLTS V. ST. JOHN FISHER (CUP) : 12/10/10

The Colts moseyed in to town for a high noon appointment at the Alamo Cricket Centre in Redbourn. Well, in fact we turned up at about 8.45pm for a cup match against St. John Fisher and none of us knows how to “mosey” but you get the idea of the widescreen picture (in Technicolor) that I’m going for. Cue the Sergio Leone music. The Magnificent Six was led by Captain “Rowdy” Prefab along with Steve “the ex-Outlaw Josie” Ball, David “Bannock” Byrne, Andrew “Yul” Hedges, Simon “The Rumpo Kid” Williams and John “Sundance” Callendar. It was a case of the good, the bad, the ugly and then the other three (in no particular order). These boys had robbed their way from Utah to Oklahoma but the law just could not seem to track them down. And they served their legend well because the folks they loved to tell about when The Colts came to town (apologies to Billy Joel).

The friendly Fisher captain offered a whisky and rye and a free gob in to the spittoon as well as allowing “Rowdy” the chance to draw (bat) first but the skipper was having none of it and asked for the coin to be tossed. You can’t trust a bandit in a bandana in open country. Fisher won and The Colts were batting. The cup this year has an experimental “Power-play” rule that is in the early testing stages so nobody knew quite what to expect. “Rowdy” (27* in 15) went in with “Yul” (25* in 15) and both started to pick off evil henchmen with ease as a good start made 60-0 from 5 overs. The power-play overs made little obvious difference to the scoring but Fisher’s bowling was better than expected although their fielding was perhaps more enthusiastic than effective. With the 3.10 to Yuma due at any time it was “The Rumpo Kid” (28* in 11) who played the best innings of the night but “Sundance” (26* in 15) also played well and The Colts kept their momentum to post 163-0. Not a wicket lost with not even a snifter of a run out was a fine professional innings from the 6 amigos.

Fisher’s batting, much like James Coburn’s ability with a flick knife, was an unknown quantity. Even more difficult to break in to than a safe in a bank or a Red Indian (sorry, Native American) wagon circle was the combination for deciphering the way that Fisher had filled in the scorecard. “The ex-Outlaw” (0-30) was not at his best but “Bannock” (1-27) had an excellent evening with the orange as did “Sundance” (1-27). The Fisher batsmen must have filled up with beans around the camp fire because it became clear that their Achilles’ heel was their running between the wickets. Run out followed run out and only “Hoss” Watson (42) really challenged the back wall. “Rowdy” earned his spurs with a decent stumping but later had to hand them back for dropping a simple edge. “Sundance” tried to run someone out using the hand that didn’t have the ball but all this was indicative of the fact that Fisher were going to fall well short of the total. “Yul” (0-10) closed things out as Fisher ended up not quite in a Boot Hill grave but not quite strolling off in to the sunset either at 123 all out. Not a bad performance from Fisher as new boys to the competition.

The Colts are in to the semi-finals (opponents to be confirmed) with a chance to drink 10 gallons in the bar.

MoM : John “Sundance” Callendar with 26* and 1-27 off 3.