CGJ vs Vinci Construction 13th June, 2012

All at Coles Grant & Jones have been looking forward to this year’s cricket challenge & we kicked off this year with the match against Vinci Construction UK. The response to the challenge from Vinci was fantastic with James Pottinger reporting that he had no problems in attracting volunteers for a place on the team.

The weather was warm but overcast & as the Vinci team had all arrived on time they elected to bat first whilst we waited for the stragglers of the CGJ team to arrive.

The first two batsmen for the Vinci team, Ben (the Bat) Jones & Sandesh (Slugger) Kale, took to the field & promptly began to knock the ball all over the park clocking up runs at will. This batting partnership proved to be the most fruitful for Vinci managing a total of 37 runs between them during their first batting period. Ben managed to put a total of 36 runs on the Vinci score sheet during his two sessions at the crease making him the top scorer for Vinci with Sandesh coming second with 23 runs. The pair retired not out after their 4 over batting stint

Next up was Tim Olsen & Satvinder with Tim managing to put 7 more runs to the Vinci score sheet. Following on were Greg Dicky & James Pottinger with Greg adding another 16 runs & James a further 3. By now the wickets were falling mainly to the CGJ bowling.

Justin Haliburton took to the crease & added a further six runs to the total, followed by Lee Powell & Marcus Domonic both adding two runs each. Steve Swain managed to knock up a respectable 12 runs & was followed by Martin Bedford.

Vinci then played their youngest member of the team Justin (12th Man) Swain who put in another two runs. The second round of batting began as Ben took to the field once again & started where he finished after his first session by clouting the ball about again! Two other members of the Vinci team, Sandesh & Tim, had a second go at batting before the limited 20 over’s were all delivered. The final total for Vinci was a very respectable 127 runs.

As the clouds closed in & the first few drops of rain were felt the Coles Grant & Jones Team took up the batting in the form of our newest recruit Dave Dixon who has replaced Reg James after Reg’s recent retirement, & David Scott with Mr Dixon scoring 9 runs & Dave Scott adding a healthy 15 runs. Following them was Will Briscoe & Phil Davis.

It was at this point that the heavens opened & we were deluged in a matter of minutes. I think the pictures speak for themselves! MATCH ABANDONED.
The batting & fielding teams both made a dash for shelter while a few brave individuals pushed the covers back into place most notably Peter Allbutt who got completely drenched. Many of the team members made a dash for the clubhouse whilst those remaining took shelter under the gazebo.

We massed all the equipment & seating in with us, pulled up the anchors, wheeled the gazebo round & formed the modern equivalent of a Roman ‘Testudo’ (that’s Latin for Tortoise….educational as well!) then made our way as one back to the clubhouse.

Once we had stowed all the drenched equipment & Peter had wrung out his clothes we settled in the club house to consume the much appreciated hot barbecue food & proceeded to get wet on the inside as well.

Many thanks to all who took part, organisers, (thanks James for pulling the Vinci team together once again), players, supporters scorers, (thanks Reg), umpires, fetchers, carriers shelter erectors, & photographers all who made a great contribution in making the evening enjoyable.

We trust that you all had a great, but damp, evening & we all look forward to seeing you all again soon.

It is at this point that we normally have the team photographs but as we were all soaked to differing degrees & photographs were impossible a team listing will have to suffice.

The Vinci Construction team consisted of:-
Ben Jones, Sandesh Kale, Tim Olsen, Satvinder, Greg Dicky, James Pottinger, Justin Haliburton, Lee Powell, Marcus Dononic, Steve Swain, Martin Bedford, & the 12th man Justin Swain.

The Coles Grant & Jones team consisted of:-
Craig Coles, Carl Jones, David Dixon, David Scott, Will Briscoe, Phil Davis, Charlie Briscoe, Paul Ravenhall, Geoffrey Stevenson, Peter Allbutt, Christopher Tooze.