Harlequins Cricket Match Report

Thursday 25 July 2002

Friendly 

Harlequins 1  
Whitlands CC  

By Jim Burfield

Picking the nicest afternoon of the summer so far, to take a half-day off work, was good enough for me. We may have lost to a very friendly welsh side, but a good afternoon was had by all, and I have the beginnings of a suntan for the first time this summer.

Whitlands CC elected to bat first and with Harlequins short of recognised bowling, managed a very creditable 169 for 8 from their 40 overs. A special mention must go to the two Munster Under 13 spinners in David Nichol-Currie (Harlequins) and Joey Sherlock (West Cork) who were playing for us on the day, and who both excelled. Joey in particular took 4 wickets from his eight overs, and bowled exceptionally well. Don Tanner and Jim Burfield both bowled 7 overs each with reasonable success. We must improve on our catchingh lads, ‘cos yet again we managed to put three or four good ones on the floor!

The Harlequins innings took place after most of us had eaten too many sandwiches and delicious chocolate cake (thanks to Jannie Tanner!), and this is what I’m blaming the sluggish performance on. A mere 25 runs from the opening 10 overs lead to a bit of a panic attack by Liam Hale and Tom O’Brien, and they both holed out going for lofted drives. The rest of our batting was similarly slow scoring and with only Jack Russell managing to find the boundary with any regularity, Harlequins were eventually all out for a poor 85, leaving Don Tanner not out and still awaiting his first proper knock of the season.

Still, the bar was open, the sun was shining, and the suntan was looking good…

Finally, I must also mention Robin Russell and Emmett Long, both from the Harlequins and Munster Under 13; they both had a very good match and were unlucky not to score more runs.