Victoria Tour 2013 part 2
Friday 2nd August
The day dawned grey and rainy but lucky for all there was no cricket. Much deliberation over breakfast eventuated in Glen, Dave and Jonno heading to Cordova Bay for a round of golf. Amongst the odd patch of drizzle the three had a great time despite Jonno imploding for 5 or so holes in a row that had Dave and Glenn finally break down into flat out laughing at how bad it all got. Thankfully for all the last few holes returned to somewhat normality with some good shots being played.
Taking in the sights around Victoria all the others also enjoyed their day off. Darts made its customary appearance in the afternoon at the Sticky Wicket and Glenn decided to achieve professional accuracy to completely dominate any game on offer. Again free flowing pints and then that difficult task of finding a spot for dinner. Seafood is always a good option in Victoria and is fresh and amazing.
With a double header looming an early night was a good option or perhaps should I say a wise option as by now Arthur and Co were grooving it up on the dance floor nightly at the Sticky and turning in at an obscene hour.
Saturday 3rd August
Beacon Hill one of the lovelier grounds in all of Victoria. Situated next to the botanical gardens, the occasional wedding and regular horse and carriage riding tourists always take a second look at the men in white scattered around the picturesque Beacon Hill outfield.
Given the opportunity to bat first is always a plus on tour and this was no exception. Playing the Vagabonds is always enjoyable and after last year’s cliffhanger in which Glenmore got home by 2 runs off the second last ball we were expecting a great day of cricket.
Mike Skene a long time opening bowler traditionally gets the new ball and was met with a straight drive for four off the first ball that almost took out Russel at the non-strikers end. Bala at the other end got straight into an immaculate spell. Moving the ball in the air and off the seam both ways in the overcast conditions, Bala was definitely a handful. With scoring much more difficult than the super-fast Cowichan ground Russel and Jonno set about playing the ball into gaps and doing a lot of running. Beacon Hill is a sizeable ground and the grass is always on the thicker side. Good fitness opportunity to run off all the tour pints.
After a solid start of 33 Russel slightly frustrated with the accuracy of Bala tried to force him to the legside only to play over the top of the slow moving leg cutter and have his middle stump knocked back for a nice cameo 18 off 17 balls. Arthur came to the crease apparently none the worse for wear after his antics the previous evening. Arthur and Jonno took the score over the 100 mark with the odd boundary and lots of well-placed shots into gaps for singles and twos. Arthur eventually tried again to break the shackles against John Black and only managed to sky the ball to Bala who was always in the action for a well-made 35 from 47 balls.
Trevor really looked to force the pace and wasn’t willing to let the bowlers dictate anything. With Jonno giving him the strike Trevor looked to hit everything and was on track for a retirement in quick time before unfortunately mistiming a shot off Tim Lord for 26 from 23 balls. The score read 145 for 3 and anything close to 200 is an excellent score at Beacon Hill. Glenmore were looking good to set a difficult target. In strode Dave who had not been able to spend much time in the middle so far on tour. That was all about to change. Jonno retired a few balls later with a carefully crafted 51 from 59 balls. Glenn joined Dave and the carnage began. Rotating the strike to Dave Glenn watched as Dave completely took apart the Vagabonds bowling. Adrian Eaves who had bowled so well for Cowichan was smashed for consecutive 6’s by Dave which brought a sudden end to his spell. Dave took a heavy toll on any Vagabonds bowler unlucky enough to have the skipper throw him the ball. Another 6 and 4 off Brierley and Dave had raced to 43 from only 23 balls. Looking a sure bet for a 50 Dave was cleaned up by a good comeback ball from Brierley but had put Glenmore in a commanding position at 4/210 with 5 overs still to come.
Glenn who had watched the devastation at the other end also got in on the act with a massive 6 before also being clean bowled by Brierley. Glenn made a nice little 15 from 22 balls and supported the rampaging Dave to great effect. Kamal came in and looked to continue the run rate smashing a 6 and a 4 of Dave Gooda’s first over. Kamal kept the pressure on hitting out at 7 an over with support from Patel before Gooda got revenge clean bowling him for 18 from 11 balls. Ravi joined Patel at 6 for 236 and pushed the total to 244 from the 40 overs.
A Daunting task indeed for the Vagabonds. Dave and Kamal opened the bowling with a tight line and gave nothing away. Dave’s first three overs went for only 5 runs. Dillon one of the heroes for Cowichan on Thursday smashed Kamal for an ominous boundary before Kamal had the last word bowling him for 7. 1 for 25 and Tim Lord who been picking off the 2’s and singles in the opening stand was caught behind by Russel off a beautiful ball from Dave. Disaster it seemed had struck however, amongst the celebrating as Dave sensed that he had pulled his hamstring. Hoping that it was just a niggle he realized that it was indeed more serious. Always a fighter Dave refused to leave the ground and proceeded to bowl his remaining overs from a 3 step run-up. Fill in bowler Harris took over from Kamal’s excellent spell of 1/16 from 6 overs and immediately had effect. Dave Gooda who had looked like he was hitting his straps played all over one from Harris and with bails definitely dislodged was gone for 8. 3/37 and the Vagabonds were now in serious trouble.
Dave made matters worse with his tour best figures Removing Hodges middle stump to leave Vagabonds reeling at 4/51. Dave limped off the ground to the applause of the balcony and his team mates for an excellent spell of 2/17 from his 8 overs.
Adrian Eaves showed his typical fighting spirit and tried to rebuild the Vagabonds innings hitting some lovely boundaries and showing excellent placement into the gaps. Glenn by this time had started his excellent 8 over spell in which he picked up the wickets of Brierley clean bowled for 5 and Downs LBW for a patient 13. Glenmore’s other ring in Patel came on to bowl and with much good natured jibing Adrian declared that he would never hear the end of it if Patel got him out. Be careful what you wish for because almost as soon as the words were out of his mouth what looked like a fairly innocuous ball found its way through his defense and onto his stumps. Gone for an excellent 34 Adrian effectively took the hopes of the Vagabonds with him. Not content with one wicket Patel also picked up Harding (7) caught one handed at gully by a diving or falling Glenn McDonald (we couldn’t tell which but will call it diving for the benefit of the paying public).
John Black like they had earlier in the day with the ball formed yet another partnership putting on 30 runs for the 8th wicket before Russel who had exchanged the keeping duties with Trevor had Bala caught on the boundary by Kamal for an excellent 20 to compliment his great spell earlier in the day. With the task well and truly out of reach the Vagabonds finished out the innings with John Black on 15 not out and Banks not out on 1. A total of 147 giving the game to Glenmore by 97 runs.
Basking in the glow of back to back victories Glenmore enjoyed the hospitality of the Vagabonds boys with a lovely BBQ. It’s hard to get a Vagabonds cap. The way they play the game and the great camaraderie shown makes it a coveted prize. Adrian was especially pleased to present it to man of the match Dave who despite his injury putting a slight damper on it had a great game with 43 runs and 2 wickets.
With the sun setting over the botanical gardens the weary and slightly more injured Glenmore touring team made their way back into town for some evening festivities.
Sunday 4th August
Windsor Park is a lovely ground with a monster pavilion that boasts several stories and an electronic scoreboard. This time we were facing the combined talents of the midweek select. The best of each midweek team conspiring to take on the hobbled Glenmore touring team at the end of a very long week. If this sounds like a recipe for disaster then you put your money on the right horse.
Batting first it was instantly apparent that this was not going to be like past games on tour. The new ball swung…… a LOT. Russel was trapped in front by the left arm bowling of Zwicky with a full ball that bent back down the line. Jonno was having a tough time scoring and was just batting for survival until the ball settled down. At 1 for 12 it wasn’t a disaster just yet. Arthur came to the crease and tried to negate the movement by just hitting out. After some extremely close calls he was finally caught at first slip by Craig for 14. Trevor joined Jonno and they looked to try to consolidate the innings. Jonno then with a touch of frustration attempted a cover drive off Simon who had played so well at Cowichan earlier in the week but could only find the inside edge as the ball swung late playing it back onto the stumps for an agonizing 3 runs from 27 balls. At 3/31 Glenmore were in trouble.
Trevor, then Dave Harding fell in quick succession as Mick, then Simon again with a massive in-swinger picked up his second. Kamal looked to put some resistance into the Glenmore batting and combined well with first Glenn who was caught behind off Herman for 5 and then Ravi who gave him good support. Kamal was eventually out for a well-made 28 from 52 balls. Richard Downs a ringer from the previous days game batted well with Ravi and was the aggressor of the two trying to push the scoring on but valuing his wicket making 15 from 36 balls before Zwicky picked up his 3rd with yet another in-swinger which comprehensively took out the stumps. Ravi and Keith then saw out the remaining balls to make sure that the full 40 overs were utilized. Ravi finished with his best tour score eking out 10 extremely patient runs off 46 balls.
127 never really looked like enough runs especially with star bowler Dave not participating in the game with his hamstring ensuring some umpiring was as close to the action as he was going to get.
Kamal and Glenn opened the bowling and with Glenn picking up two early wickets firstly deceiving Eric who popped up an easy catch to Richard for 2 followed by Herman who skied it straight back to Glenn for a caught and bowled for a duck. 2 for 11 and Glenmore were in it. Kamal then ended a burgeoning partnership between Mick and Mike by bowling Mike for 14. Even more exciting was the next ball that hit the in-form Simons middle stump clean out of the ground for a golden globe. On a hat-trick Kamal dropped it in short only to have Craig carve it out to the square leg boundary for 4.
Craig then set about destroying the Glenmore bowling attack with some very hefty slogging. Popping the ball up on repeated occasions only to have it land desperately out of reach of diving fielders Craig backed himself and played only 1 defensive shot to the applause of the gallery. Retiring on 54 from only 24 balls Craig had completely taken the game away from Glenmore. The opener Mick and Roger picked off the remaining runs with Mick finishing on 43 not out and Roger on 10.
Windsor Park has not been a happy ground for Glenmore Tours so maybe we will leave it out next year J
And thus the cricketing end of another great tour came about finding Glenmore with 2 wins and 2 losses, making it a very successful outing. Lots of great performances, good times and a great team atmosphere marked this as an especially fun time.
Back to the harbor for the Symphony and fireworks after an amazing feed of Oysters and mussels washed down with a lovely bottle of BC Riesling…. Ahhh Victoria in the summer, what a great place.
Monday 5th August
Bright and early for the long drive back everyone met at the compulsory amazing brekky buffet on the ferry. Next stop was Sicamous for lunch by the water on the patio which was fantastic followed by one more D Dutchman ice-cream and then the bee-line back to Calgary where everyone could collapse into their own beds and dream of glory on the 2014 Tour.
Make sure you are part of it……..
Jonno Bray
Touring addict