Off to the Karmand centre with this week’s Dales Council leaders Halifax Direct acting as hosts. Various Pokemon captured by the kids (Foggitt & Kerfoot) on the way but none on the square, apparently they do not inhabit dust bowls. The wicket looked as though it had been imported straight from Mumbai leaving the Wallaby bowlers, with the exception of Waqas looking less than impressed.

A crucial toss to win for the skipper who singularly failed in his task leaving the visitors bowling first and potentially crucially batting second. Colin, available for selection yet again, and Holmes opening up – at least the state of pitch and outfield negated the customary argument over which side of the ball to shine, neither was the most realistic option.

The opening overs were memorable only for Wells being peppered at mid off before he beat a belated retreat to the boundary thereby giving himself longer to judge the somewhat inconsistent bounce. Junior Foggitt was having similar experiences behind square.

Butterfree fingers were required to have a chance of restricting the hosts to a gettable score but unfortunately it was not to be the case as difficult chances were spiltby the fielders and also by Holmes off his own bowling leaving him not only with no-one else to blame but also with a poorly.

The first wicket arrived on 42 as Colin got one to pop up and Jhangir took a straight forward slip catch before he replaced the wicket taker and managed to Weedle an LBW out of the umpire. Kerfoot bowled a miserly spell in the dirt before Waqas was thrown the ball to see if he could extract some life from the pitch. No initial joy for Waqas as the first ball only spun about 3 feet. Unsurprisingly two quick wickets followed as the Krabby Javed was undone by one that turned a mile and Zubair was undone by one that didn’t. 102-4.

Jhangir was repeatedly threatened with being removed from the attack before Skippy finally followed through with his threats and brought on Wilson to bowl the final six. It looked like it was to be one of those days for Mark until an edge was snaffled by the keeper. This prompted a flurry of activity in the closing overs as both runs and wickets arrived in a hurry. Zaheer took a decent catch for a top edged flick, Waqas ran someone out of his own bowling before Skippy effected an Oddish dismissal – stumping the stranded batsman after scrambling around on the floor to take one of Wilson’s quicker balls.

A final wicket off the final ball left Halifax on 209-9 which the Wallabies knew they would have to bat well to get.

Setting them off on their journey to ringing the Victreebel were Neil ‘Slowpoke’ Bonnington and Zahear ‘Scyther’ Ahmed and a fine start they made too. The openers were seen off without alarm and a decent run rate of 4 an over was maintained with the help of a few byes and plenty of squirtles through third man. Having failed to make the breakthrough with his openers home skipper Naz delved into his beginners book of captaincy and decided to change the bowling.

Unfortunately this drew a reward as Z was bowled for a well made 30. Dom ’Rapidash’ Wyatt next out the gates and he managed to avoid running either himself or his skipper out as plenty of hustle mixed with a few boundaries advanced the score to 90-1 at the drinks break, perhaps the farfetch’d hopes of victory were becoming more realistic.

Perhaps not, as slow bowlers Iqbal and Iqbal gradually squeezed the life out of the chase before picking up plenty of wickets. The skipper was stumped and in quick succession Dom didn’t hit one hard enough and crucially Waqas was deemed LBW despite a distinctly woody sound emanating from the middle. 99-4.

Young Jake reached 11 featuring plenty of offside aggression before he was bowled by the senior Iqbal. Not two balls earlier he had nearly played on but thanks to the stumps being somewhat divergent rather than parallel the ball had passed in between middle and leg before diverting to fine leg. At one stage it was 123-5 but shortly thereafter it was 124-8 as Kerf and Colin couldn’t halt the slide and Wilson was cleaned up first ball for a Golduck. Mark had asked J which way the ball was moving before the bowler befuddled them both by moving it the other way.

The clatter of wickets had the rather unfortunate effect of promoting Wells to 10, not for any great tactical reasons but more because he got his trousers on quicker than the dawdling Holmes. Soon tiring of hitting the ball along the ground to the fielders Wells instead hit one in the air to the fielders, all that remained therefore was for Jhangir ‘Slowbro’ Gulzar to be run out with the score on 134.

All in all it was an excellent collapse of which we can all be proud.

P.S You are looking to catch 12..