Normality returned to Mad Dog life this weekend after all of the comfort zone departures of last weekend- well, with one spectacular exception. The Mad Dogs returned to The Alan Davidson Oval in Sydney Park for the first time this season, the old rules were restored and more importantly the team returned to winning ways.
After the rather harsh regime of 35 over innings each, no bowler or batting limits and the outrage of LBWs and out-first-balls, everyone was pleased to be playing cricket in a pleasant, jovial and social manner once again. As fierce as the decade-old rivalry between Giles' poms and Seamus' Ashes can be - a rivalry that spawned the Mad Dogs cricket club in the first place - the good natured banter flowed thick and fast.
First innings
This season the Alan Davidson track seemed very unpredictable, and in fact at one end looked more the scene of a small mediaeval battle than a cricket wicket. An early victim of this pitch remarked with surprise as to how one ball rose up high, the next stayed low and did for him. The conditions were made worse by a very slow out field that was far from generous and throughout the day batsmen would have to hit hard for a boundary.
Initially slow batting from the Mad Dogs picked up and pretty soon successive batsmen sustained a run rate of about 7 runs per over. Probably the most decisive moment of the first Mad Dogs innings was when JP told his Captain, Seamus, he was going to give spin a try. The following over he remarked that he might return to pace. Seamus confessed later some outrage at this, that it might have been an option to remain with pace? The spin experiment, which Seamus assumed was a response to an injury, gifted Sean Garvey the opportunity of three consecutive sixes! This set up the Mad Dogs innings well - a total of 155 (to which I only able to contribute a four sadly.)
The Mad Dogs were also helped by some dropped catches, including three by their captain, which became a theme for the day. If catches win matches - both sides were doing their best in a race to defeat! Another notable theme of the day saw its origins in the first innings - Dogs Captain Giles scored some runs (14)! The irony was that he was finally caught by Seamus!
Some loose bowling, mainly from me (although I did find the stumps once I'm pleased to say), yielded slim pickings for The Dogs and an up tempo 20/20 slogging strategy for the Aussies kept them lock step with the maddogs total for the first half of their order - maintaining a run rate of around 6. But as the abuse the Aussie batsmen came under from the pavilion attested, the actual running rate could have been much better, with one Australian remarking at one point that they were only scoring "walks" not runs.
The Aussie batting attack weakened towards the lower order and at lunch they had fallen short of the target by 25 - 155 vs 130 as the sides broke for a BBQ and beers.
Second Innings
As the Maddogs took the field, the opening run rate ticked over fairly mechanically until something very weird happened.
As if to foreshaddow the strange event that was about to take place, an other-worldly, yellowy hue fell across the ground. The brown grass of the pitch got browner, the cream picket fence around the ground turned more orange and the players were flattered by deeper tans. The smoke from the Blue Mountains bushfires once again enshrouded Sydney, but as it did so it set the scene well for what can only be explained by supernatural or extra-terrestial activity.
Out to the crease strode a confident looking Giles J Bourne, still cocky from his first innongs performance. As context, he team joke about Giles was always that while his batting in the nets always seemed relatively effective, he always turned to jelly at the crease, seldom recording a tally of more than 5. For the founder and President of the club, this was not the example we all looked to him for, but we nevertheless relished the abuse it was able to fuel!
Very quickly though, Giles set about his task with gusto and with a surprising variety of repertoire - confident forward drives, the occasional cut to leg, even pulling square once or twice. It was a thoroughly professional and competant innings. Rumours circulated around the pavillion that the real Giles had been kidnapped by aliens - or that we had stumbled into a parrallel universe. What was going on? Was this ourGiles?
I was actually privileged to partner with Giles for the back-end of his historic innings to witness this miracle at first hand - and I quite completely didn't recognise him. Such assuredness and focus as he went about his business, until eventualy and, by then innevitably, he was retired on 25 and returned to a hero's welcome and a guaranteed place in Mad Dogs legend.
The match wasn't quite the same after that. The damage was done. It was if Don Bradman had batted his last innings, or Viv Richards or Brian Lara had just played an unexpected guest appearance. The rest of the Mad Dogs - with the batting order reversed - continued an aggressive run rate and cantered to a final total of 136, whereupon the Aussies embarked on a challenging run chase of 160 runs. That task soon seemed insurmountable as the Mad Dogs bowlers, particularly Keith Saunders and Tim Pallet, ripped through the Australian batsmen and somne committed fielding kept the run rate down. While the propensity for humiliatingly dropped catches continued as before (most notably for poor Mark Harvey whose frustration was turning to madness); the Mad Dogs bowlers' ability to find the stumps with precision was consistent. By the time I took a quite battered match ball for the final few overs; tired bodies, a dommed run chase and the match itself was heading for a weary and welcome finale. The Australians managed only 112 meaning a comprehensive win for the Dogs.
So the scene is set for a re-match in March, and plans are made for an early start and a long lunch afterwards, and the Mad Dogs season is back on track with a win and more importantly a return to enjoyable and fun Social cricket.