The Night Watchman

Round 2 bought us another cool day in Melbourne and I am sitting here a little worse for wear after attempting a comeback in real life cricket and my 44yo body told me very quickly my time had come and pass. It was a fun day with the 3 amigos playing and contributing 35 of the team’s runs, they got 24 and 11; I’ll let you do the maths on that one. I think my pride aches the most but back to the ‘real’ story and the Pavilion Cup.

It didn’t take long and we had our first ‘cupset’ with Watnoff CC (129^th seed) coming up short chasing 154 on a green top. After a career best 6/18 Terry Gordon walked out to bat with 49 runs to win and only 3 wickets in hand. A valiant 7 not out in a stand of 46 with wicketkeeper Tobin threatened to get Watnoff home. Tobin got run out and unfortunately 10 and Jack both got first ballers and Dockeroos were through by 2 runs.

B17s (391^st seed) followed soon after when the Rebel Spinners chased down 323 and got home with only 2 in the shed on the back of David Campbell’s 171. Campbell left his singing voice behind and let his bat do all the singing today. Unfortunately Ahmed’s 194 went unrewarded bar the man of the match award. B17s, as with a few other managers, took the reserves team line and came up empty handed.

My opponents (Team Supreme) for next week had a big win with their seconds and looks primed to take on my boys next week chock full of confidence (he says cursing under his breath). I wonder if he will take it more seriously next week. He got the home ground advantage but we should get close to the 12,000 capacity and a nice bounty after having only my second home game out of 8 this season today.

Two time runner-up and 12^th seed Ayatollah of Rockenrollah had their second easy game as they try to get to the big dance for a third consecutive year and get another shot at their first cup. I, for one, will be cheering him on if he makes it through this season.

I settled in for the night after tea since there was the usual riveting television to watch, Border Security et all. It became apparent that Bundoora (40^th seed) was struggling against Black Fire before the voice in my earpiece tells me of another upset brewing over at Chennai Stallions CG. We go to our reporter at the ground and find that Hvor er Hann!!! (283^rd seed) had been bowled over for 112 chasing just 135 for victory. A genuine upset for Chennai as they move through to take on hungryasthesea. Back at Fireball arena and just as Bundoora look like making contest of it they lose their 6^th wicket and the run rate gets out to almost 10.

Seed 67 and 73 have just fallen away in what appear to be deliberate attempts by playing seconds and I begin to wonder just how many of the top sides (under 100) aren’t too worried about the PC this season. Is the $1 million bounty for winning it not enough to tempt them even though winning the SOD in division 1 is worth only $520,000? Down go 7 and 8 for Bundoora while I contemplate the rationale behind it. “Well you aren’t trying either”, I hear you say. The difference being my best side wouldn’t be good enough to challenge the top sides regularly enough to be a serious contender. I wonder if making it double would attract the top teams into seriously taking it on. I hear a lot of inhales as I mention prize money that large but maybe that is the way to entice them. Wow 9 and 10 follow quickly as the 40^th seed drop out and get their wish of being able to concentrate on the ‘real stuff’.

So in summary as with the first round a smattering of seeds fall, some by choice and some not. 92 of the top 100 and 186 of the top 200 make it through to fight another day but will they fight at their best in coming weeks.

See you all next week

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