Sporting Alfas Cricket Club Sporting Alfas 2nd X1 104 for 1 beat Intellectuals (Alicante Cup ) 103 for 8
SPENCER DAWES ALICANTE CUP
20TH NOVEMBER 2016
The annual close to the season rolled around once again as the Intellectuals pulled up to Alfas to celebrate the life of the late great Spencer Dawes and compete for the Alicante Cup, won last year by Alfas thanks to a man of the match display by Kieran Perman, who was not able to play this time around, who could claim his mantel and win the trophy for their team?
Richards struck first blood by winning the toss and deciding to set a target. Alfas took to the field and were joined by Falkner and Naveed from the Intellectuals to get things going. However, it was not long before Falkner was back in the hut, Basharat Ali cleaning up the stumps with his 4th ball, strangely enough, this turned out to be the only clean bowled of the Alfas innings, for once, the fielding side held, well not all of their catches but enough!
Shakeel was in next and brought unending enthusiasm with him, wanting to run on every ball and always looking for the single, much to Naveed’s annoyance it seemed! The batsman having to tell his eager partner to calm down a couple of times in their stand. However, the stand never really got off the ground as in the 6th over, Ahmed slipped one a little wide down the leg side which Shakeel nicked and Byrne took the catch diving away to his left. 12/2 off 6.
2 became 3 just 3 overs later as, the Alfas brain trust spotted a trend from Naveed and moved some fielders around on the off side to attempt to block off his preferred slap over Point. However, things did not go to plan as Ali decided this would be a good time to switch to a leg side line of attack! After a quick word from the skipper, Ali banged one in short on the off side and Naveed could only fend it off to short third man where Tyler, maybe daydreaming(?) just managed to grab it off his shoelaces and Naveed had to go for 15, 24/3.
Richards and Husnain then steadied the ship and put on 48 in the next 13 overs, seeing off both change bowlers Roper and Ashraf before J. Perman stepped up to put his stamp on the match. In his first over he tempted the Intellectuals captain into a straight drive that went right to Skipper Perman at mid-off and then went right out of his hands! The Skipper claiming loss of vision due to the height of Naveed as standing umpire! However, in his 2nd over, young Perman got his man, Richards going high to Long On and Bash Ali was in the right place to grab it easily and break the partnership. 75/4
The evergreen Christopher Horne was next in and tried to negate the young leg spinner but in his 4th over, Perman got one to turn and jump and Horne could only hit it over the ‘keeper’s head but Byrne managed to spin around and snaffle the ball at full stretch. 99/5.
Laverty came out to join Ibtisam who was swinging with gusto at the other end and forced Hogan Brown off with a sumptuous 6 that nearly cleared the pond before the fall of Horne. In his place, Algar welcomed Laverty to the crease with a hard delivery that jumped up and stuck the batsman right in the chest. Ibtisam’s innings came to an end in the same over though as Algar managed to get him to snick a wider delivery behind and Byrne took a simple regulation catch behind.
Laverty, still smarting from the hit to the chest was next to go as Perman got him to spoon one to Algar in the covers which brought the unmistakeable Bobby Nix to the crease. However, just as last year, the Alfas bowlers could find no way through Nix’s defences and he saw the Intellectuals to the end of their 30 overs, 103/7, Perman the pick of the bowlers with 4 wickets.
With no tea as there was a feast being prepared for after the game, the Alfas openers, Perman and Perman went out to begin the chase. As it turned out, their fledgling partnership reached new heights this week as they put on 95 for the 1st wicket in 16 overs to bring the home team to the brink of victory.
However, J. Perman, having just missed out on a 5for, also missed out on the 50 as he was finally bowled by Shakeel for 45. Algar took to the crease and together with Skipper Perman, saw the team to the target score of 104 off 16.3 overs.
After the match, fallen comrades were remembered by all who had played with and against them, Spencer’s brother gave toast to his memory and the trophy was presented to the winning captain Mark Perman retained for 1 more year anyway. Jack Perman was finally rewarded for his efforts in taking the man of the match trophy, following in his brother’s footsteps from last year and all at Alfas hope that the Intellectuals can return to the league next year so we can resume the rivalry before next November.
