Zed's Diary
Follow our new A Team skipper through the trials and tribulations, heartache and pain, during his first season in charge

ACCRINGTON A 87 TAVERNERS 89-8

Having won the toss I decided to bat and informed the team that if we bat the overs out then we should be looking at a score of 120 to 150 which against Taverners was more than defendable. This was the last match of the season and the way we played in the last 2 matches against Gujar Khan and Kashmir I was hoping to finish our season on a high note with a win. This did not materialise much to my disappointment. Taverners are a rag tag team that look like they've downed one too many bottles of 'White Lightning' cider. Their only two wins have been against us (including this match) so I was not happy when our team was dismissed for 87. The only scores of note were Alven's 20 and the 32 I scored. Once again it was our batting that was not up to scratch. Everyone else's score was in single figures and three of our 'batsmen' were bowled behind their legs! Hopefully next season one decent batter would be sufficient to address this problem. The Taverners wicket takers were spread around between 5 bowlers.

When all the bowlers for Accy A are available to play our bowling attack is up there with the best (Immy,Tom, Abbass, Arif and Ian) in the league and is very effective and potent (a bit like Immy after an overdose of viagra).This was the case as Taverners managed to beat us by only two wickets. Their no 9 Batsmen came in late on to save the day scoring a quickfire 18 when Taverners looked like loosing the game (reduced to 68-8) they should have won with ease. Immy for the second game in succession picked up a fourfer with 4-19 off 12 overs. Again its the viagra kicking in.....at least he's found a use for it! ....I hear down the grapevine his supplier Waheed 'wazz' Hussain a former Accy player and part time body builder has given him a life time supply of fake viagra tablets from India called 'Wazz-agra'. Apparently they also give you a hormonal inbalance and a chest the width of the Pacific Ocean...they obviously work on Wazz but not on our Immy as his chest is saggier than an 89 year old granny's. That's enough of that, back on to the cricket. Tom took 2-33 and Abbass 1-25.

It was disappointing and frustrating as a captain to end the season as we did. The way we finished in this match summarises our inconsistent season in a fine way. In some matches we have been very competitive but didn't quite have the depth to finish a match off (either it was our dropped catches or our batting that didn't put enough runs on or that we had only two front-line bowlers available to play) in others we have simply been 'hammered' and rightly treated with nonchalance and disdain from the top sides (Kashmir thought this as well). Some of the teams in our league have former first and second team players from the Lancashire League and we were way out of our depth competing against them. On the whole our positives this season were the win against Kashmir (one of the top teams) and reaching the semi final in the Harry Wood Cup. Anyway given the limitations of our team we had an average season and and the results read: played 11, won 3, tied 1 and lost 7 under my tenure as captain. On the positive side we have still won a higher percentage of our games than any of the senior sides at Accrington Cricket Club!!!!

Don't miss the other installments
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
A Team Final Averages