Brian Mollet
Soccer may be the beautiful game and Rugby what they play in heaven, but in this earthly paradise of Byron Shire the ugly but interesting can be seen each Sunday giving their best in the Nick Shand Memorial cricket series, local sporting subculture’s answer to the ultimate question: Are we there yet?
Game two saw the fringedwellers of Main Arm emerge from their bush bunkers to tussle with switched-on socialites the Byron Full-Tossers.
Ash of Byron won the toss and with Lomath Oval damp and chilly as a politician’s handshake sent the Main Armers in. Toby fired in the new ball with sniper-like precision and removed the plucky Kiwi Greg-O in his first over. Byron were obviously smarting after their narrow loss to the Left Bankers a couple of weeks ago and had brought out their A team.
Jamie, Richie and Jay (2–1) soon had the top order groping round the locker room like Jimmy Saville. Brian (24) once again showed that bloodymindedness is a substitute for talent but when Bucko flayed perhaps the shot of the day to midwicket only to be caught by a tumbling Toby on the boundary it was clear that Lady Luck was giving the Armers a good jilting.
Joffrey thumped a couple of fours with his own brand of studied nonchalance but Frankie (2–6), and Morgan not only cleaned up the tail, but gave it a good polish, Main Arm evicted en masse for a paltry 69.
The post-lunch Tosser openers Richie and Mark (34 n/o) put the game well beyond discussion with a stand of 52 and all that was left to do was for Jay to loosen up his big shoulders, thumping two sixes and two fours to leave the Armers slowly regaining consciousness in the casualty ward.
Next week the competition’s cutest team, the Geckos, take on the trendiest, the Suffolk Park Swingers.