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By Guy Mordaunt

Scorecard

The mighty B grade Pigs looked to keep the dream alive against Kirribilli on Sunday. Just outside the top 4 thanks to a recent weather conspiracy and with A reserves thrashing ringing in their ears there was everything to play for at the hallowed Blackman lower oval.

There were a few emotional scenes early as the debutants accepted the promotion to B grade with the humility and reverence it deserved. N Stewarts speech that all the effort and runs had finally paid off would’ve bought a tear to even D-Trains eye. Mordaunt went 0 and 4 on the coin toss and somehow the Pigs were batting.

A solid if unspectacular opening partnership got the Porkers through to the 12th over without loss before Matt “I’ve been on the booze for 7 weeks” Tenney’s luck finally ran out. Quickly followed by Mordaunt the Pigs were forty odd for 2. Bradman, Border and Ponting never batted together but today clad in Pig Pink N Dowd would get the chance to bat with N Stewart in a combination of strength not seen since Hulk Hogan and the Macho Man got together for Summer Slam ’88. The crowd settled in for an unparralled batting display before Nathan feathered one to the keeper and marched back to the shed to join the cricket sucks party in progress. A pretty steady pattern of comings and goings saw the Pigs struggle to get any momentum and only the ever reliable Matty J was able to stay with Dowdy for any period of time. When Nick was dismissed for another 60 the tail capitulated. We did get a chance to see who let the dogs out(woof woof) although he underwhelmed with 6 and was the last man to go in the 38th over leaving the desperate Pigs a sub par 151 to defend. Special mention must go to Luke Nasir for a solid 0 not out and even though he didn’t get to face a ball he put the pads on as well as anyone I’ve ever seen.

It would need to be a wow of a performance on an out field that hadn’t had the sheep on it for quite a while. The Pigs assembled and after dogs rousing pre match speech they marched out to do battle. A wicket in the second over was just the start they need and gave a sniff of an unlikely victory. Unfortunately then the Pigs of old returned to drop the familiar 5-7 catches a game. Thank god the under 12′s coach from the game before wasn’t there to tell us how ashamed of us he was. The dropped chances managed to keep us out of the game despite solid bowling from Josh ” the Dowdy of bowling” Sheldon, Nathan ” Batting sucks I’m a bowler” Stewart and Nick “no nickname” Dowd, Kirribilli were coasting at oranges at 90-3. A paltry 60 required, it was going to take something special from the piggers to keep the dream alive. Never let it said that B-grade don’t have heart for after some stirring words from the dawg(praise Christ, don’t do ice) special is what you got. Nasty Ned was solid picking up important wickets and two sensational runouts got the Pigs chargin. Antonio’s direct hit from side on to dismiss Barkworth a possible turning point as the catches began to stick and the crowd(Matt Seldon god bless ya) began to believe. Dowdy managed to buy a big wicket after seeing the ball disappear far and often off his 8th over and when Mordaunt held on to one to give Josh a deserved wicket Kirribilli still needed 18 with one wicket remaining. Stewart only needed one ball to collect his four for and the Pigs had pulled it out of the bag. With two games remaining B grade now has the luxury of knowing that success is in their hands. Form is improving and the last couple of close ones have gone our way. WOOF!