piginfo

By Michael Eckstein

Scorecard

The Black Pigs went into the C Grade final on a high, following a stunning victory in the semi final over the “Centrals”. The triumph was set up by two dominant batting performances in the first innings – Demo scoring 72 and Ned hitting a quick fire 89. Jack and Worm were also impressive, building strong partnerships for the 4th and 7th wickets. Chasing a total of 336, the Centrals crumbled under the heat of the Australian sun and the heat of Ned and Demo’s bowling. Jack and Chris ripped through the middle and late order and the match was over before you could say Rybarczyk.

So, onto the final the Black Piggies marched. There was much talk prior to the game of a bonding session involving 1kg schnitzels, but thankfully this never eventuated and all Pigs arrived at the match feeling fresh and fired up.

Macquarie Uni, who were coming off a controversial victory against North Shore, won the toss and elected to field, clearly afraid off the much vaunted Pigs bowling attack. Needless to say, this might have been a slightly erroneous decision.

Dog and Matt walked to the crease with a confident air about them. 20 overs later they walked back for a drink and Matt had chalked up a half-century. Talk about peaking at the right time. After some hard earned electrolytes they were out in the middle again. Matt had said to Dog something a long the lines of “This is us today mate, you and me. Our game”. He was bowled shortly after chasing Mac Uni’s spinner. Matt’s departure left Dog feeling a little antsy. He chased the Mac Uni spinner and was subsequently clean bowled.

Enter Fame and Stooke. Fame is C Grade’s pinch hitter – he pads up all day and when the captain says “get us some quick runs”, on he comes. And thus, on he came and henceforth quick runs were attained. Having done his job he packed his suitcase, turned the Out of Office on and popped one up to a thankful midwicket.

Stooke made a classy 30 odd before getting fired by our friendly professional umpire, adjudged LBW. He was filthy, really really filthy. Filthier than a dirty little pig covered in filth. The Mac Uni players went loco and on came Nasir and Demo. They both went (relatively) cheaply although Demo managed to land a few punishing blows before his departure. At this point the Pigs were not looking so comfortable, sitting on 6/190-something. What’s more, the brilliantly unpredictable stick work of Nasty Hands Ned was about to be on show. It was clear that this match was going to go one way or the other.

4161464262146666664161… the Mac Uni spinner’s figures were evidently, grossly disfigured and Nasty had made another quickfire 80 odd.

Meanwhile, Sneak Leaney had been quietly going about his business. Maybe inspired by Ned’s brutal handling of the bowling attack, he shortly thereafter pulled a number of glorious shots out from the kit bag, including his trademark cut – a shot he executes so beautifully it would make even the most hardened butcher cry.

With able support a long the way from Worm and Thommo, Sneak made his way to 97. 2 balls left in the day. Rosie down the other end, after smashing two huge sixes in the previous over. NOOOOOOO! Sneak ended up stranded on 97 after running a single and Rosie getting bowled. Nevertheless, 421 runs on the board a job well done. The “batting group” had performed and now it was up to the “bowling unit” to do their job.

The next day began beautifully. In front of Percy the Pig, Nasty cleaned bowled their most highly credentialed batsman. He opted to leave a ball outside off stump, unfortunately for him the ball magically changed direction and ripped out the aforementioned stump.

Demo then picked up the next key wicket after bowling some absolutely gorgeous lines. It was a joy to behold – watching the ball arrow into 2nd slips hands. Matt had caught one! And a big one at that.

Ned executed a very cheeky run out and Jack took some more scalps (can’t remember exactly what happened – short term memory has suffered due to activities on Sunday night) and then Fame came on to drop some hand grenades on the unsuspecting Mac Uni batsmen. He took a couple of relatively inexpensive wickets and it was looking like we would have the match wrapped up before lunch.

And so it was, Dog took the final wicket and the first of many VB tins were brought out. Happily, the Black Pigs then trotted down to Blackman Lower to watch the Pink Pigs win an absolute thriller. Nice work Weaver!

THE END.

*please note I can’t actually remember much of Sunday. Since beginning typing about 2 hours ago my extended hangover has returned in full force. Feel free to point out any omissions / correct any errors.