The Darlington Arts Festival saw the team take a break from cricket to turn their hands from wielding willow to BBQ tongs. Improved signage and burger recipe (thanks to Tracie Lucas' Nanna's tomato relish among other things) saw better patronage despite some rainy weather. Long live DAFamous DSCC Steakburger! As usual it was great to have playing and social members in the tent helping out and sharing stories and bad jokes about cooking and cricket.
The Slater Gartrell match followed much to the chagrin of Darlington. One wonders why we continue the relationship - they take our money for equipment and then they take our wickets and rob us of runs! Pivac was outstanding yet again with an unbeaten 145 after returning to the crease after retiring for 50. Other contributors for Slaters were Cox with 53 and Krekerskothen 45. Terry Giles managed 2 for 48 and Al Mallaby 2 for a very respectable 15. Less respectable was Cam Giles bowling which was found in the end to be more amusing than woeful and likely to set Cliffy Burns burrowing through the club annuls to find an equal to this new "sure to be Bleeding Ball performance" of - no this is not a misprint - 38 runs from one over. How is this possible you ask when we have 6 ball overs? A 6 off every ball bowled supported by 2 wides = 38! This performance even inspired Tony, Bull and Risky to get back on the air and record a comment for this performance.
In reply Vice Captain Ian Scrimshaw led the way with 80 runs not out and Duncan Ward backing up as usual with a very handy and much needed 58 not out with next nearest score of 34 from Ali Clark. The best figures for Slaters was Regan with 3 for 47 and the rest was shared around the team. In the end Darlington couldn't catch the 345 total required so that was that. At the Aldred's post match BBQ the crowds were entertained by Mr Watsonia's spouse Theresa as she tickled the ivories a male guest vocalist to accompanied her. Stuie wonders why he hasn't seen any snakes or bobtails in the bush opposite his place.
The following game saw the Bleeding Ball winners' team The Black Adders take the field for a close game played on a great day for cricket. The Black Adders came out swingin' with a far to far too frequently seen in matches against DSCC already this year Mike Foskett snare a pacey 40. Similarly too frequently sighted opposition player Evan Arnold nabbed 49 and all rounder Troy Hurren struck a classy 53. The Darlington bowling attack upped the ante and slowed the run rate to strangle the slithery Adders. In a finish that will for another week send Cliffy back to the club records, the final 8 overs belonged to Ian "Scrimma" Scrimshaw and James "Lenny" Miller. Scrimma and Lenny taking the last 6 wickets for 10 runs to dismiss the Black Adders for 224 (Scrimma 3/3 off 3 and Lenny 3 for 7 off 3).
Chasing a realistic total, some notable performances were put in by Stuie Aldred with a 56 and Andy Cassel of 50 - both not out. Scrimma pitched in yet again with a 42. For the Black Adders - handy with the ball was Simon Ward with 2 for 13 off 4, with the rest of the wickets shared around however Darlington reached the total with 228 with 3 wickets in hand and 6 overs spare. One other notable performance was Gus' dog Anzac who on seeing Gus come to the crease and swing wildly at the first 2 deliveries, promptly ran across the ground and leapt into the back of Gus's ute as if to indicate that it would soon be time to go home. One smart dog that Anzac. Gus was out the next ball.
Steve and Judy James welcomed a new granddaughter as their daughter Kylie balanced the books with a boy and now a girl now born on 6/11 and called her Charlotte Jaimee Grima. So our congrats go out to the James' and their family.
Music trivia this week - Released in 1976, this album is regarded as one of the popular musical benchmarks of all time. This artist was already a household name and a consumate music innovator. So confident of the albums success, this artist asked for an up front payment of a record 13 million dollars. Thats a lot of dough now - imagine what that was worth in '76! The record producer of the day said it felt like the biggest gamble of his career but one that only lasted a week as the album went to number one a week after its release and stayed there for 14 weeks in a row. It stayed in the charts for 44 weeks in the USA and over a year in the UK. Who was the artist and what was the name of the album?
And from last week....Sharing part of the name of some man made features around the Darlington area, this band welcomed a new band member - a singer and guitarist - for the first time in 1957 and the rest they say is history. What was the name of the band and who was the new band member? The band was the Quarrymen (Statham and Boya Quarries) and the new band member was Paul McCartney.
Scribe (James)
