Day 9

Today saw the squad take on Isolations Cavaliers in our 3^rd fixture of the tour – with the match generously sponsored by Fuelled by Design (see link on the left). The word from Keemar, our tour rep, was that these would be one of the stronger opponents of the tour, so following losses of 167 runs and 6 wickets in our respective opening games, that wasn’t what we wanted to hear.

Another good breakfast was served up at the apartment restaurant before our 10:30am pick up and journey to the ground, located in the parish of St Andrew, to the north-east of the island. Prior to leaving the lads all completed a sweepstake for the US Masters Golf tournament by randomly selecting two players from the top 32 in the field. Dan Marsh defied the laws of probability to overcome a 1 in 66 chance of selecting both Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott halfway through the draw!!

On arrival the opposition were having a few throw-downs and it was evident we were going to be coming up against some serious cricketers. The distinctive blue and yellow training kit of the Barbados cricket team was a bit of a giveaway that a number of their players were part of the underage set-up of the national team.

The wicket looked another good one, resembling the previous two tracks we’d seen, and when our skipper Josh Woodward won the toss he had no hesitation in opting to bat first and set a total that our bowlers could try to defend. 

With the first overs of our previous two innings being disastrous affairs the boys were quick to applaud our openers Simon Hulse and Henry Axon for safely negotiating the first 6 deliveries. A bit of application was the order from coach Castle and our team goal was to bat our full allocation of 35 overs, so the openers patiently began to build their innings whilst looking to put away any loose deliveries. These were largely few and far between so with the score 0/57 off 16 it was time to push on and see if the scoring rate could be lifted. Henry Axon had a few pieces of fortune – possibly an omen from his grandfather Brian, who joined the touring squad for the day whilst on holiday on the island – being dropped on at least 3 occasions. Simon Hulse eventually lost his wicket with the introduction of spin for a well compiled 35, which started something of collapse with the next 3 wickets falling for 19 runs in the space of 4.2 overs. With our big hitters Woodward, Marsh and Taggart back in the pavilion, it was left to Henry and Cameron Emanuel-Burns to stop the flow of wickets but also push the score beyond 100 in the hope of setting a score in the region of 160-175, even though 200+ was probably a realistic par score on a good wicket with a fast enough outfield. Henry finally succumbed after 4 dropped catches and an lbw decision that was reversed by the opposition captain, even though with Henry attempting an audacious reverse-sweep, some may say the shot warranted the decision!! His 51 was the highest score of the tour so far and a great moment for Henry and his grandfather to witness.

The tail-end of our innings featured some cameos from Mills, Norris and Seal who pushed the score beyond 150 with Dan Seal and Willem Bygrave both finishing with their wickets intact. We finished on 9/155 off our 35 overs, a good effort to bat our full allocation, but probably 50 short of what we should have scored.

Another delicious lunch was served with the top 20 goals of the month capturing the attentions of both teams on the TV in the background!!

Another HGS supporter showed up after the interval with Mr Allon and his wife popping in to cheer the lads on whilst enjoying their Easter vacation on the island. The visit seemed to inspire the guys with some very good bowling and excellent support in the field deserving more reward. A dubious not-out decision was a bit of disappointment following a significant noise off the bowling of Emanuel-Burns, which could have just opened up an end, seemed to be the catalyst for some big blows to follow. Unfortunately, despite some tidy bowling and good support in the field, the score had raced away to 0/100 off 14 and the game was quickly slipping away from us. The introduction of Jesse Mills bowling some seam-up bagged us 3 wickets in his 3 over spell, with a sharp juggled return catch and a very good catch by Dan Marsh over his shoulder from a lofted off drive. At 3/129 off 17 overs the boys were clinging on to the hope that the remaining batters might just be bunnies to knock over, however this was certainly not the case with their number 5 continuing to play some delightful strokes off all of our bowlers – who to be fair to them didn’t do a lot wrong throughout their innings. The end result was another loss, this time to the tune of 7 wickets, but it was clear we had come up against a very good side, with the words from Keemar a few hours earlier certainly ringing true.

After the game most of the group were content to cool off by the pool, however Jesse Mills and Elliot Tyler took the opportunity to walk down to the local ground and join in with the club practice session that was in full swing. The lads were over the moon with the chance to bowl to some players who had played some league cricket in England and were even asked to come back tomorrow, indicating how well they must have done!!

WALLY OF THE DAY: The saying “from chocolates to build sweets” is indicative of the tour that Dan Marsh is currently having, with our Folkestone cricketer currently sporting the less than flattering statistic of having taken more wickets than balls he’s faced so far this trip!!!