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Fitmen's T20 Season Opener: Sodor Island Showdown

The Fitmen belatedly kicked off their T20 season on Sodor Island. With Sammy Moor still missing in action, stand-in captain Jonesy scrambled to assemble a team. A massive thank you goes to Timmsy, who brought along three new "FitKids" (not as inappropriate as it sounds) to complete the numbers. Also in typical Fit-farce due to a text message punctuation error between Jonesy and Tony T, we had a dozen Fitmen eventually turned up. - Thanks and sorry Tony xx

The toss was irrelevant; the Doctors elected to bowl, and the Fitmen chose to bat.

The Fitmen Innings - Engines & 1st Class at the Front, Carriages and Cattle at the back.

Opening the batting were Ade and Sailor. Sailor’s last sporting outing was, I kid you not, winning the actual World Cup, so a cobbled-together T20 against a bunch of middle aged Medical Consultants on some scrubland in Handsworth was a bit of a step down.
The combination of a hard new pink ball, a short boundary, and a right-hand/left-hand opening partnership proved highly effective, ultimately resulting in a 100-run stand. Ade, who had pre-warned against quick singles, but this turned out to be BS, testing his ankles throughout.

It looking like the combo of pounding the pavement for the Tree Huggers and no alcohol abstinence is leading to an renADEssance this summer. His cutting and inside-out offside play was fluent from the start.

Sailor began a bit scratchy but soon found his timing blasting a strong 42 (33). Ultimately being bowled trying to cross-bat a straight one.

Ade retired on 53 (36) —a decision that would prove brilliant later on. fell trying to cross-bat a straight one.

At 14 overs, with 140+ on the board and 9 wickets in hand, a score of 200 looked a formality.

FitKid Janja continued the momentum with fearless technique: high elbow drives and perfect sweeping—he looked the part. 30 runs at a 200 strike rate! Jonesy arrived at number 4 and mowed his first three balls to the leg-side boundary.

Then came the 15th over, a classic Fitmen 'calispos collapso.' Shame Warm, WMD's Australian ((alleged)) Leg Spinner came into the attack:
15.1: Six - Janja
15.2: Six - Janja
15.3: No. 3 Wicket - Janja Caught at Long Off
15.4: Wicket - Hashim No. 5 LBW, front pad in front of middle.
Hat Trick Ball: Fingers played and missed. Dot
15.5: Wicket - Finger played onto his own wicket.
15.6: Wide. A proper wide at that!
An over for the ages!

The Fitmen scrambled through the last 4 overs to reach 192, losing wickets every over while hitting the odd boundary. 192 felt like a good score, especially with the light fading.

The Doctors doing their Rounds

The bowling opened with pace. Ramez and debutant Akshat bowled with serious intent against a strong opening partnership from the Doctors. Six overs of good bowling and strong batting resulted in high standards but sadly went wicketless, with Jonesy dropping a skyer.

First change was Utility Bowler Timmsy, who bowled one over and changed ends. Jonesy brought himself on and took the first wicket of the innings with his first ball, but unfortunately, it was downhill for the skip from there.

Rob Nutt found the correct length and bowled four quality medium pace overs with tidy figures of 2-26. Vintage Brother Nutt!

The other Nutter opened his spell with a quadruple bouncer but then spun a web, keeping the batsmen guessing.

It was a difficult task finding the right lines with a short boundary, and the Doctors occasionally found the sixes needed to keep up with the required run rate.

The other wicket was a run out, following a fine piece of wicket-keeping from Fingers who produced a sharp throw to the bowler's end—still with his gloves on—to run out their dangerous number 4 batsman.

Ade's earlier decision to retire on 50 proved to be genius, as the Fitmen somewhat passive-aggressively clapped off the Doc's opening bat once he reached 50 and reluctantly also retired.

Ramez and Akshat were brought back into the attack to finish their four overs in the 16th and 17th. The Doctors needed about 30 runs with two overs to go. Utility bowler Timmsy took some stick in the 19th over. Jonesy was left to bowl the 20th, with the Doctors needing 14. Pressure! Pressure is for tyres. Unfortunately, this tyre was a semi-flat and had cramp, and with that just about got home. Two wides and a six left the ever competitive Dr Deb needing 3 off the last ball. He mowed a leg-side pull to the boundary and ran back for 2.

Result: Game Draw

Cricket was the winner. WMD are always a good set of lads.

Is Ade name already penciled on to the Sammy Moore Trophy - or is it too early to say?

The Fitmen remain Undefeated in April!