SCORECARD

The Fitmen and Birmingham University met for the second time in May on a warm summer evening at the Thunderdome for a game of T20.

Skipper Waz, for the evening, won the toss and elected to bat. The first ball of the evening was delayed slightly due to half the students being stuck in nutbush city traffic.

It takes two to open, so outwalked Si and Jonesy, both with the slight bounce of runs in the bank from Sunday. Si, unfortunately, played onto his wicket. In at 3 Skipper Waz but also picked up a duck after being sent back for a risky single. I don't wanna fight, but there was never a run there.

Timmys joined Jonesy and they shared the highest partnership of the innings, hitting the ball into the river deep and mountain high.

Jonesy made the most of some buffey bowling and plenty of freehit/no-balls to get to 49 with only one single and 14 boundaries. It included one off drive, accidentally almost hitting Mandy Martin who was enjoying some evening sunshine with the injured birthday boy Ade. "Do you really want to hurt me?" came the cry from the bench.

The student wicket-keeper enquired if the rules were retiring at 50. Jonesy (not thinking about his average -honest) agreed, and the next ball - whats glove got to do with it, snicked off straight to the keeper.

Timmys' played well off the pads but fell for 19, playing across a straight one.

It wasn't particularly mind the steaming windows with Kev (8 off 16) and Nokia (10 off 19), who both struggled to get going. New fitmen Harri and Billy gave it a biff at the end.

Fitmen finished on 136 - second top scorer extras! Not really Simply the Best, but defendable.

At the change around skipper pulled out all the stops with a birthday cake for Ade - lovely stuff.

Waz and Billy are about as strong as a fitmen bowling partnership gets these days. However, it took a few overs to find their lines and length - the aforementioned student keeper was a class act, private dancing down the wicket with some beautiful shots (thank god we agreed on retiring at 50 or the game could have been over sooner). But by the 5 and 6 over Waz and Billy got their goldeneyes in and bowled through their allotted 4 overs. Waz 3-26, including 2 in 2. Billy 1-28.

Next up Harri with his spinning darts and Jonesy with his military medium. Each had three overs and went wicketless, but they got some control with the Keeper back in the pavilion.

With five overs left, the student needed a run a ball. Fitmen needed another hero. Nokia provided that with just four off his first over. But these are clever students, and they work out the equations, force/mass/acceleration etc; their mother will be proud (lets call them Proud Mary), and they cantered home in the end with 31 coming off the next 14 balls to seal the game for the students.

Though their valiant efforts were undeniable, unfortunately, the Fitmen team fell short by a narrow margin, which was a disappointing outcome.

Fair play to all the students who not only played the game in absolutely the right spirit for the vibe and standard but they also to the man stayed behind for a beer. - Although, whilst queuing for the bar, one looked at the notification on his phone and said, "who is Tina Turner!" - ffs I'm old.