War in Singapore 1: Out in the Mid Day Sun
- Gareth Llewellyn
- Sep 3, 2016
- 4 min read
Just like those Mad dogs and Englishmen - we began in midday sun, in 33 degree heat and 90 per cent humidity. Yes, ouch. Typically of course, the first match of our annual Winter tour to Singapore - The War in Singapore - began after a traditional evening's warm up that kept several team members from their beds beyond 3am. It would be inaccurate to describe us a "match fit".
As in Cairns, our team was selected not on merit but a more essential criteria - those able to get approvals from their wives and with a lazy grand or two lying around. Once again we were joined by our specialist tourers - Phil Dark and Leslie Graham. Specialist because they only come on tour. They haven't played another game since our tour of the top end this time last year.
It was a long drive out to the Singapore Turf Club - a very municipal ground bordered by wonderfully large, iconic cedar trees and populated by a regular turnover of women's sports teams that all too often offered a far better spectacle than the cricket we were playing.
Now while we are used to cricket in hot and steamy conditions, nothing prepared us for the oppressive heat and humidity of the orient. Our excursion to the top end was at least in what passes for winter. There is no such thing in Singapore. As one of our opponents "Moose" said of the Singapore weather, "there is only hot and wet...and just hot". That was shortly before he warned us that if the ball went into the rough, we should watch out for "snakes in the jungle". Pretty sure it's the first and last time a Mad Dog fielder will retrieve a ball with the words "watch out for Cobras" ringing in his ears.
Not surprisingly, and somewhat typically, we suffered an early collapse against our hosts - The Misfits, who proved a lot more useful than we were led to believe. Our "promising openers" TC and Ed Suttle went cheaply and quickly - very soon we were 11/2. With Sean out at 18 our iPad scoring device quickly lost faith in us and impertinently predicted our final total would be 67!
But when Graham Leslie finally got his eye in, things began to look up. A little. He grabbed a few boundaries as a very encouraging innings took shape to inject some optimism into what had far too quickly become a glum afternoon's encounter. He inspired not only human optimism too - the iPad app projection quickly lifted to a more respectable 98.
Continuing the tradition set by Messrs Dark, Leslie and Walker in Cairns, Anthony Sloan picked this Singapore tour to reboot his cricket career for the first time in more than twenty years. Like those legends before him, he grabbed the baton with both hands. Despite a stance that resembled more a hockey player about to take a free hit than a batman at the crease; when Anthony connected, it flew and he quickly took our prediction into triple figures. Things were looking up.
However, even Mr Leslie succumbed to make it 38/4, followed in quick succession by Brett Lunn and our illustrious founder Giles Bourne. Our fate seemed almost sealed at 39/6. But then Ed Watson - tour organiser and professional hell raiser - took to the crease...
Playing to the script, Watto quickly chalked up the retire-mark 30 and came off unbeaten: 78/7. Still bad. But Better.
Then the Dogs' tail began to wag a bit. Bryan Fenech and Brendan Parry put on a spectacular partnership of 41. We rounded out the innings just shy of 150. A good score...for a twenty/20. Sadly a little woeful for a 30 over match.
But there was an inevitable air now creeping across this fixture. Our bowling was relatively tight to begin with, and we hoped we could salvage some dignity. Bryan Fenech was very economical, as was Brendan Parry. Early wickets fell to Sean Garvey and TC - a clean bowl and a caught and bowled, respectively; and Sean also took a solid boundary catch. We broke for beers and pies on the 13th over and felt like we were competing.
Then the Misfits partnership that took over after the break began to square their shoulders and swing. I bowled the first over and conceded a miserable 20-odd right then. The target was chased down with that kind of relative ease as Dogs wilted in the crushing equitorial conditions. In the end the denouement was mercifully swift. They raced to the target with ten overs to spare, with the appearance of poachers putting wounded quarry of its misery. But as the two teams, primarily ex-pats in circumstance, began to bond and relate the ultimate result seemed academic. We exchanged branded hats and shirts as gifts; congratulated each other's successes - and derided our failures - in the evening heat as we waited for the bus. A plot was hatched for the Misfits to visit Sydney in March and a new club-twinning seemed to have evolve. This felt like the real outcome, which we will focus on more than our fifth straight tour defeat.
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