2007
2007 Season Review
23/09/20 13:21
We kicked off the season against Ormskirk Occasionals on a Sunday when the forecast was dreadful. However, there was time for David Tinkler to join Nick Orr in inflicting devastating carnage upon the Ormksirk bowling. Orr smote 10 fours and 4 Flintoffesque sixes in his 79. Both batsmen were using bats borrowed from Charles Prior, and it’s fair to say that neither bat had experienced anything like it before. Tinkler’s dismissal for 36 brought a partnership of 116 to an end, before the rain finally won.
The Liverpool Bar Twenty20 season began with a game against the Wyncote Ramblers on the top ground at Liverpool Cricket Club. Nick Ryan slogged four boundaries before being stumped. Cameos from Michael Armstrong and Ivan Woolfenden followed, with Will Rankin providing the late acceleration. All rounder Nick Ryan then took 3 wickets for 31, so that victory seemed assured. However, as usual, Ryan cost us the game, in that his selfishness in taking wickets brought the opposition’s star batsman to the crease, who duly won the game for his team in a flurry of boundaries.
In a new Sunday fixture against Old Parkonians, things started very well, with James Hawks hitting 28 before the team collapsed to 103 for 9. This brought our number 11, Anne Whyte, to the wicket, to join her brother, Will Whyte, who was spending his summer holidays employed as Simon Gorton’s PA. Their last wicket partnership brought the Bar near to the bottom end of the range of respectability, with an all out score of 119. Opening the bowling, Will Whyte then accounted for three of the five wickets to fall before Old Parkonians reached their target.
This year we entered the Trustram Cup for the first time. This is a 20 over knock-out cricket competition for “professional firms” in Merseyside. However, our first game was against favourites Hill Dickinson. Jonathan Clarke got us off to a flying start, before Charles Prior (31 not out), duly rallied the troops, in partnership with Mark Chester, and then David Tinkler (22 not out). We felt that 105 would give our bowlers something to defend. However, the breakthrough did not come and we were duly consigned to a 10 wicket defeat in the ninth over. The anoraks amongst us believe that this defeat may only have equaled our biggest margin of defeat (in terms of wickets), but there can be little doubt that this was our quickest thrashing.
The incorporation of the Chester Bar into the Northern Circuit brings with it a healthy cross-pollination of ideas, and who can deny that the Chester Bar concept of the weekend pupillage might serve us well if we are drawn against Hill Dickinson in next year’s cup competition. Despite being given a flowing start by their various weekend pupils, the Chester Bar score was pegged back by some fine Liverpool Bar bowling and fielding. Andrew Edis claimed the top order batsman in a marathon 12 over spell of 3 wickets for 47 runs, whilst Nick Orr (or “Awe” as he appeared in the Chester Bar scorebook) mopped up the late resistance with three wickets for 32 runs. And so to the Liverpool Bar innings. Charming cameos from Simon Gorton, Will Rankin and Nick “Six and out” Orr, still left us perilously perched at 77 for 6 needing another 75 for victory. This was the cue for David Tinkler to take control, smashing the Liverpool Bar to victory with an exquisite 56 not out before the match was won in the grand manner so as to secure a victory by four wickets.
And so to the traditional highlight of the Liverpool Bar cricket season, as 2007 saw the revival of our Inn at Whitewell weekend. Where previously we had played against the Richard Bowman XI, our opponents were now the Charles Bowman XI, as Charles has now taken over as landlord of the Inn from his late father. We got to 50 for 1, mainly thanks to David Tinkler (26), before the wheels came off in the usual fashion. Only the David Steel-like efforts of Mark Stuart, who was last out for 20, enabled the score to be dragged up to 111. Kenward, as captain, foolishly opened the bowling, and his 5 overs disappeared for 51 runs. Charles Prior cunningly managed to prolong the game by getting the other opening batsman stuck at his end. There was barely time for the bowling to be changed to allow Gosling and Kennedy to usher our opponents to victory in 15 overs. For posterity it should be recorded that David Tinkler and Mark Chester sought to salvage some pride from the occasion by tombstoning into the River Hodder at 5.00 am in the morning from the rear terrace of the Inn at Whitewell.
It left the Chester Bar game as our only victory of the season, and four defeats spread amongst the various cancellations and rain ruined games. In such a truncated season there was little opportunity for anyone to better the claims of David Tinkler to the S. W. G. Edis trophy for the most improved player of the season and the Captain’s Cup for the player of the season (140 runs at an average of 70 plus some outstanding catches). With an absence of any real contenders, the Tonker Tankard (awarded for the most conspicuous display demonstrating the triumph of fortitude over ineptitude) must surely go to Michael Armstrong for his attempts at explaining the LBW decision given against Tom Gosling at Stonyhurst, and the coffee pouring attempts the following day at breakfast at the Inn at Whitewell by way of burning the offending hand which had given the decision in question, allied with his displays of a pain threshold which Thomas Cranmer would have been proud to call his own.
The Liverpool Bar Twenty20 season began with a game against the Wyncote Ramblers on the top ground at Liverpool Cricket Club. Nick Ryan slogged four boundaries before being stumped. Cameos from Michael Armstrong and Ivan Woolfenden followed, with Will Rankin providing the late acceleration. All rounder Nick Ryan then took 3 wickets for 31, so that victory seemed assured. However, as usual, Ryan cost us the game, in that his selfishness in taking wickets brought the opposition’s star batsman to the crease, who duly won the game for his team in a flurry of boundaries.
In a new Sunday fixture against Old Parkonians, things started very well, with James Hawks hitting 28 before the team collapsed to 103 for 9. This brought our number 11, Anne Whyte, to the wicket, to join her brother, Will Whyte, who was spending his summer holidays employed as Simon Gorton’s PA. Their last wicket partnership brought the Bar near to the bottom end of the range of respectability, with an all out score of 119. Opening the bowling, Will Whyte then accounted for three of the five wickets to fall before Old Parkonians reached their target.
This year we entered the Trustram Cup for the first time. This is a 20 over knock-out cricket competition for “professional firms” in Merseyside. However, our first game was against favourites Hill Dickinson. Jonathan Clarke got us off to a flying start, before Charles Prior (31 not out), duly rallied the troops, in partnership with Mark Chester, and then David Tinkler (22 not out). We felt that 105 would give our bowlers something to defend. However, the breakthrough did not come and we were duly consigned to a 10 wicket defeat in the ninth over. The anoraks amongst us believe that this defeat may only have equaled our biggest margin of defeat (in terms of wickets), but there can be little doubt that this was our quickest thrashing.
The incorporation of the Chester Bar into the Northern Circuit brings with it a healthy cross-pollination of ideas, and who can deny that the Chester Bar concept of the weekend pupillage might serve us well if we are drawn against Hill Dickinson in next year’s cup competition. Despite being given a flowing start by their various weekend pupils, the Chester Bar score was pegged back by some fine Liverpool Bar bowling and fielding. Andrew Edis claimed the top order batsman in a marathon 12 over spell of 3 wickets for 47 runs, whilst Nick Orr (or “Awe” as he appeared in the Chester Bar scorebook) mopped up the late resistance with three wickets for 32 runs. And so to the Liverpool Bar innings. Charming cameos from Simon Gorton, Will Rankin and Nick “Six and out” Orr, still left us perilously perched at 77 for 6 needing another 75 for victory. This was the cue for David Tinkler to take control, smashing the Liverpool Bar to victory with an exquisite 56 not out before the match was won in the grand manner so as to secure a victory by four wickets.
And so to the traditional highlight of the Liverpool Bar cricket season, as 2007 saw the revival of our Inn at Whitewell weekend. Where previously we had played against the Richard Bowman XI, our opponents were now the Charles Bowman XI, as Charles has now taken over as landlord of the Inn from his late father. We got to 50 for 1, mainly thanks to David Tinkler (26), before the wheels came off in the usual fashion. Only the David Steel-like efforts of Mark Stuart, who was last out for 20, enabled the score to be dragged up to 111. Kenward, as captain, foolishly opened the bowling, and his 5 overs disappeared for 51 runs. Charles Prior cunningly managed to prolong the game by getting the other opening batsman stuck at his end. There was barely time for the bowling to be changed to allow Gosling and Kennedy to usher our opponents to victory in 15 overs. For posterity it should be recorded that David Tinkler and Mark Chester sought to salvage some pride from the occasion by tombstoning into the River Hodder at 5.00 am in the morning from the rear terrace of the Inn at Whitewell.
It left the Chester Bar game as our only victory of the season, and four defeats spread amongst the various cancellations and rain ruined games. In such a truncated season there was little opportunity for anyone to better the claims of David Tinkler to the S. W. G. Edis trophy for the most improved player of the season and the Captain’s Cup for the player of the season (140 runs at an average of 70 plus some outstanding catches). With an absence of any real contenders, the Tonker Tankard (awarded for the most conspicuous display demonstrating the triumph of fortitude over ineptitude) must surely go to Michael Armstrong for his attempts at explaining the LBW decision given against Tom Gosling at Stonyhurst, and the coffee pouring attempts the following day at breakfast at the Inn at Whitewell by way of burning the offending hand which had given the decision in question, allied with his displays of a pain threshold which Thomas Cranmer would have been proud to call his own.