TV host Drew Carey’s regular catch phrase ‘The points don’t matter’, in the hilarious show, ‘Who’s line is it anyway?’ had a lot in common with Saturday’s cricket spectacle played at Addison Park.
For a start, it was the annual Bully Drew Memorial Cricket Match where camaraderie and sportsmanship made the team that won irrelevant.
Added to that was old bones, failing eyesight and rusted arms that made somewhat of a mockery of the talented players of yesteryear – but it did give the boisterous spectators plenty of laughs.
Bruce Fordyce could have run half the Comrades Marathon in the time it took for quick singles, while fielders’ chases to the boundary had the paramedics on alert.
Not that there weren’t some who rolled back the years to show they had not lost all their flair with the willow or leather orb.
Peter ‘Ever’ Young (28 retired) and Julius Truter (25 retired) showed glimpses of the class that made them provincial heroes back in the day as they got Paul Gouge’s XL off to a solid start.
Pete Klusener, who hung around for ages, has lost nothing of his hand-eye co-ordination and helped the side to 74/4 in the 25 allotted overs.
There were no real stars with the ball and fortunately wides, no balls and LBW’s were not included in the rule books of umpires Roger Lavoipierre and Gerry Schroeder.
However, both Ivan Hartley and Bryan ‘Fuzzy’ van Aswegen took excellent skied catches, the latter moving speedily at least two metres to his right to clutch the ball at the end of its 30-second flight.
Rapid reply
Hartley’s henchmen made easy work of chasing down the target, continuing to a score of 102/2 as Russell Addison (26 retired), Guy Richardson (22) and young Sheldon Getkate (24 retired) did the business.
Kevin Goosen also retired undefeated on 15…due to a pulled calf muscle, while Errol Boulle looked as good with the piece of plank as he had done with the ball.
Russell was named Best Batsman while Ian ‘Jimmy’ Dickens, aka ‘Tricky Dicky’ was voted Best Bowler.
Unsurprisingly, no Best Fielder award was made.
A few cold drinks in the change room, where war stories were shared, followed by a super briyani lunch ended a superb day that epitomised the spirit of the game and the man whose memory was being honoured.
It was also an opportune time to say farewell to Brian Tedder, a fine servant of the game, as he leaves for Durban following many years in Zululand as player, umpire and administrator.
