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Sunday
30th September
Inter Pub and Club Super 8's Competition
Half
Moon v Ring of Bells v Cheriton Fitzpaine Football Club v Cadeleigh
Arms
Our
first Grand Beer Match and Pub Challenge was played out under
leaden skies by four teams of eight players representing "The
Half Moon", "The Ring of Bells", "Football
Club" and the "Cadeleigh".
The first part of the competition was a round robin in which each
team played each other once in a seven over a side game, with
10 points for a win and bonus points for batting, bowling and
drinking beer! In fact this is the only competition in the world
where the supporters could theoretically outscore the players.
One bonus point being awarded for every four alcoholic drinks
consumed by the players or supporters of any one team.
At the end of the round robin event all the points awarded to
each team would be added up and the teams with the most points
would contest the final (sadly no drinking points were to be allowed
then as we had no beer left).
The Cadeleigh vs Ring of Bells was the first match, and having
been put in on a very damp and dewy wicket the Cadeleigh batsman
did well to make 84 for 3. The Ringers couldn't get near this
score due to some very tight and consistent bowling and were all
out for 54.
I suspect that at this stage the Ringers tactics changed, for
having conceeded their first game, they quickly kept the Bar busier
than had been expected as they started to notch up a legendary
number of drinking points.
The second game saw the Football Club (91 for 2) give the Half
Moon (63 all out) a drubbing, a feat they couldn't repeat in the
next game as the 61 for 5 they scored was easily surpassed by
the Ringers in 4.2 overs.
In the last match before tea the Cadeleigh started to look like
the team to beat as their strong bowling attack gave the Half
Moon just 49 hard earned runs to defend. Cadeleigh reached their
target with more than two overs to spare.
After tea the Half Moon staged a genuine upset as the half- cut
Ringers (still piling on the drinking bonus points) began to lose
their cricketing edge. Set a reasonable 64 to win, the Ringers
came a cropper and collapsed to the lowest score of the day by
making just 48.
The final round robin fixture required the Football Club to beat
the Cadeleigh by 16 clear points to make the final. This was just
theoretically possible, but became a dead rubber when the spirited
Football Club batting scored 72 for 2 and missed the final batting
bonus point. In the closest game all day, Cadeliegh wrapped up
the fixture by scoring a boundary on the very last ball to finish
on 74 for 5 and join The Ring of Bells in the final.
The final league table was as follows: -
| Team |
Regular
Points |
Drinking
Points |
Total
Points |
| Cadeleigh
Arms |
39 |
13 |
52 |
| Ring
of Bells |
17 |
21 |
38 |
| Football
Club |
18 |
6 |
24 |
| Half
Moon |
16 |
1 |
17 |
Commiserations
must go to the Football Club who outplayed the Ring of Bells overall
on the pitch and who would have made the final if cricketing points
alone counted. However this was a Beer Match and full honours
should go to the Ring of Bells and the Cadeleigh for their superb
drinking abilities.
Everything should be seen in context and given their prodigious
alcohol comsumption, the Ringers score of 61for 5 in the final
was an immense success. The fact that Cadeleigh could rack up
62 for the loss of no wickets with nearly two overs to spare to
win the final in drizzling rain and poor light, proves they must
breed 'em hardy up in the hills.
The batting shield was jointly given to the Coe brothers of Cadeleigh,
who both retired in the final. Charles Noon, also of Cadeliegh,
scooped up the bowling trophy for taking two wickets and orchestrating
a run out in the final over of The Ring of Bells innings. A feat
which the Chairman considered to be the turning point of the Challenge.
I hope we run this fixture every year for apart from being a very
useful fund- raiser (over £400 profit came from this one
day), it was a lot of fun! AG
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