Practice Game @ Fuji: Tokyo Wombats vs Tokyo Wombats
Cricket the real winner!
For the first time in 2020 the new-look Tokyo Wombats gathered in Shibuya for the early morning van ride down to Fuji. And for the first time in memory not only did we have 2 vans, but we had 18 guys putting their hand up to play in a practice game! Unheard of. Also unheard of was almost, almost everyone arriving on time!
Thanks Zeesh!
Once we left, it was a swift ride down the Tomei, with Corona Virus having scared most people off the roads, and if that didn’t scare them, then it must have been Himan’s driving that cleared the traffic for us! Arriving at the field, to a beautiful early spring view of Mount Fuji, the Wombats went to work.
Literally, went to work! Dino and Ev, with help from Dhugal from the JCA went hammer and tongs….and also knife and rake, and shovel…at the Fuji 2 pitch, attempting to remove the old pitch and install a new one before lunch. That was very optimistic as it took us until about 3pm just to remove the old one! Hats off to whoever made the glue that they used back in 2004 when it was installed, it was a beauty.
While the 3 council workers went about their pitch work, the rest of the Wommies engaged in a fun, pairs battle on Fuji 1. Each pair getting 5 overs to show their skills with the bat and everyone having a few spells to roll the arm over and get rid of the rust. And what a lot of rust there was!
Pretty sure looking at the stats, more wides were bowled than runs scored. Among those to impress with the bat were Satyam, Zubair and Richie, while with the ball, the debutant Michael Bacon finished with tremendous figures of 2-17!…..off just the 1 over…..including 12 wides! We got there in the end!
It was an enjoyable hit out, and after some more hard work from the lads cleaning out the Fuji shed, cutting down the boundary weeds, and putting in the new astro turf wicket, it was well and truly beer o’clock. A very quick ride back through the empty Tomei, and then some well earned beers at Shibuya Hobgoblin was enjoyed by one and all.
Special thanks to Dino for organising the working beer, to Dhugal from JCA from lending a hand, and to our drivers Richie, Himan and Alex.
Batting Stats: Alex (0 times out / 13 runs), James (0/8), Zeeshan (2/12), Himan (2/5), Satyam (1/15), Freddie (1/17), Michael (4/10), Richie (0/21), Zubair (1/25), Malith (2/10), Ali (1/19), Corey (1/1), Santosh (3/6), Joe (1/12), Rasika (3/9)
Bowling Stats: Zubair (3 Overs – 0 wickets – 13 runs), Joe (6.0; 2-24), Rasika (4; 2-32), Freddie (4; 2-26), Michael (1; 2-17), James (3; 1-29), Himan (4; 3-24), Corey (2; 0-20), Zeeshan (3; 2-12), Frankie (2; 0-14), Evan (2; 3-3), Satyam (2; 1-7), Ali (2; 0-15), Malith (1; 1-5)
