Hat Trick! (40 page)

Moments before the start of the game, the Scorpions club unveiled a superb state-of-the-art portable electronic scoreboard, with remote control—so that it could sit in a location halfway around the ground and be visible to all. It was carefully set up on a trestle table to record the progress of the game against Motherwell, the visiting team. Sadly though, the Scorpions’ opening batsman struck the very first ball of the
game for six. The ball smashed into the face of the scoreboard, sending sparks, glass and plastic flying. The force of the shot knocked the scoreboard off the table. The scoreboard never got to record any scores and still sits somewhere in the Scorpions’ clubrooms.

A strange catch occurred at the Riverwall ground. It involved three different fielders touching the ball before the catch was finally claimed. The batter clipped the ball to short mid-wicket, where it struck the fielder on the shoulder. It ballooned into the air. The wicket keeper came around from behind the stumps and made a desperate lunge at the ball. He managed to parry the ball straight into the hands of the bowler, who had come across from the bowling crease. Rod Cross was out, caught and bowled Simon Chou, for 11.

Benny Roberts (Scorpions) managed to take five catches during the TCC innings. The curious thing about this achievement was that each catch was taken in a different position and none of the catches was taken as a wicket keeper. He took a catch at first slip, one at gully, one at mid-off, one at short mid-on and the final catch was caught and bowled. Benny was the captain and organised the fielding positions!

At the start of the final over, and with only one wicket to take, the Scorpions’ captain made a ring of fielders around Katie Farrow, the last batter in. Benchley Park needed an unlikely 15 runs to achieve victory. Katie swiped the first ball into the deep for two runs, then the next into the same area for four. The fielders spread out and the pair scampered two singles over the next two deliveries. Katie missed the fifth delivery, a no ball, but managed two more runs from the next. Three runs would secure a tie, and four would win the game for Benchley Park. Katie struck the ball over mid-on’s head. They ran the first quickly. The ball was hurled in, and had it hit the stumps the batter would surely have been run out
taking a second. But the ball missed everything and raced out into the covers. The batters turned and completed a third run, tying the game.

Kane Tzaris, batting for Motherwell, struck a full toss firmly back down the wicket. It hit his partner at the non-striker’s end on the leg and dropped into his pad. The bowler rushed over and plucked the ball from the runner’s pad as he tried to shake it out. The ball, not having touched the ground, was held up by the bowler as he screamed loudly in appeal. Amidst the confusion, with the umpires looking to each other for a ruling, Kane wandered out of his crease. The bowler hurled the ball to the wicket keeper, who ‘broke’ the stumps. There was another loud series of appeals from the fielders. Kane was finally given out: caught.

(A closer inspection of the scores after the game indicated that the Scorpions had been given an extra leg bye. Motherwell had recorded a spectacular win.)

Jane Middlemiss (Benchley Park) recorded the highest score by a female player in the one-day competition: 59. Jane retired on 32, then came back to add another 27 runs (including six fours) before she was caught at deep mid-wicket on the third-last delivery of the innings.

• You will need: dice, paper and pencils, and a friend!
  
• Each player creates their own team of 11 cricketers, maybe including yourself! You can choose a team from a particular country or an era.
  
• Each cricketer is given a number of chances before they are given out. The batters in the team have more chances—for example, a great batsman like Steve Waugh might get five chances but a specialist bowler like Glenn McGrath might only get one. Both players must agree on how many chances each cricketer gets, and the total number of chances for each team must be the same. Write the number of chances each cricketer has next to his/her name, and set your batting order.
  
• Roll the dice to work out the order of play. Whoever rolls the highest number gets to choose whether their team will bat or bowl first.
  
• Open the innings and roll the dice for the first batter. The number on the dice roll is the number of runs scored, and rolling a one or three also means the batters ‘change ends’ so that the other batter is on strike.
  
• If a five is rolled, it is a chance or a wicket. There are no runs scored. If the first roll for a batter is a five, then he/she is out for nothing, regardless of the number of chances available.
  
• The number 11 player only gets one chance and a maximum three rolls of the dice.
  
• After a batter is out, roll the dice to see how he/she was dismissed:
  

  

• You may like to allocate a number (1–6) to your bowlers to see who takes the wickets. Roll the dice again to work out who dismissed the batter.
  
• At the end of the innings roll the dice twice each to work out the number of wides and no-balls, and once for byes and leg byes.
  

This game is ideally played with six pairs, and teams should be as even as possible (try to match a batter with a bowler). Each pair may be given a number or they may like to name themselves after a country or famous partnership, for example, ‘The Waugh twins’.

Double-wicket cricket follows the normal rules of cricket, yet there are some differences:

• Each batting pair faces six overs. These overs should be bowled by six different players.
  
• If a batter gets out, he or she doesn’t retire, however the batting pair does switch ends.
  
• Each bowler bowls two overs.
  
• Fielders should rotate positions so that everyone has an opportunity to field in different parts of the ground.
  

POINTS

Wicket (bowler): 10 points

Wicket (batter): -15 points

Run-out (fielder): 5 points

Catch (fielder): 5 points

Run (batter): 1 point per run

Mr Pasquali also uses bonus points to reward good bowling and fielding. Your coach might like to do the same!

Mr Pasquali modifies these rules each year, depending on the number of cricketers available to play, and your club or team may choose to do so as well. Also, you might use a different point system—in the Double-wicket World Championship batters only lose 10 points if they are dismissed. Another feature of these championships is that a permanent team of fielders is used for all the games. This means that pairs can play each other directly: for example, Pair A bowls to Pair B, then Pair B bowls to Pair A.

You might like to visit the website of the Double-wicket World Championship to see the official rules: www.doublewicketworldchampionship.com

For more information on double-wicket competitions and to nominate your all-time favourite partner for a double-wicket competition, visit www.michaelpanckridge.com.au and follow the Toby Jones links to the double-wicket cricket page.

First place: Ally and Toby Second place: Jimbo and Jay Third place: Rahul and Gavin

MICHAEL PANCKRIDGE

WITH BRETT LEE

It isn’t Toby Jones’ passion for cricket that makes him unusual—it’s his ability to travel through time, back to the great matches of the past.

Just when Toby thinks his time-travel adventures are over, he has to make another dangerous journey. He must travel to The Oval—the famous English cricket ground—to save his friend Ally, who has been ill since she broke the laws of time travel on her last trip with him.

Toby will have to face the embittered Cricket Lord, Hugo Malchev, and the ruthless Phillip Smale, who has his own agenda as far as time travel is concerned, and doesn’t want anyone getting in the way.

And if that isn’t enough, Toby is training at the cricket camp at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, hoping to be selected for Australia against England in the junior Ashes. If he doesn’t get stuck in the past during his travels. Or worse…

MICHAEL PANCKRIDGE

WITH BRETT LEE

Toby Jones is not your average cricket fan. As well as being an ace player, he has the amazing ability to travel through time, back to the great matches of the past.

Toby is playing for Australia in a junior Ashes match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. It’s the most important game of his life so far. But things take a dramatic turn when one of a band of sinister soul-snatchers—known as Grubbers—makes a ghostly appearance in the outfield and takes over the body of one of the England players. To make matters worse, Toby discovers that his friend Georgie has gone missing.

Toby must return to the Timeless Cricket Match and confront the powerful and evil Father Time. Only by doing so can he save all the former and future Test cricketers doomed to be trapped in the past forever…and the game of cricket itself.

A thrilling conclusion to the bestselling Toby Jones series.

Thanks to Robert McVicker Burmeister for his involvement with the cover. To Neil Maxwell and Dominic Thornley at Insite/ITM for their cooperation. To John Wisden & Co. Ltd for their kind assistance. To Jason Doherty, Peter Young and all at Cricket Australia for their support and suggestions. To David Studham at the MCC Library for his outstanding research and interest in the project. To Dean Jones and Ray Bright for their time, good memory and willingness to be ‘interviewed’ in the book. To the patient, efficient and talented team of editors from HarperCollins. To colleague Mark Torpey for his wonderful enthusiasm and generosity. To Bill and John Panckridge for their encouragement, support, ideas and editing skills. And lastly, to my patient and understanding family: Jo, Eliza and Bronte.