JCL – Sharks Vs Wombats, 2/8/2009… almost
The much-anticipated clash of the Chiba Sharks Cricket Club and the Tokyo Wombat Cricket Club was set to go on August 2 at Fuji. The Sharks have experienced some harrowing times at the paws of the annually strong Wombat team. But as is the way, each team has suffered from departures of key players, the gap perhaps being the most gaping for the Sharks with the return to Australia of Dhugal Benningfield.
However, life must go on in the post-D.B. Era, and it was with some confidence that the Sharks entered this game. Both sides still retained their cores of gnarly, feisty, steel-glint-in-the-eye veterans, but equally so, new additions on both sides gave the feeling that a new set of gloves just might be ‘off’ – and no physiotherapists in sight.
Sadly, what was in sight was bloody rain, and lots of it. We had assembled inarguably the best squad of the post-D.B. Era, including welcoming back Pat from his national side heroics and dislocated shoulder. We had the gear, we even had the tickets, both for the train and on ourselves, but the word from Fuji was that dreaded four-letter word – rain. The unpredictable, unforgiving ‘Umpire of Life’, Mother Nature (no, not Rudi Keortzen), had raised her finger to our game and that, as the classics say, was bloody-well that.
Meanwhile Tokyo enjoyed fairly clear skies at 7:30 a.m. so what was there to do but go in search of a cricket ground. In Tokyo that is like looking for ‘Big Foot’, or a quiet pachinko parlour, or a decent pizza. To prove all the above exist we found Koiwa, grateful for some ‘centre-wicket’ (actually ‘off-to-the-right-and-hard-up-against-the gravel-wicket practice). Playing quietly so the authorities couldn’t hear us, we enjoyed clear vistas in either direction – just nobody there. Well, the odd garbage truck trundle by and two young women frisbee team members in matching purple T-shirts stopped and asked how we booked the ground (giggling came from somewhere near mid-on), but other than that it was the glorious sounds of leather on willow for the morning.
Everyone got a bat, a bowl, even Chris rolled the arm over. We also had a good and encouraging look at a new bloke, Rishafy – welcome to the Sharks Rishafy. The rain finally caught up, however, and we packed our little yellow PVC stumps away for another day, still rueing a lost chance to have it out with our fiery, furry, four-legged foe. They dodged a bullet this time, but we still have them in our sights.
