Strollers escape to Vis-tory
posted: May 13, 2014

On a sunny Friday evening in late April, a motley crew of cricketers disembarked their ferry to the pier side at the unlikely sporting mecca of Vis — a picturesque little island in the Adriatic, a couple of hours offshore from the Dalmatian coast of Croatia.

It had been over two and a half years since the Strollers last ventured out on tour overseas and, having already bemused the locals with an impromptu game on deck which saw the newly re-christened ‘Mad Dog’ George Brown set upon by a mangy mongrel as he went to retrieve the ball, we asked ourselves what new adventures awaited us in this most remote outpost of cricket’s reach. Apparently Lord Nelson’s shipmates had been the first to play cricket when they landed here, so we had some legendary footsteps to fill.

Having supped exquisitely the night before at seemingly the only open restaurant in town, and concluded our drinking session that had begun some 12 hours earlier in the harbour at Split, the overcast and wet conditions that we woke to on Saturday morning echoed our general condition. And, when we were met at midday in the local bar by the Vis CC president and his dog (more later — Ed) and plied with more pre-match booze, we felt his apparent ‘softening-up’ tactics were as blatant as they were cunning.

After a short journey by minivan through the inland hills to the only flat space on the island — formerly commissioned as an RAF airfield during the war and now repurposed as a cricket pitch amidst surrounding vineyards (property of El Presidente) — we finally got down to business. With a couple of latecomers still en route (Simon and Tim flying and ferrying in that morning — the latter having missed his flight the previous day due to an alarm clock malfunction) skipper Tom reached a gentleman’s agreement with the oppo to bat first with our missing players due to join us by mid-afternoon.

The pitch itself posed a number of contradictions and conundrums, the bouncy artificial track was offset by a thick and bumpy outfield and, this being the host’s first game of the year, it’s waist-high grass had been freshly sheared only a week beforehand so the going was, shall we say, heavy.

As such, to quote a former Strollers skipper, “it’s going aerial!” was the immediate observation, and both Gav and George unfortunately holed out early on. Spencer arrived at the crease and wisely took a little more time to gauge the oddities of the pitch, picking his shots well and setting the scoreboard ticking over. Matt (tour organiser in chief) also looked in decent nick and worked the ball around well to reach a decent 29 — including a dodgy non-given leg bye that was ‘run’ for 5 (including overthrows) — until he misjudged one to Rob who sneaked one through his defences.

This brought Ron to the crease who, in typical fashion, was in no mood to hang about and looked to hit out at every opportunity. However he uncharacteristically seemed to struggle with his timing and offered up a couple of chances to the waiting field until he was eventually snaffled in the deep for 20.

But Spencer battled on and was joined by Tim, his regular cohort in the middle who, despite his early start, looked in fine form attacking at every opportunity and at one stage landed a spectacular long six on top of the makeshift marquee pavilion. The 150 was reached without further incident and Spencer notched up a well earned half century. However, having added seven more he was finally caught and the Strollers hopes of reaching 200 before the close took a dent. Dave, next in, scampered as quickly as a kitten can as he and Tim looked to push on but when he was run out on the penultimate ball it was clear we would have to settle for a score of 184 …which felt a little sub-par.

After a lovely rustic late lunch, including some locally baked fish pies and delicious cheese pastries washed down with complimentary beers, we ambled into the field wondering if we could defend our total. However it immediately became apparent that Vis are a stronger bowling side than they are batters and, taking the new ball, a rampant Tom knocked over a trio of quick wickets for not very many.

However this brought Vis captain Craig to the wicket — the only English expat in an otherwise fully Croatian side and beyond doubt their finest batsman. With opener Istok ably holding up an end this allowed Craig to show his class and, with a flurry of fine boundaries, set the touch paper alight and the Vis innings kicked into gear.

But this did not deter the Strollers who stuck to their task with aplomb and, as he reached the end of his spell, Simon — who had extracted impressive bounce from the pitch and beaten the bat on numerous occasions — finally reaped some reward as he ploughed one through Istok’s gate.

Rob looked a promising bat but did not last long as he picked out Spencer at midwicket, who was not in the mood to drop anything. However Gere, next in, fared better and for a while looked to put on a partnership with Craig that could turn the match in the hosts' favour. But, with Vis having reached the hundred mark, the game changed decisively when Spencer, now bowling with his treacherous out-swing benefitting from the overcast conditions, enticed Craig to edge one to Couldrey who expertly took the vital catch.

From here on it was one-way traffic and whilst Gere continued to attack he rapidly lost partners — the last three Vis batsmen failing to trouble the scorers at all. With Vis skittled for 124 the Strollers secured a handsome 60 run victory and, for skipper Tom, a first and rare tour win was in the bag.

As we returned to our hotel before the evening’s festivities, the question on everyone’s lips now was could we go on and clinch a winning tour whitewash for only the second time in the club’s history?

The following day would tell all…

Gavin Richardson
13.05.14

scorecard - match one
match report - match two
scorecard - match two