Match report 2018
Match Report Catus versus Eymet 22nd April
For the eagle eyed, there is no misprint above as Eymet suffered late withdrawls, arriving at Catus with only 8 players. Catus therefore donated Messrs. Sutton, Kavanagh and the legendary JP, visiting from Paris. This, as events panned out, turned out to be perhaps over-generous.
Ten days ago new President Stirling and old President Kavanagh went to cut the ground only to find most of it was under 2 inches of water. Today, in glorious sunshine, the ground looked a picture with the greenery finally emerging on the surrounding trees, and all set fair for the first game of the season.
Catus' multinational Club were able to add a medium paced Afghan to their squad of numerous Bangladeshis, 5 English, one Aussie, one Sri Lankan and a fat bloke with a Lincolnshire accent claiming to be Irish.
The game against our nearest chums, Eymet, was played in great spirit and, fortunately for Catus, was only a friendly.
Eymet batted first and as result of tight bowling from the Catus attack, and a very slow outfield, Eymet were restricted to 112, with the flamboyant Owais top scoring on 38. Messrs Sutton and Kavanagh weighed in next with a modest, but important, 10 runs apiece. For Catus Stevie Taylor (whose delightful Jack Russell helped me score), Rasel and Afghani Akram, on debut, each took 2 wickets.
Catus' batting was disappointing, to put it mildly, with only Rahim 30, and Rassel 14, reaching double figures. Star bowler for Eymet, the guesting JP taking 3 wickets as Catus stuttered to 84 all out.
What a crazy world we live in: nation against nation, even nations against their own people resulting in death, destruction and homelessness. Meanwhile, in a beautiful valley in South-west France nations joyously coming together to play cricket. When will the madness stop?
Martin Kavanagh