Sunday’s Giants – Ketan Amin, Nish Patel, Thomas Elks (wkt), Brian Furness,
Simon Hubbard, Jacob Kalnins, Aayush Patel(c), Andy Stevens, Tom Stevens and on
debut: James Ellis and James Walker.

On a day of sunshine, the Giants made the trip up to leafy Dorking to take on new
opposition – Stunners CC. It was a Giants side representing the best of all things
Giants – experienced pros (Furness, Hubbard and K Amin), new emerging talent (N
Amin and Elks) and two debutants (Ellis and Walker). Both new signings were a real
coup for the Giants,

Ellis vindicating T Weston’s new recruitment strategy of handing out free beers on
local South London bus routes. The dream of a TFL, Infernos, Flemish Giants
partnership certainly is getting closer and closer.
After all individuals had arrived, introduced themselves (including T Stevens noting
Ellis’ height (‘’you’re tall’’) which consequently led to Ellis taking the new ball) the
Giants were ready for action.

Starting tightly, self-proclaimed little and large (T Stevens and Ellis respectively) took
the new ball and bowled tightly, restricting the Stunners openers (or should I say
stunning given our desire to keep the fixture next year? Sorry last one I promise) well
at the start of the innings and forcing them into aerial shots. Early on T Stevens got
the opener, A Stevens taking the catch (more on this to come), while Ellis bowled the
other opening bat with a beauty.

With the tight bowling lines, the Stunners 3, 4 and 5 started going along the aerial
route – this consequently led to the Giants having the chance to demonstrate the
variety with which they like to field. The number 3 holed out to a sensational running
catch from S Hubbard off the bowling of A Stevens; the number 5 created a moment
which will go down in Amin folklore, K Amin taking a good catch off N Amin’s bowling
(a brilliant display of seam bowling by the youngster should be noted here); and then
the number 4 catching chance occurred.

Now, having asked to field in the deep with his borrowed ‘Oval Invincibles’ cap
(decent cap that Elksy), A Stevens saw his mythical Hundred contract stay a myth as
he dropped a clanger off T Stevens. Throw in a number of camera clicks from T
Weston and his annoyingly long lens, this was a rather regrettable moment for the
author.

The Giants chipped away however, maintaining their spirit in the field through the
inspirational captaincy of Patel. With the ball in the middle overs, Furness bowled a
beautiful array of good balls before deciding half trackers and full tosses were the
way to go, duly rewarded with two wickets. Walker came into the attack alongside N
Amin and controlled the game, bowling some very impressive seam. Kalnins kept the
energy high in the field, sliding to cover off loose balls. Hubbard similarly patrolled
the boundaries with Amin with aplomb. Elks was as tidy as ever behind the stumps.
Patel ruled his troops well, keeping individuals engaged.

Whilst there were a few leaky moments when bowling and fielding (a Kalnins over in
particular demonstrating why Kalnins has been a great signing for the Giants as a
batsman, keeper and all-round great bloke rather than necessarily as a middle-over,
seam-bowling enforcer), overall, the Giants stuck to their task very well. A couple of
good innings by the Stunners, including a good 52 by their number 8 and they got
themselves to 213.

Tea occurred, with attention turning to the football. T Stevens in particular was
delighted with Matty Cash’s opener, to the despair of Walker who was seeing Real
Madrid (a) occur all over again. As a sidenote, to Walker and all you Citizens reading
this, congratulations on winning the league but do please remember that the best
league in the World and the one you should all aim to be in is the Championship.
Pure facts.

Back to the cricket, Elks and K Amin opened and went about their job well, playing
the openers sensibly and quietening the Stunners’ fielders. Elks ensured that
everyone knew who was ‘the boss’, charging their opening bowler several times
when playing a forward defence. This enthusiasm ended up being the opening pairs
downfall however, Elks beckoning Amin through for a tight single. Seeing an
opportunity to tell Elks a cricketing parable, Amin sent Elks back who was run out.
Hubbard joined Amin, again seeing the bowling off well before being beaten by a
good ball and falling LBW. Amin then succumbed to the Stunners first change
bowler, leaving Kalnins and A Stevens at the crease. Building on the solid
foundation, they started upping the rate until Kalnins unfortunately picked out their
deep square leg fielder. Captain Patel then came to the crease.
Walking on from a tangential part of the ground and proclaiming to A Stevens that
“..there will be no quick singles”, the pair started running plenty of 2s and 3s to test
out Patel’s recovering knee. Such a test is often advised at all medical centres and
whilst demonstrating that Patel may need to keep his brace on, the medical test
continued to up the Giants rate.

After then bulldozing a number of balls out of his tree trunk of a bat, Patel was
bowled, bringing Walker to the crease. Again, Walker and A Stevens continued to up
the rate, running hard, swinging hard (including a glorious six from Walker) and
keeping the Giants in range of success. After getting the equation down to 17 off 2, A
Stevens ran out of luck having been dropped before, skying a ball to third man.
Furness, a.k.a. The Finisher a.k.a. James Faulkner, walked to the crease and joined
Walker before Walker was caught bringing T Stevens to the crease.

With a tough ask against the tight Stunners bowling and using every trick in the book
regarding running byes to the keeper, the Giants just came short in a thriller of a
game, losing by two runs.

Whilst a very close defeat on the scorecard, the game represented a broader
resounding victory for the Giants. A strong showing from everyone involved, new
debuts taking the Giants by storm and a good game of cricket played in the right
spirit, this was the Giants, the ever-present Giants, in their most Gigantic of Giant
forms. This was, is and will always be the Giants. Always.

Andy Stevens - May 2022

Stunners win by 2 runs (on the last ball of the 40th over).
‘Umpires Call’ for Player of the Match – Andy Stevens, for his 86 (twelve 4s and
one 6) and 2-20 with the ball.
Giants’ Moment of the Match – Boosh getting the sightscreens moved for the first
time, about 70 overs into the game!