The sun shone brightly off the formal whites of the Arrowsmith Cricket Club and the visiting Wicket Maidens from Victoria in Qualicum Beach Saturday.
The exhibition match featured ACC, the local team that splits its time between Quyalicum Beach and Shawnigan Lake, and the Victoria-based women’s team, which features a few members of the Canadian national squad.
Batting first, ACC’s scoring was rather slow to start with.
Then Jay Kumar of Nanaimo and Philip Jenkinson of Parksville came in and the runs came more freely. Both batsmen hit the boundaries, including three sixes for Kumar and four for Jenkinson.
The team’s total was 156 for the loss of six wickets, largely thanks to Kumar, who made 55 and Jenkinson, who had made 54 not out when the 35 overs were up.
The match limited each side to 35 overs to ensure a day-long game.
Jo White, a Canadian international, was the pick of the ladies’ bowlers with figures of two for 19 off seven overs.
When the Wicket Maidens batted, the first three bowlers Arrowsmith used proved very hard to score runs off, though the ladies were very quick running between the wickets and punished every fielding error by scrambling home for a single.
Having been tied down by the accurate bowling of Kumar, Jenkinson and Geoff Lyons, the Maidens had to try and hit out against more wayward bowlers, who ended up taking wickets as a number of catches were very well taken.
Will Jones of Qualicum Beach, the youngest member of the Arrowsmith team, came on and bowled five overs of left arm medium pace for only five runs and claimed a wicket as he removed the middle stump of one of the Maidens.
The ladies finished with 100 for eight, leaving Arrowsmith the winners by 56 runs.
The Arrowsmtih Cricket Club practices in Qualicum Beach and draws players from throughout the mid-Island. They play many of their exhibition games at Shawnigan Lake.
— Thanks to ACC’s Luke Downs for the game information and proper cricket lingo.