PRE FLIGHT AT THE MANGO TREE
After about eight thousand emails flying about during the week we managed to make it to where we were always going to go - Mango tree. It started kicking about seven and Big Red was sure that Dicko had sent down some executive spies to make sure we weren't gonna get too hammered. Beers were flowing down like a wet sail and Paulie had the DJ in his pocket so was reminiscent of a local boogie nights.
Red used his accounting skills about 9pm after demanding that everyone had to have a rum and coke. He counted to twelve and decided we may as well just get a bottle. This set the crowd alight and given the venue there was very little coke used. Red was a little over excited at this point and had his first spew for the weekend. He managed to hide it from most of the crowd however was spotted by an attentive spectator. I missed it, as I was getting my eye tended to after a stray piece of ice rendered me lame. By this stage the gathering had enough excitement, energy and passion that it was felt an impromptu fine session was necessary to kick start the weekend. Tommy ran with Red's pot of gold and another rum bottle was ordered and polished off by the time we had to trudge off to the airport. It's fair to say at this point Tommy and Paulie would have given their right arm to be on tour and we had managed to excite Steve Smith to a point of no return even though he was leaving on the 7am flight the next day.
So begrudgingly we stumbled off to the airport, Paully driving my car cause I was a little under the weather. In hindsight this proved a little erratic, as after we had checked in and about to leave for the flight Paully realized he had left my car keys in the front door, luckily security was pretty lax and they let him go out and then back into check in.
FRIDAY NIGHT IN THE BRAC
After the 20 minute flight everyone was a little parched and didn't bat an eyelid when Red negotiated a $100 fare with our cab drivers. They looked after us quite well though as we started nailing Heinekens and jerk chicken at pace. At the Spanza we quickly ducked across the road to the bar and the rums were coming thick and fast. Tequilas were had as well and shortly after the men's toilet was treated to an unidentified spew all over the walls. One of the Brackers in the bar was probably guilty although there were a few accusations thrown mine and Red's way. In search of some amusement we had an impromptu game of two up to celebrate Anzac day and Simon and I were subjected to 3 hours of torture listening to Red's new business plan.
GAME DAY
Lucy (Lisa) excelled herself in the morning by cooking everyone bacon and eggs and we all had empty heinekens filled with water in anticipation of Dicky's arrival. It was about this time when we heard Steve Smith had missed his flight courtesy of a rather large boogie nights which earnt himself a very solid COTD nomination before the game had begun.
In standard Greenies fashion as Dicko was delayed, most of us started drinking proper Heinekens in the pre game warmup. In a bit of a shock the Brac won the toss and sent us in to bat. Steve had managed to get on another flight by this stage and we opened the batting with the plan to try and make it to drinks unscathed. It's fair to say we were both batting fairly horrendously and Steve had made mention that there were to be no quick singles as he thought he was going to vomit. After 10 overs we were 0 for 30 and at drinks we were 0 for 62 after 16 and finally starting to find the middle of the bat. Shortly after I was out caught to a good catch at long off for a pretty slow and scratchy 37. Hugh then graced the greyhound track and was caught at square leg for 7 after a pretty disgusting pull shot.
At this point we knew we were a bit short on runs and the run rate needed to be picked up. Dogga entered and didn't disappoint with some fantastic shots including 4 fours in a row and three big sixes that went into the drink. We weren't counting balls but when Dogga went out for fantastic 58 the run rate had been pushed up to nearly six an over and we were cruising.
Enter Big Red. After being fairly vocal during the innings giving everyone batting tips and making some great statements such as "you can't get bowled on this pitch", Red sauntered out to the pitch with three overs to go and put on display a textbook block first ball. Unfortunately for Red he missed the ball and had his middle stump uprooted, which Hugh had correctly anticipated as Red was on his way out to bat. Dicko then finished off the innings with Steve, being fairly unlucky not to make it double figures. We ended up with 253 off the 40 overs, a great batting effort underpinned by Steve batting through the entire innings and making a sensational 121 not out. After being fairly scratchy to begin with, he came good and played some fantastic shots on his way to what I believe is the first hundred scored by a Toos player and probably the only time someone has batted through the entire innings. Unfortunately I think he would have needed two hundred to cancel out his COTD nomination for missing his flight.
We began our fielding effort confidently with Hugh and Red troubling both batsmen with some great short of a length bowling. After I dropped a sharp one in close off Hugh, Red removed this guy the next over after he edged it onto his stumps. Its fair to say Red was pretty fired up as he gave the batsmen a send off that would have made the Chappell brothers proud. In the next over Red dropped what can only be regarded as one of the biggest sitters on offer. He barely managed to even get a hand on it, with his only defense being the sun and his dreadful looking pink eye.
Dogga and Dicko then came on and the Brac were able to score pretty freely as the ball had stopped swinging by this stage and the conditions clearly favoured the batsmen. We were in desperate need of a wicket when they top edged one to McGrath at fine leg who took a great running catch in the deep to give us some hope of salvaging the game.
Unfortunately for us their next batsmen came out swinging and was depositing balls all over the place. Dogga, after bowling quiet well off his first 6 overs, went for 43 off his last 2 to decimate his figures. Jimmy had his first bowling spell for the club and was unlucky not to have picked up a wicket as they were swinging and missing at will. Red came back on with the Brac needing 15 off 5 overs and surprised most of us by bowling two great overs for not much. Chef Ron was then given the enviable task of making his bowling debut with 3 overs left and 5 runs to win. Needless to say they paddled them around and achieved the target with 4 wickets down.
We were a fairly dejected bunch after batting so well, however it was always going to be a difficult task given their home advantage. Given that Paully, Simon and Matty Dreads had been nailing beers since lunchtime we were left with about 1.5 beers for each player which meant a quick adjournment to the Spanza bar for the fine session.
SATURDAY NIGHT
We assembled for the fine session at the bar after Kaz and Row ferried everyone back at breakneck speed. After the first few fines the consensus was that it was quite tasty and the participants were more than willing to get involved. Red and Steve Smith would have had the lion's share and it wasn't long before Red had deposited his second spew for the trip all over the ground behind him. The dog that was wandering around the bar didn't know what it was in for when it started licking Red's spew, as I think it would be been around 30% alcohol.
At this point it was time for the debutants to be upstanding for their beer scull, with a few other willing participants as well. think it was Chef Ron, Matty Dreads, Paully, Lucy and last but not least Jimmy. After declaring he wasn't able to scull beers, Jimmy quickly showed he wasn't lying as his first 3 gulps quickly came back up in a frothy mess all over the table. At this point, Jimmy thought it a good idea to recruit one of the Brackers at the bar to be his life coach and he quickly started training him the best way to get through his beer, more than happy to display his technique to everyone.
Shortly after this the bar tab started to get hit with 12 rum & cokes at a time and there was talk of heading out to the new nightclub that had opened on the weekend. This was soon forgotten as Chef Ron and Red started stripping the green dreams at the bar and Red and Dicko felt a worm rematch was necessary after the Brac trip two seasons ago had Dicko with a 1 nil lead. Red came out victorious this time in a pretty close tussle that had the locals looking on in amazement. Bar tab for the night cracked 1000 bucks and we adjourned back to our rooms after the sporting extravaganza and stacks on McGrath for going to bed early, as well a bit of a break in to Simon's room to see what was going on there - very suspicious???????
MOTM - Steve Smith, first Greenies Too hundred ever
COTD - Steve Smith, missing his 7AM flight after Friday night
POTD - can't remember but I think it was Red's golden duck
GOTD - Red for wearing Lucy's glasses all day
SUNDAY
Teens tookover from Luce and started the day like Saturday by cooking us all bacon & eggs. We had lost a few candidates on the 6am flight, however we still had a solid nucleus for the island tour which kicked off at midday with us returning the esky back to bar, only to fill it up and take it once again. By 3pm we had managed to get through 2 cases and adjourned to the Cayman reef resort where Clay and Joyce called for shots of Jager and were enjoyed by pretty much everyone except for me as mine came straight out my nose shortly after being swallowed.
Driving the mini vans in tandem it was here where we were all treated to one of the highlights of the weekend. With the road being quite bumpy, the cars bottoming out a fair bit and Red demanding that Shan "guns it over the bumps" we were surprised to see a fairly bald redhead pop his full head out the back window, followed by a camera and arm out of the front seat. With Shan whacking on the hazard lights and allowing us to drive up alongside, we were all witness to Red's most violent and painful spew of the weekend all over the side of the van. Matty Dreads had himself in the perfect position to take some fantastic photos to ensure this moment would not be forgotten. Unfortunately we missed round two of this event on the way back to the Spanza, but Clay and Finn had the worst of the seats for the spray of Red's spew coming in through the back window and caking them.
After about eight thousand emails flying about during the week we managed to make it to where we were always going to go - Mango tree. It started kicking about seven and Big Red was sure that Dicko had sent down some executive spies to make sure we weren't gonna get too hammered. Beers were flowing down like a wet sail and Paulie had the DJ in his pocket so was reminiscent of a local boogie nights.
Red used his accounting skills about 9pm after demanding that everyone had to have a rum and coke. He counted to twelve and decided we may as well just get a bottle. This set the crowd alight and given the venue there was very little coke used. Red was a little over excited at this point and had his first spew for the weekend. He managed to hide it from most of the crowd however was spotted by an attentive spectator. I missed it, as I was getting my eye tended to after a stray piece of ice rendered me lame. By this stage the gathering had enough excitement, energy and passion that it was felt an impromptu fine session was necessary to kick start the weekend. Tommy ran with Red's pot of gold and another rum bottle was ordered and polished off by the time we had to trudge off to the airport. It's fair to say at this point Tommy and Paulie would have given their right arm to be on tour and we had managed to excite Steve Smith to a point of no return even though he was leaving on the 7am flight the next day.
So begrudgingly we stumbled off to the airport, Paully driving my car cause I was a little under the weather. In hindsight this proved a little erratic, as after we had checked in and about to leave for the flight Paully realized he had left my car keys in the front door, luckily security was pretty lax and they let him go out and then back into check in.
FRIDAY NIGHT IN THE BRAC
After the 20 minute flight everyone was a little parched and didn't bat an eyelid when Red negotiated a $100 fare with our cab drivers. They looked after us quite well though as we started nailing Heinekens and jerk chicken at pace. At the Spanza we quickly ducked across the road to the bar and the rums were coming thick and fast. Tequilas were had as well and shortly after the men's toilet was treated to an unidentified spew all over the walls. One of the Brackers in the bar was probably guilty although there were a few accusations thrown mine and Red's way. In search of some amusement we had an impromptu game of two up to celebrate Anzac day and Simon and I were subjected to 3 hours of torture listening to Red's new business plan.
GAME DAY
Lucy (Lisa) excelled herself in the morning by cooking everyone bacon and eggs and we all had empty heinekens filled with water in anticipation of Dicky's arrival. It was about this time when we heard Steve Smith had missed his flight courtesy of a rather large boogie nights which earnt himself a very solid COTD nomination before the game had begun.
In standard Greenies fashion as Dicko was delayed, most of us started drinking proper Heinekens in the pre game warmup. In a bit of a shock the Brac won the toss and sent us in to bat. Steve had managed to get on another flight by this stage and we opened the batting with the plan to try and make it to drinks unscathed. It's fair to say we were both batting fairly horrendously and Steve had made mention that there were to be no quick singles as he thought he was going to vomit. After 10 overs we were 0 for 30 and at drinks we were 0 for 62 after 16 and finally starting to find the middle of the bat. Shortly after I was out caught to a good catch at long off for a pretty slow and scratchy 37. Hugh then graced the greyhound track and was caught at square leg for 7 after a pretty disgusting pull shot.
At this point we knew we were a bit short on runs and the run rate needed to be picked up. Dogga entered and didn't disappoint with some fantastic shots including 4 fours in a row and three big sixes that went into the drink. We weren't counting balls but when Dogga went out for fantastic 58 the run rate had been pushed up to nearly six an over and we were cruising.
Enter Big Red. After being fairly vocal during the innings giving everyone batting tips and making some great statements such as "you can't get bowled on this pitch", Red sauntered out to the pitch with three overs to go and put on display a textbook block first ball. Unfortunately for Red he missed the ball and had his middle stump uprooted, which Hugh had correctly anticipated as Red was on his way out to bat. Dicko then finished off the innings with Steve, being fairly unlucky not to make it double figures. We ended up with 253 off the 40 overs, a great batting effort underpinned by Steve batting through the entire innings and making a sensational 121 not out. After being fairly scratchy to begin with, he came good and played some fantastic shots on his way to what I believe is the first hundred scored by a Toos player and probably the only time someone has batted through the entire innings. Unfortunately I think he would have needed two hundred to cancel out his COTD nomination for missing his flight.
We began our fielding effort confidently with Hugh and Red troubling both batsmen with some great short of a length bowling. After I dropped a sharp one in close off Hugh, Red removed this guy the next over after he edged it onto his stumps. Its fair to say Red was pretty fired up as he gave the batsmen a send off that would have made the Chappell brothers proud. In the next over Red dropped what can only be regarded as one of the biggest sitters on offer. He barely managed to even get a hand on it, with his only defense being the sun and his dreadful looking pink eye.
Dogga and Dicko then came on and the Brac were able to score pretty freely as the ball had stopped swinging by this stage and the conditions clearly favoured the batsmen. We were in desperate need of a wicket when they top edged one to McGrath at fine leg who took a great running catch in the deep to give us some hope of salvaging the game.
Unfortunately for us their next batsmen came out swinging and was depositing balls all over the place. Dogga, after bowling quiet well off his first 6 overs, went for 43 off his last 2 to decimate his figures. Jimmy had his first bowling spell for the club and was unlucky not to have picked up a wicket as they were swinging and missing at will. Red came back on with the Brac needing 15 off 5 overs and surprised most of us by bowling two great overs for not much. Chef Ron was then given the enviable task of making his bowling debut with 3 overs left and 5 runs to win. Needless to say they paddled them around and achieved the target with 4 wickets down.
We were a fairly dejected bunch after batting so well, however it was always going to be a difficult task given their home advantage. Given that Paully, Simon and Matty Dreads had been nailing beers since lunchtime we were left with about 1.5 beers for each player which meant a quick adjournment to the Spanza bar for the fine session.
SATURDAY NIGHT
We assembled for the fine session at the bar after Kaz and Row ferried everyone back at breakneck speed. After the first few fines the consensus was that it was quite tasty and the participants were more than willing to get involved. Red and Steve Smith would have had the lion's share and it wasn't long before Red had deposited his second spew for the trip all over the ground behind him. The dog that was wandering around the bar didn't know what it was in for when it started licking Red's spew, as I think it would be been around 30% alcohol.
At this point it was time for the debutants to be upstanding for their beer scull, with a few other willing participants as well. think it was Chef Ron, Matty Dreads, Paully, Lucy and last but not least Jimmy. After declaring he wasn't able to scull beers, Jimmy quickly showed he wasn't lying as his first 3 gulps quickly came back up in a frothy mess all over the table. At this point, Jimmy thought it a good idea to recruit one of the Brackers at the bar to be his life coach and he quickly started training him the best way to get through his beer, more than happy to display his technique to everyone.
Shortly after this the bar tab started to get hit with 12 rum & cokes at a time and there was talk of heading out to the new nightclub that had opened on the weekend. This was soon forgotten as Chef Ron and Red started stripping the green dreams at the bar and Red and Dicko felt a worm rematch was necessary after the Brac trip two seasons ago had Dicko with a 1 nil lead. Red came out victorious this time in a pretty close tussle that had the locals looking on in amazement. Bar tab for the night cracked 1000 bucks and we adjourned back to our rooms after the sporting extravaganza and stacks on McGrath for going to bed early, as well a bit of a break in to Simon's room to see what was going on there - very suspicious???????
MOTM - Steve Smith, first Greenies Too hundred ever
COTD - Steve Smith, missing his 7AM flight after Friday night
POTD - can't remember but I think it was Red's golden duck
GOTD - Red for wearing Lucy's glasses all day
SUNDAY
Teens tookover from Luce and started the day like Saturday by cooking us all bacon & eggs. We had lost a few candidates on the 6am flight, however we still had a solid nucleus for the island tour which kicked off at midday with us returning the esky back to bar, only to fill it up and take it once again. By 3pm we had managed to get through 2 cases and adjourned to the Cayman reef resort where Clay and Joyce called for shots of Jager and were enjoyed by pretty much everyone except for me as mine came straight out my nose shortly after being swallowed.
Driving the mini vans in tandem it was here where we were all treated to one of the highlights of the weekend. With the road being quite bumpy, the cars bottoming out a fair bit and Red demanding that Shan "guns it over the bumps" we were surprised to see a fairly bald redhead pop his full head out the back window, followed by a camera and arm out of the front seat. With Shan whacking on the hazard lights and allowing us to drive up alongside, we were all witness to Red's most violent and painful spew of the weekend all over the side of the van. Matty Dreads had himself in the perfect position to take some fantastic photos to ensure this moment would not be forgotten. Unfortunately we missed round two of this event on the way back to the Spanza, but Clay and Finn had the worst of the seats for the spray of Red's spew coming in through the back window and caking them.
We all
managed to have a blaster in the rainbow bar at the airport before stumbling on all in one piece
somehow.
Most of us made it down to Smith Rd to see how the ones went on and it was here that it was decided the deadlock between Dicky and Red couldn't stay at one all, so a worm-off was done from one length of the pitch to the
other. Dicky won this one in a canter to carry bragging rights over, probably only until next weeks round at Red's going away at Stingers.
It was a
cracking weekend, unfortunate we couldn't get the points but there was some
sensational batting from Steve Smith and Dogga that nearly got us over the line.
Liver is going to take a while to recover from this
one.
