Rad's teas highlight on gloomy day

The author of the 20/20 match report earlier in the blog wisely said “If you can't think of a way to begin a piece, use a quotation”. So I have, albeit not a very good one.

Why does it always rain at home games? In what was only our second appearance at The Rec this season we were once again greeted by leaden skies. The rain held off long enough to toss up. Captain Lucky had heard that the weather would improve later and chose to bat on the premise that it would be better for 11 Wilbrahamians to suffer in the rain, well, that and the fact that Rad was still making the teas.

Just as we were about to start the rains came down again. During our innings we had to come off twice more but in the end we did get a complete game in but unfortunately it ended in defeat.

Dave dropped down the order so Alastair opened with Gabriel. The latter – in true Boycottian mode – held the innings together with a careful and patient 32 whilst Alastair fell victim to a catch behind on 12. The young Wilbraham opening bowler was generating a lively pace and the Coton wicket offered him some good carry and bounce. Richard produced his best knock of the season to date and we progressed along steadily.

Gabriel was almost out to the last ball before the first of the two rain breaks. As the bowler ran in the heavens opened and unable to see the ball clearly a catch was spooned to mid off who obligingly dropped it. The umpire - who should have stopped play a few seconds earlier - was very relieved.

We reached 80-1 but then entered into the kind of collapse that we seemed to have put behind us this year. Gabriel’s occupation of the crease was finally brought to an end, Ross smashed his second ball back to mid on for a catch and Richard was adjudged LBW. In the blink of an eye we had lost 3 wickets for 7 runs. And it got worse, debutant Rabboni “Rab” Rabi was dismissed for 4, Rob top edged a hook to mid wicket and Dave Simmons was undone by a yorker. 3 wickets down on same score and 6 in 12 runs.

We woke Neil up from his jet lag to put some pads on. It was a bit of a give away when his request for a guard was “I’ll have the beef and a glass of red wine, please”. He was still able to bat through to the end whilst Dave Scotcher was run out going for a 3rd run on the last ball. We had batted through our 40 overs for 108-9, Gabriel and Richard (& extras) being the main contributors.

Rad had arrived with the teas and very good they were too. Thanks for that, I particularly liked the Branston sandwiches with a hint of ham.

We fielded in improving conditions although both Neil and Ross had problems with the foot holds and the whole team had problems catching. We were into double figures with the chances that went down and that would ultimately be our undoing. Neil was the first to be relieved and Dave broke the opening partnership. Ross soon added a 2nd – both had the foresight to hit the stumps and sensibly remove the dependency on fielders.

Ross, bowling well but struggling with footholds, then succumbed to a hamstring injury and had to leave the field. Paul Bradbury hasn’t been able to play this year due to back problems but he gamely agreed to substitute in the field whilst Rob took over bowling. Rob promptly removed himself from the attack in favour of a proper bowler.

In the stygian gloom more chances went down before we grabbed a couple more wickets. Scotch took a caught and bowled (how come bowlers never drop the ball from their own bowling), and finally a back peddling Pete Brooks held on to a catch to remove the Wilbraham opener who had by now had more lives than a whole litter of kittens. Pete’s adoring fan club were seriously impressed by the catch – I wonder if they realise just how rare and event they had witnessed?

Wilbrahams limped over the line with 4 wickets down and 4 overs to spare. The bonus points we had gathered were enough to keep us above Weston Colville (our next opponents) and Balsham (yet to win this season).

So, Captain Lucky’s lucky streak ran out and it’s with a sense of relief that he hands back the reigns to King George for the upcoming games. He was right about the weather though.