Runs in the Sun by our Junior Match Reporter

At last – a sunny day for a Coton home match. In an odd season for the fixture list where we are over half way through the season and have only just played our 3rd home game we have finally found that the sun can shine on the Coton rec on a Saturday. There were 5 changes from last week’s line up, with the most significant one being Rob not playing. That might not seem the most significant to all of you but for me it is, as I have been asked to take on the role of match report writer.

This is not the first time I have been asked to do this so I do have some experience to fall back on. I lost my match report virginity many years ago when asked by a previous club with a rotation policy of authors to write the report. I replied “but I haven’t done it before and I have no idea how to.” I was concerned. The reply I received was “just write a load of b****cks, that’s what everyone else does.” I thought – maybe I can do this after all.

We welcomed the fine folk of Romsey Town to Coton. After the away game at Trinity Old Field earlier in the season we were hoping that the strip would not be too embarrassing compared with their snooker table pitch, and indeed outfield. There wasn’t much we could have done about the outfield but the strip was in fine fettle which is testament to the hard work put in by the tireless pitch preparers. It played very well indeed. To the tune of over 400 runs.

Romsey batted first and we knew we needed a breakthrough early as the Romsey openers have racked up some seriously big partnerships this season. George opened the bowling from the far end (which I am sure had nothing to do with the fact that in the intervening overs he would be fielding at fine leg under the trees in the only bit of shade on the hottest day of the year) with Neil taking the footpath end (so he would be fielding at fine leg a good length delivery away from his own sofa when George was bowling). After a slightly expensive opening 4 overs George produced one of his nasty slower balls that turned in to a full toss. Under normal circumstances we would all love to receive knee high full tosses. But when you are expecting fast-medium inswinging leg cutters pitched 2 inches outside off just short of a good length some adjustments are necessary. Well, he got a bit of bat on it which was just enough to edge it down on to his stumps. 24-1. For the next few over runs were very hard to come by as George and Neil were accurate and most shots that were played went to fielders. Then there was a magnificent piece of dummying in the deep from Scotch. A very comfortable two was turned in a risky 3 when Scotch deliberately threw the ball 2 feet behind him lulling the batsmen into a false sense of security for a third. He clearly planned this all along as there would be no other way that he could have picked the ball up so quickly and winged it in to the keeper to remove the bails with the number 3 so far short of his ground. 39-2. Then followed a healthy partnership where the number 4, who couldn’t get the ball off the square in the away game, got the ball off the square several times. Poor Scotch suffered at his hands but was hampered by an injury. We’re not sure whether this was sustained during his Jonty Rhodes impression. Before we started there were murmurs that Nick Clarke will give us early chances and we must take them or we’ll be in trouble. He didn’t, we therefore couldn’t and we were. The most likely way to get him out looked to be waiting for him to get too tired to bat. That happened at around the end of the 40th over. He faced the last ball of the innings and took a single whilst his team mates hovering over the scorebook were shouting “RUN!” I don’t think he could have. He ended up 99 not out.

Adam bowled well getting a lot of movement but no luck and Rob McCorquodale also bowled well and took a very good caught and bowled. 93-3. Then followed a very tiring period in the field due to the heat and lack of wickets. They didn’t give many chances. When George came back from the Footpath end (he wasn’t really going to get away with hiding under trees any longer) we finally got an lbw decision going our way. Many previous ones looked not un-adjacent. 180-4. Romsey finished on 221 for 4.

Tea was courtesy of our captain which was a wonderful spread. A culinary discussion took place about whether a cheese sandwich needs Branston, but the greatest achievement was the serving of chocolate biscuits which had not melted.

Alastair and Gabriel opened the batting and the bowling looked to be fairly unthreatening. So it was quite a surprise when Gabriel played a forcing shot to short mid off to be out for 8. 33-1. What looked like the match winning partnership then took place. Alastair and Richard batted very well and at a good rate until the first ball after the 2nd drinks break. Yes, I did say second drinks break, which was due to the extreme heat (did I mention how hot it was?) Richard crawled towards the cup and jug carriers complaining about dehydration. After what happened the next ball we might have been better off if he’d remained dehydrated, but no complaints about such a fine 44 in a partnership of 93. 126-2. Dave then joined Alastair for a partnership of 44 whilst almost keeping up with the asking rate of 8 an over, but not quite. (Rob – do you also have that Michael Vaughan feeling when referring to yourself in the 3rd person?) By this time fielders were disappearing towards the boundary making 4’s hard to come by. Lots of sprinting of the first run to get a few 2’s got more runs than was sensible in that heat until Dave yorked himself trying to launch a full ball. 170-3. This brought George to the wicket with the chase well set up for a George special. He sensibly played himself in whilst taking 1s and 2s before the big shots came out. During one of the quick runs Alastair finally succumbed to the heat and failed to make it being run out for a heroic 75. 188-4.

Adam had quite a go at one delivery from the top end, It was very high and well taken by their sub fielder Richard, who only came along to watch his son play. Richard had been saying that he might contemplate joining us as he couldn’t get into the Romsey side. If he’d palmed it over the boundary for 6 we might have been more welcoming. On the other hand he can catch. Either side of this George lofted a 6 at each end. The second was off the first ball of the last over when 12 were needed to win. The cheers that went up when that cleared the rope (actually it cleared many of the trees by the Footpath too. Well, more of an “instead” than a “too”, as we don’t actually have a rope.). As it was so big and as we were umpiring we had hoped for it to be signalled as a 12 which would have been handy, but our ability to play within the spirit of the game often outweighs our ability. Desperate (and occasionally swift) running from George, Neil and Andy got us to 220 at the end of the over which included 2 run outs, and a loss by 1 run! #

The highlights were the bowling of George (2-39) and Neil (0-42) who both bowled their full 10 overs at pace in extreme heat, an all-round batting performance with some very good running between the wickets to get 220 with Alastair, Richard and George in particular giving it a damned good go.

To summarise – phew! Whether this applies to the finish or the heat, decide for yourselves.