Swinging in the Rain

English village cricket and English summers. In our dreams it is warm days under perfect blue skies and evenings that seem to go on for ever. It is skylarks singing and swallows swooping. It is ladies in summer dresses preparing finger sandwiches and cutting home made sponges in the Edwardian pavilion. Perhaps they stop their preparations a minute to watch husbands, sons and lovers as another wicket falls. It is the old couple that have set up deckchairs on the boundary edge beside the white picket fence that surrounds their pristine thatched cottage. She never gives up on her knitting – perhaps a new sweater for their grandson who is now in the team. He dozes off in the warm sun, awoken from time to time by the sound of graceful cover drive sending the ball skittering to the cover boundary or a raucous appeal of the bowler denied yet another LBW appeal. It is the sound of church bells calling the faithful to worship and reminding us that match is almost over.

And then there is reality. It is cold, leaden skies overhead and a gale whipping across the ground driving rain into the face of the unlucky fielder exiled to deep fine leg. It is the sound of the M11 and gunfire from the nearby firing ranges. It is utilitarian concrete changing rooms with a collection of dirty abandoned kit. It is a lonely spectator who is inevitably a club member who didn’t get a game or maybe the parents of a junior team member.

You see, fielding on the boundary waiting for the next rank long hop to be larruped in your direction you get a lot of time to think. This week I was mostly thinking about the multiverse and anthropic principles (weak and strong) and ruminating on the possibility in some of those realities I might actually get a bowl.

But enough of that, you don’t want to hear the meanderings of a grumpy old man. You want to know about Coton vs. Steeple Morden and how the game unfolded. We lost: what more to say?

A grimly unpromising morning showed enough hints of better weather to come that the game went ahead. Gabriel, Dan and to a lesser extent Rob prepared a track that although damp played very well. The fund raising and investment in a heavy roller is paying off even if Gabriel couldn’t get it back into the container as the approaches were too muddy.

Steeple Morden got to bat first in the gloomy, but thankfully dry, conditions. Ross gave the team a rousing talk about keeping the ball up and making catches from batsmen playing to early and regular bowling changes. Some of the bowlers, but unfortunately not many of the fielders, actually followed the plan and at the 25 over stage we had kept the league leaders to fewer than 3 runs an over. A tight 10 over spell by Ross saw several LBW appeals turned down. I don’t think the following exchange actually happened, but it could have:

“How is that?”

“Not Out – missing leg”.

“I know”.

“You know? Why did you appeal then?”

“Missing leg sure, but would have flattened middle”.

This lead to some more interval dressing room lectures on the subject of umpiring & giving benefit of doubt. You know, the batsman isn’t out until the bail stops moving as there is the chance that a freak gust of wind could blow it back on to the stumps.

Meanwhile Milan and Ulassa both bowled good spells and Scotch was his usual self. I must have run out of synonyms for accurate, controlled and miserly in previous reports so will need to start repeating them as needed in upcoming games.

From my far off position I think the turning point came after we had a (by now, traditional) short break for rain. When we came back out our two quickest bowlers – Matt & Dan – got their chance from the top end. Unfortunately the ball was now harder to hold than a bar of soap and a series of long hops and chest high beamers (learn the rules, umpire) were in turn dispatched to the boundary or disdainfully ignored. The good, tight, work was undone. The dropped catches off their #4 who went on to top score came back to bite us and even Scotch was dispatched for a rare 6. Rob McCorquodale came on for a single sacrificial over and the 70 odd runs off 25 overs quickly became 177-5 by the end of the innings.

Still, the teas were good.

We got off to the traditional slow start. Ross was muttering about “do the batsmen have a plan?” on the boundary. Yes, they had a plan. They planned to put all the fielders to sleep and then start scoring but alas the fielders stayed awake long enough to get them out. Alastair was particularly unlucky to pick out a fielder with a well hit shot that was intercepted on its way to the boundary by a very sharp catch.

Scotch was promoted up the order so he could go off to a party. Steeple must have wondered what 5-11 must be like if this was our #4 batsman. He did hit a few lusty blows before missing a straight ball. Mrs Scotch and junior Scotches paced anxiously around while Dave showered. As usual, the shower took longer than the innings – probably for the best.

Milan and Ross were now at the wicket. Ross was looking in good form but Milan was struggling to score despite playing some classy shots. They always seemed to find fielders. Perhaps it was some youthful inexperience and he eventually lost patience and offered up a catch that was gratefully accepted.

Rob (K) now joined Ross with the prospects looking very grim: nearly 2/3^rd of the overs gone, half the wickets down and still 120+ runs to get. Ross was now playing some very aggressive shots: a 6 that cannoned off the cottages across the foot path being the pick of them. In contrast, Rob led a charmed life. An attempted sweep that flew over slip for 4 and a possible stumping where the ball ricocheted off the keepers pads with the batsman out of his ground. There was an element of doubt that the keeper might have dislodged the bails with his gloves first but in all honesty it was probably out. Rob did run down the track once to often and was eventually stumped “properly” but could also have been given out caught as the ball had clipped the bat handle on the way through: a very smart bit of keeping.

Still, 30 had been raised in very quick time and Ross continued to take the attack to the opposition. 3 maxima in one over from the off spinner triggered a tactical rethink by Steeple Morden. The bowling changes did the damage. Off the first ball from a new bowler Ross went deep again and was caught just inside the ropes off a towering drive that first gathered ice and then evaded all the tree branches on the way down. After a brief pause to confirm the fielder was inside the line Ross was on his way for 61 off around 50 balls. The irony was that Ross was caught by their top scorer (who also scored 60 odd) to whom we had granted 3 or 4 lives: an object lesson that the hoary old cliché that “catches win matches” does have relevance.

The remaining batsmen – Ulassa, Dan, Matt & Rob M – brought the score up to a reasonable 115.

We lost by 62 runs. Holding the dropped catches, not giving away so many extras, and the few disastrous overs after the rain break would have made a difference and may have got us closer. We get another chance to find this out next week when we play the reverse fixture.