Done the Double - from our special correspondant

Considering that this was only our 3^rd win of the season it was quite an achievement to have done the double over Barrington 2^nd XI. They must be sick of the sight of Ross. On each occasion they batted first and then started to take enough wickets to lull them into the feeling that they should win with Ross remaining unbeaten on both occasions.

Due to various personnel changes the deputy match reporter was also deputy wicket keeper. Well, for a while anyway. Barrington’s ground is on the village green in a delightful setting which was marred only slightly by the presence of an ambulance parked next to the pitch before we started. Unconfirmed reports say that the driver was told that Dave Simmons would be keeping wicket and not fielding on the boundary so they wouldn’t be required. So they left.

Barrington batted first and Robbie Sewell opened the bowling from the car park end. From the start he was getting considerable swing into the right hander which the openers found hard to score from. Scotch opened at the other end and was his normal accurate self. On the occasions that they did middle the ball it was generally straight down the pitch where Dave dived to save his bowling figures for himself. During these hearty opening salvos our stand in wicket-keeper was putting down edges. Well, it’s easy if they come straight to you, but not when someone gets a bat in the way first. (When is Alistair coming back?). After an opening spell from Robbie, Ross came on and kept up the pressure not allowing the scoring rate to rise whilst Dave Scotcher bowled his 10 overs straight through for only 26 runs. At the drinks break Barrington were 47-0. Despite the lack of wickets we thought we were in a good position on a pitch behaving well despite the swing being generated.

After drinks the plan was for Ross and Robbie to swap around from the car park end and Richard Allison and Safwan to make up the 10 overs in short spells from the other end. The Barrington openers decided that they would need to get their runs from that end and started to increase the scoring rate. After a 4^th dropped catch at the wicket the deputy wicket-keeper was finally sacked and Oscar took the gloves. A mighty astute move by the captain which clearly terrified the batsmen who started getting out. Robbie got an inswinger through the defences of one of the openers to be bowled shortly after reaching his 50. Then Ross got the number 3 who had been padded up for over 30 overs then got out for 0. The number 4 was then run out by the deposed keeper in combination with the deputy deputy keeper. Oscar managed to whip the bails off despite a challenging throw. Another duck. The number 5 didn’t look comfortable despite a swish for 6 off Ross over the shortest boundary. He tried the same shot a number of times irrespective of where the ball was pitched and finally sent one very high towards mid off where the ex-deputy keeper was stationed and waiting for a long time before it finally came down. There was even enough time for Scotch to run (yes, run) from mid on to get behind Dave to either cover the catch or administer first aid, whichever happened to be necessary. Neither were necessary and a deserved 2^nd wicket went to Ross. 4 wickets had fallen for 10 runs. There was a short recovery before Robbie came back for a final spell and bowled other opener. A well deserved 2^nd wicket for Robbie in his first full spell for Coton and he finished with 2-32 from his 10 overs and Barrington finished at 146-5. Ross’s 10 overs went for 23 including two wickets, Scotch’s 10 overs went for 26 including 3 maidens. Safwan bowled a couple of loose balls but did well to come back in his 2^nd over. Richard also had a couple of loose balls in his first couple of overs but his 2^nd spell when Barrington were trying to push the rate along was very accurate and made life difficult for them and he finished with 8 overs for 32.

It is worth mentioning that the out fielding was very good. Not something that can often be said about Coton fielding performances, but Dave Hale in particular marshalled the longer boundary all by himself for the whole innings.

After a fine tea Daves Simmons and Hale opened the batting. The Barrington opening bowlers were both getting considerable swing making scoring difficult. However, the Barrington keeper obviously had considerable sympathy for the keeper’s union and let a few tough takes go past and a lot of the early runs were via extras. Dave Hale got a very good slower inswinger and was bowled for 1 early on. Richard Allison also got a good ball and we were 12-2. Gabriel came in at 4 and he and Dave saw off the opening bowlers who were then replaced by a pair of accurate spinners and runs started coming, although not very quickly. At drinks the score was 60-2. Shortly afterwards Dave missed a straight one to be bowled for 32 after a partnership of 51. In came Ross and he and Gabriel continued accumulating until Gabriel was also bowled by the same spinner at 80-4. The required run rate was starting to increase and Ross was starting to score more freely. Robbie Sewell kept Ross company while 29 were scored until Robbie was bowled whereupon his Dad, Richard, came in for his debut innings. Unfortunately he marked it with a duck. Never mind Richard – many of us have had the same fate and we’re occasionally getting runs now. At least you were on the field for your little boy’s maiden wickets and runs. This brought Oscar to the wicket with us needing another 36 to win. Ross was going great guns by now even though the overs were running out. He had earlier hit a 6 over the short boundary and then managed to hit another over the long boundary. He also hit 4 fours in his innings. When we needed 3 to win he reached his 50 but we didn’t tell him as we thought we needed him to score the winning runs. We didn’t as Oscar played a few excellent shots including a couple of cover drives, the last of which went for 4 and brought us victory in the penultimate over.

We are no longer in the relegation zone. Not that it means much as we weren’t in the relegation zone at the end of last season and got relegated, but it is worth bearing in mind that none of our remaining games are against the top 3, so we should continue to climb the table if we play as we did in this game. This was a good result against a good team and particularly pleasing as we were missing some key players. It was great to be on the right end of a close, exciting game.