If...

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss...

Rudyard Kipling probably wasn’t thinking about cricket when he wrote his poem in 1909. But he could have been.

In my mind, cricket stands apart from any other major sport in being moved forward by a series of decisions all of which could irrevocably change the entire course of a game.

“If I had played forward to that ball...”

“If I had changed the bowling one over sooner...”

“If we had scored 20 more runs...”

“If I hadn’t moved a fraction early...”

“If Milan hadn’t been injured...”

“If George could have stayed ‘til the end...”

“If I had worn my lucky socks...”

The fact of the matter is we ran league leaders Steeple Morden very close last Saturday and came away from a game that we lost – narrowly – quite uplifted, feeling we had put in a good performance.

On a warm sunny afternoon in deepest South Cambridgeshire we welcomed back George Speller who was on leave from being married for at least part of the afternoon. Like many recently-weds before him, George may be coming to the realisation that shoe shopping and visits to Homebase to look at kitchens is less fun than playing cricket on a Saturday afternoon.

We got to bat first and the aforementioned George opened with Milan. Prior to the match we had come up with a scheme to speed up the run rate at the start of the innings by removing Gabriel’s kit from his kit bag and hiding it. He set off on a mad dash across the Cambridgeshire countryside to recover it. Meanwhile George deposited the ball into an adjacent building site. As this was all fenced off and locked for the weekend the Steeple Players decided to mount a reconstruction of The Great Escape. After lifting part of the fence clear of the concrete supports one of the team belly crawled underneath to recover the ball. Despite suggestions that he may be better off staying there he returned to the field of play. All it needed was for George to roar back onto the pitch over the fence on a motorbike to make the scene complete.

By now it was clear that Milan was carrying a shoulder injury and after 7 brave overs wincing at every shot, he had to leave the field. We were 26-0 at this stage and moving well but Richard soon came and went to become the first of 6 ducks for Coton. This brought Ross to the wicket to partner George. The latter departed for a typical quick fire 19 but Ross looked immovable as he had in the previous game with Steeple Morden. Partners came and went. Adam edged to the keeper, Gabriel got a horrid delivery that kept low and would have been well down leg but unluckily deflected onto the stumps (I was looking forward to not giving him LBW for once). You would think a Coton player would be well practised on these types of delivery.

Ulassa never found his timing and was palpably LBW playing a cross batted heave to another delivery that hardly bounced, Matt also edged to slip.

Ross’s vigilance came to end for a well earned 33 (top score again) and the tail didn’t last too much longer – or score many – other than a couple of lusty blows from Rob McCorquodale. Gordon was run out and Rob K played a cross batted shot that looped up to square leg. In evident pain, Milan bravely came out at the end to accompany Rob M who was last to go. 86 all out: for the first time in a long time we were well short of using up the overs.

The early demise enabled us to get in 10 overs of the Steeple innings while tea was prepared. This worked for us as it meant that George got to bowl 5 overs before having to return to his shopping trip. Rob K had looked at the team sheet and having noted how many bowlers there were quickly volunteered to stand in for the missing Alastair behind the stumps so as not to be exiled to the boundary again. It had been 20 years or more since he last kept in a league game but he didn’t do half bad (even if I say so myself...)

George and Ross opened the bowling and three Steeple batsmen were back in the hutch by teatime. The first was a patent George caught and bowled, the second a rearrangement of the furniture and the 3^rd an LBW after a handful of other shouts went unanswered. Milan had to leave the field again after about an over so we were one short.

At tea George had to leave, taking the unfortunate Milan back into town, leaving us with 9 men. Ross picked up where he left off before tea, taking 3 more wickets. He should have had a 5^th – and a jug – but was denied by the umpires not giving a catch cleanly taken by a diving Gabriel at short mid wicket (one was unsighted and one wasn’t watching). There was a flare up between Ross and the batsman who probably knew he was out but didn’t walk. Ross had the excellent figures of 4-13 in 10 overs.

At the other end Ulassa couldn’t find his rhythm in a short first spell and was replaced by Richard. Richard went close on several occasions, non more so than when Rob took a leg side stumping. Only it wasn’t. The batsman was so far out that has Alastair been keeping, he would have been able to nip off the field, make one of his roll-ups, smoke the roll up AND get back in time to stump him. But the square leg umpire was again not alert to the situation.

Matt replaced Ross at the end of his spell and Ulassa came back for a 2^nd spell. Steeple were 6 down now and still 30 or more short of the target. The match was finely balanced and neither bowler let us down. Matt was faster than I had seen him before, spearing the ball in at the legs. Ulassa was quicker still and I ended up taking quite a few head high behind the stumps off both bowlers. One ball for Ulassa really took off and required quite a leap to intercept.

The fielding was tight and keen. Ulassa got his body in line for the cause more than once and Adam did some great chasing and returning but the gaps in the field with two men missing were beginning to cost runs.

Two more wickets went - once each to Matt and Ulassa - and with 8 down Steeple still needed 16 to win. The opener had calmly played through this without looking in any real trouble and he was joined by #10. The latter had his fair share of luck but together they made the runs needed to win. The winning runs coming from an edge through the vacant slips of Ulassa. With 11 men, in this position, we would almost certainly had a slip in. If only.

A narrow loss ensued, by 2 wickets after a very intense and exciting game. Ross gathered us for a huddle and we felt – in defeat – strangely elated. A narrow loss to the league leaders with two men short was a good performance and if (that word again) we can produce the same level of energy and commitment against the teams around us in the league then results of the positive variety should not be too far behind.

One final thought on the day: as we took a beer at the village pub I overheard the Steeple players complaining about the pitch quality and the need to put more work in. See, it’s not just us, and we can be very proud of the fundraising and the effort that the team puts in to preparation and maintenance. If you haven’t come down early on a Saturday to help with the preparation, you don’t know what you are missing!

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

See you Saturday!