Coton 666 squadron – mission to Thriplow III

July 28^th, 2012.  The skies finally cleared over South Cambridgeshire and the Coton squadron were able to undertake a raid on Thriplow.  It has been over a month since our last mission.  Early intelligence from our pathfinders had indicated that the enemy had relocated to the adjacent village of Fowlmere and we made the appropriate adjustments to our flight plans.  Leading the mission was Group Captain: Rob Kaye, CDM (*) and bar.  Group Captain Kaye arrived on his one-man self powered stealth vehicle (a bike) to scout the territory: pitch – good; surrounds - no immediate danger.   

The squadron started to assemble over the target but worryingly there was no sign of Pilot Office (Navigator) Matt Chandler.  It is at moments like this that the self doubt kicks in.  He had said he was available, hadn’t he?   Text messages and increasingly plaintive calls were answered.  Would we be one officer light for the mission?

The toss was won and breaking with tradition we decided to bat first.  There was method to the madness.  At Coton we had beaten this team by nine wickets.   Batting first we should get more people a bat, set up a big total and then bowl them out for the win: nice theory, would it work?

We started with Flying Officers Dave Simmons and Richard Allison were first into the fray.  There was little immediate danger.  The opposition fire was accurate but not threatening and both crews were able to dispatch the ball to the boundary.   The opening partnership was approaching 50 after a dozen or so overs.  Officer Simmons was scoring the bulk of these runs while Office Allison adopted the role that would have been the bailiwick of Flight Lieutenant Fox (missing in inaction) and played a Lego innings (full of blocks).  In the background the kestrels swooped and clouds scudded by.  Perfect flying weather.

 Officer Simmons was first to depart, shot down in action after providing us with a sound start.  Flying Officer (Nose Gunner) Akram was next into the firing line.  Thriplow were convinced that they had him for a duck with an edge behind.  But Officer Akram was unmoved, more importantly, so was the umpire.  It was a pivotal moment.  The ball was soon flying off Safwan’s bat with a sound like gunshots and the field retreated to the boundary.  

After a brief but entertaining flurry of boundaries (no sixes this week) Officer Akram was dismissed and replaced by Cadet Bradbury (A).  Along with Officer Allison the score kept climbing but the run rate slowed down.   Both batsmen were bowled bringing Wing Commander Garson and Cadet Elmes to the wicket.   Cadet Elmes had one of his least successful innings but Dan was looking in great form.  Accompanied first by Bombadier Kodandaramaiah and then the Group Captain himself he was racking up the runs with series of cracking shots and some good running.  It still felt that we were not quite up to the par score.  This changed with the arrival of Flying Officer (Navigator) Chandler.   The latter had had problems finding the ground.  Perhaps he had heard that The Group Captain was planning to ask him to open the batting and had been lurking around the corner just long enough to avoid that honour.  He denies it.   

Garson & Chandler put on fifty unbeaten runs for the eighth wicket bringing our final score up to a creditable 180-7.  Not unbeatable, but a very challenging target.

After tiffin, we started the attack with Officers Kodandaramaiah and Chandler.   With 180 to defend we could afford to be a little defensive and played with a couple of boundary riders from the start.  This tactic worked well with Officers Garson, Simmons and Allison saving many runs on the boundary.   The rest of the fielding was sharp for the most part.  We won’t mention some of Ullasa and Safwan’s less worthy efforts – and the runs restricted.  As the pressure built the wickets fell.  Two to Matt before he made way for Wing Commander Garson, and eventually four (4-17)  for Ullasa who was fast and threatening throughout.   Matt has been a little unfortunate with his wicket haul this season and fully deserved his successes.  This was despite him trying a Barnes Wallis style double bouncer that almost yorked the surprised batsman on the second bounce.  The other was a fine catch by Cadet Bradbury, once again proving the value of having close fielders that still have reflexes that reflex.

Dan also bagged a couple.  He was fired up after a couple of quick bouncers were missed by batsman, keeper and fine leg and bowling quicker and quicker.  The ball that clipped – and broke – the bails to take his second wicket was one of the fastest that I have seen in this league.  

With Thriplow struggling at around 50-8 there was little danger of them passing our total so the Group Captain was faced with a dilemma.  Should he keep the foot on the throat and go for the kill, or mix it up a little?  He went for the latter, giving Cadet Elmes his first bowl in the league and Cadet Bradbury a chance to bowl his leg spin.   

The third ball from Bobby was launched high into the air on the leg side but not very far.  Dan positioned himself under the ball and had time to carefully consider the consequences of missing the catch.  He didn’t and Bobby had his first wicket in the league.  At the other end Adam bowled four overs for just one run as he found length, line and considerable turn but it was the evergreen Officer Scotcher that brought the game to an end when he bowled the last man.

Thriplow were all out for 75, 105 short of the target.  The result took us above Whittlesford and into 3^rd place in the league behind Sawston (still unbeaten) and Newton.  A win against Newton next weekend could take us into a promotion spot.  Tally ho!  

(*) CDM: Cadbury’s Dairy Milk.