No Country For Old Men

Scorecard 

The dismal weather of the week finally relented and Saturday dawned to blue skies and the possibility of cricket.  We had a third away game in a row to start the season, this time at the elusive Newton.  They had dodged us twice last year in finishing second and we waited anxiously to hear whether we would play again.  Safwan waited too long and arrived after we had taken the field.  At 1:30 it was approximately 9 vs. 7 but more Newtonians arrived as the game progressed.

The ground was a wonderful example of the village cricket that I was banging on about last week.  Batsman had to dodge the cowpats between the rustic pavilion and the lush outfield.  I would not be surprised if the occasional junior got lost in there.  Once they were inside the electrified fence (to keep cows of or to keep cricketers in?) they were greeted by a spreading chestnut at long on and a tree well inside the boundary at square leg.  The pitch itself was flat and true if a little slow from all the rain (and hail and sleet) it had seen in the previous seven days.

Throughout the game we were entertained by various vintage warplanes from Duxford, possibly warming up for a fly past at the Champions League final scheduled for the evening.

Anyway, Newton batted and from the off it was apparent that they were going to take the aerial route to remove the long grass from the equation and utilize the short boundaries.  They were past masters at putting the ball in the air between fielders causing Coton’s opening bowlers (Matt and Rob) to tear their hair out.  Or it would have done if they had any.  Matt decided to put a stop to that and hit the stumps instead.  Next over the Newton number 3 pushed one straight to Richard at short cover to give Rob a wicket.  Matt soon got a 3^rd wicket, rattling the stumps again and we were all conjecturing how quickly this could be over.

But Newton started to come back into it.  Scotch was tying up one end having replaced Rob but runs were coming somewhat fortuitiously at the other.  First off a tiring Matt, then off Adam Bradbury who took over from the cow pasture end.  If we painted them white, the cows would make an excellent sight screen.  The tree was coming into play more and more.  It was four runs for each hit: Safwan’s suggestion that he field behind the tree was correctly ignored by Captain Dan.

The runs were accumulating quickly but Scotch put an end to that by removing the remaining opener and then two more in quick succession: one was bowled, one from a juggling catch by Gabriel.  This would have been at cow corner on many grounds but as the cows were at 360 degrees round the pitch there wasn’t a corner as such this week.  Gabriel rushed off to get a red nose and rotating bow tie to look more attuned with the style of the catch.

Scotch’s third wicket is worth of note.  Not for the catch by Alastair behind the stumps – although that was well taken – but for the fact that it was a batsman who was actually older than Scotch!

Adam got a wicket for his efforts at the other end, bowling the batsman with a classic leg break.  Dan rang the changes again though bringing on Richard for his first bowl of the season.  By this time Newton had a batsman that really looked like could play, Richard put an end to that with one that (from square leg) looked to bowl him around his legs.  Dan had taken the ball at the other end and got some stick from Newton’s top scorer before pitching one up on off stump and rearranging the furniture.

Newton 118 all out (or was it 116, 117?) in a little under 26 overs.  

In reply Dan opened with Gabriel.  The opening bowling was keen and tight and runs came slowly at first.  Unfortunately for Newton their opening bowler and skipper had to leave at 4pm.  After 4 very good overs he had to go which was bad news for Newton and ironically bad news for Dan.  He very nobly offered to let them have a fielder and Cameron Black was the sacrificial victim.  Cameron turned out to be the best fielder on the park for the rest of the game.

I thought long and hard about how to describe what followed.  Should In describe the change bowling as idiosyncratic, or variable, or unique?  No it wasn’t it was rubbish.  Almost as bad as the umpiring that left Dan fuming.  He got a high full toss from the change bowler and pulled it high in the air to fine leg.  Rob consulted Scotch at square leg, was it too high?  Dave wasn’t sure, and while we dallied Cameron took the catch.  After a short discussion we decided it was a no-ball but as we hadn’t called it early enough we were not able to change the decision and Dan had to go.  The arc that his bat took as he left the field was impressive.  I just hope it didn’t land in a cow pat.  

Alastair came in and his rotten season continued as he was bowled for 2.  Gabriel was run out not grounding his bat and we were suddenly 24-3.  It wasn’t yet time to panic.  Even with only 10 players we bat all the way to 11 with Rob and his virgin bat.  There was the change bowling and then there was the force of nature that is Safwan Akram to change things around.  

Safwan and Adam laid into the bowling with relish.  There were more full toss no-balls to come.  Correctly called this time and we had to warn the stand in Newton skipper that his bowler had now reached the limit enforced by the rules.  The replacement tried the opposite approach with one that bounced three times and rolled along the ground.  Amidst this Safwan was running a vendetta on the tree and trying to defy the preservation order on it by bringing it down one branch at a time.  Three hits on successive balls probably lost us six runs as the automatic four for hitting the tree denied Safwan certain sixes.  He did manage to hit four of those as well.  Adam joined in the fun and smote a mighty six over long on.  He added some other excellent strokes to this and in the 19^th over we were level on scores (or perhaps ahead).  Not to worry, the next ball was summarily dispatched for four by Adam and we were home with more than twenty overs left and just three wickets down.  Saftwan finished on 66 not out off about 25 balls, Adam 28 not out.

In three games this year we have only lost ten wickets, which is great for the results but frustrating for the likes of Cameron, Scotch and Rob who have yet to bat this year.   What it does mean is we are top of the league with three wins out of three.  There are other unbeaten teams but they have only played two games so far.  Check out the league table here.

 Next week, it’s Balsham away: onwards!