Another week, another Bradbury
For our 4th away game on the
trot this year we turned up at the well hidden ground at Balsham to play their
2nd team. Finding the
pavilion was easy enough. Did I say
pavilion? I meant maze. Arriving at their pavilion got you about half
way there. No warning of that in Dan’s
dire warning not to be late or you’d be dropped down the order. “Honestly - I arrived at the postcode in your
email by 1:15”. Those that turned up
early enough joined in the warm up which involved throwing and trying to catch
the Aerobie that Dan keeps in the boot of his car.
Looking at the table before the match
showed that we had won 3 out of 3 and Balsham had lost 3 out of 3. When we played them in 2010 towards the end
of the season they played above themselves and beat us for only their 2nd
win of the season. On that occasion we
had them 76-8 and couldn’t take any more wickets as they reached 157-8 in their
40 overs and we came up 8 short in our chase.
Dan lost the toss and we were put in. This is the team with the opening bowler with
a sight impediment so he bowls in a helmet in case a ball gets driven back at
him. It would have been safe for him to
take it off for this game.
Dave S opened with Dan. A couple of weeks ago Dave was referred to as
the centurion Quintus Dias. What do you
call someone who gets nought, a duck, a blob?
Donald? Mr Blobby? Anyway, that’s Dave as he missed a long hop
which came off the pitch much slower than he planned. Dan didn’t last much longer but at least got
one of the balls of the game which swung in and cut away.
Then John Bason made his long awaited league
debut. He has looked a fine batsman in
the nets and we were all looking forward to him getting some runs. One of the things you don’t get to see in the
nets is how good people are at calling, running and taking notice of calling
and running. John played the ball into
the offside for a tight but comfortable single and set off having called very
clearly. Safwan failed to respond and
John didn’t make it back in time. Balsham had a number of spectators who could
be heard expressing their opinion behind the scorer’s table. On this subject their opinion was “he’d
better stay out there for a while”. Perhaps
we should consider getting Lord Kitchener to pose for a poster emblazoned with “Your
village team needs you to learn how to run” and stick it in each dressing room
we visit. Whatever the village green’s
equivalent of the commentator’s curse then struck. Safwan’s first league failure of the season
and he was out for 7. We were 13-4 and
in deep trouble. A couple of weeks ago
Matt went in at 5 with just over 2 overs to go with instructions to hit some
sixes. On this occasion he went in at 5
with over 30 overs to go and needed to rescue us. He was joined by the latest in the line of Bradburys
– Oliver, last seen playing for the under 13s a few days earlier. Forget about his age – he looked and played
the part and with Matt rescued us with a stand of 50 choosing which balls to
defend and which to attack with excellent judgement. It certainly was a day for the
youngsters. After the drinks break
Balsham brought on 13 year old Zoe Barkes who bowled very respectable leg spin
while her proud Mum was doing the Balsham scorebook. Her first entry for her daughter was a “W” as
she took a wicket first ball when Oliver top edged an attempted shot to
midwicket to end the only partnership of significance with Oliver getting 25.
This brought Gabriel to the wicket lower
down the order than he’s used to but he still had plenty of time to bat. Matt then succumbed to Zoe for a top score of
28 as she took her 2nd wicket which was very shortly followed by her
3rd as Cameron was lured out of his crease by a loopy delivery and
didn’t make it back.
After Alastair’s difficult start to the
season he asked not to be so high up the order whilst he tried to find some
form, which he did as far as he could before being stranded not out. Alastair’s score in each game seems to be roughly
proportional to his number in the order.
He’ll bat at number 86 next week.
Maybe not – we’ve struggled to have a number 11 a couple of times this
season. He and Gabriel put on 16 for the
joint 2nd highest partnership of the innings until Gabriel was
bowled by the accurate helmeted opening bowler.
Chirayu managed 2 before he fell the same way which brought Scotch in to
totally dominate a partnership to which he contributed 100% of the runs and
100% responsibility for ending it. He
scored 3 which consisted of a single off the last ball of an over to ensure
Alastair didn’t get the strike followed by a 2 to ensure that Alastair didn’t
get the strike followed by missing a good ball ensuring that Alastair would
never get the strike. 100 all out. A round but inadequate number.
An excellent tea was then served in the pavilion’s
kitchen area which overlooked their bowls club.
As their building needs to cater for two sports areas it’s no wonder it
is an odd shape, but with very good facilities.
How do you defend 100 on an albeit slow
pitch? Take wickets early. Which we didn’t which is a major reason for
not winning. The bowlers did a top notch
job but were let down by the batting.
Matt opened the bowling with Dan taking the other end. The ball was still moving but the batting was
solid if not spectacular. It didn’t need
to be. After a few overs from each of
them with no breakthrough Scotch took over from Dan and Oliver took over from
Matt. After a few looseners from each
they settled down to a very good line and length. We expect that from Scotch but having showed
most of us up with the bat Oliver was not out of his depth with the ball and
was soon swinging the ball past the outside edge as he does to us in the nets,
but we still had no wickets to show for it at the drinks break, but we didn’t
have to wait for long after drinks for our first breakthrough. Maybe one day someone with a pile of
scorebooks or the play cricket website can find out how many times Scotch has
taken the first wicket for the team.
(Not me – this is taking up my share of donated time! Sounds like good GCSE stats project for
someone.) Having learnt not to rely on
the catching of his team mates he bowled the more solid looking opener. 53 for 1.
Their first wicket put on more than our best stand.
Our next wicket came courtesy of the best
dropped catch you’ll see. The ball was
driven firmly back to Oliver who couldn’t hold on in his follow through but it
burst through his hands and on to the stumps.
Bizarrely it was given out by the square leg umpire as the one at the
bowlers end wasn’t looking at the bat, although his decision was made a bit
easier as the run out batsman started to walk off anyway. He knew he was out.
John Bason had his first bowl in the league
and we needed him to get more wickets than he got runs if we were to win. His brand of loopy (who wouldn’t go loopy
after being run out by a team mate) leg spin challenged the batsmen but as is
often the case with leg spinners there were a few balls to be hit. He did take the next wicket to fall courtesy
of a good catch by one of the more reliable catchers, Cameron. By this time the game was really up but they
were struggling to get the runs quickly and we did a good job of making it hard
for them to get them with some good fielding and straight bowling. The 4th wicket came with only 7
needed to win and was from another good away swinger which gave Oliver a well
deserved wicket and us a 4th bonus point. We’d have preferred the 20 for the win but
Balsham do appear to be our bogie team.
We think we are better than they are.
Our league position suggests we are better than they are but we can’t
beat them. So we probably aren’t better
than they are. Let’s blame travel
fatigue. 4 away games on the trot. Next week we’re at home so no more travel fatigue
losses please.
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