Reciprocity or Catches, Big Daddy Splashes and Smashing Batting at Camberwick Green (nae Cambourne!), Cambourne v Coton, 14 June 2008

Coton CC paid a visit to the hitherto unbeaten league leaders Cambourne last weekend. It was obvious that some thought had been put into the ground and an attempt had been made to make it look like a village green. It was surrounded by an array of houses of various styles (was it really deliberate that the ones behind the bowlers arms were painted in light colours to act as sight screens?) and who knows, in 100 years time when the saplings have become trees it might even be a pleasant place to play. In the meantime the environs still have a sense of desolation and you can imagine tumbleweeds blowing across the pitch on windy days. And, can someone explain why the changing rooms are across the street?

It was a strong Coton side that took the field with Chris taking a break from new parenting duties and Ross coming back into the team. There were certainly plenty of bowling options for the Richard to call on but – unsurprisingly – we opened with Chris & George. There was plenty of life in the track and a fast outfield. An initial wayward over from George soon gave way to accurate spells by both openers. There was plenty going on to keep them and the fielders interested but it took the first of several outstanding catches to break the opening partnership. Mike Bullard leaped to his right like a silver salmon taking on a waterfall to haul in a sharp chance off George.

A double switch to spin precipitated the next breakthrough, Ross coming on from one end and Dave Scotcher from the other. While Ross wheeled away through his 10 overs from one end taking two wickets (good catches from Richard and Neil) it proved not to be Dave’s day. The pitch wasn’t suited to his particular talents and although the ball was frequently in the air it contrived to avoid the field on all occasions. After three overs a visibly exasperated Dave got the hook to make way for Neil Sparnon to bowl at the non-descript end that wasn’t quite the same as the other non-descript end.

Prior to the game, Dave had been trying to get people to bet on whether Neil would start with his traditional wide. This seemed to inspire the latter to do something unexpected and open up with a straight ball that almost took the batsman by surprise. Had they been doing some scouting? It was the precursor to a spell of aggressive bowling that was punctuated by another fine catch from Rob Kaye lumbering in off the cow corner boundary, almost misjudging the distance and ending with a dive to make up for the slow reactions.

Cambourne arrived at the 30 over mark with just 4 wickets down and an ominous looking total on the board. The remaining overs didn’t yield as many runs as they wanted due to good spells of controlled hostility from the returning openers, Chris and George. Both hit the stumps and each contrived a more interesting dismissal. Alistair “Teflon Gloves” Breward was alert to one of their batsman taking guard outside the crease and not bothering to get back in after a play-and-miss. Alistair threw down the stumps and followed with more of an apology than an appeal: but the batsman reluctantly had to depart. There was some debate as to whether this was a stumping or a run-out. It went in the book as the former – possibly the first ever off George – and a subsequent post-mortem proved it to be the correct decision. The final wicket was a catch at short cover by Andrew East. Well, more of a “nurse” than a “catch” as the sharply hit ball lodged between chest and arm. After a short search the ball was recovered and the wicket was given. Cambourne finished on 162-8 which was considerably less than they had looked like getting. Tight bowling and good fielding kept the total to something reachable on a quick scoring track. But given our recent batting frailties would it be too much?

To mitigate against our precipitous collapses, Richard tried a new tactic dropping Neil down the order to act as a shepherd to the tail should we require a scramble for runs at the end. We will never know if the tactic would have worked as Chris and Ross proceeded to knock off the runs unbeaten with 7 overs to spare. They hit half centuries (Chris - 78 and Ross - 55) of contrasting styles and never really looked in trouble (to their knowledgeable colleagues) against some decent but unpenetrative bowling.

On the sidelines the remaining putative batsmen debated whether a wide that goes to the boundary counted 5 or 4 to while away the time between some classy stroke play. As the appeals got more desperate and the fielding more despondent our openers saw us home with a flurry of boundaries to a 10 wicket win against league leaders that were no longer undefeated.

And so to the Monkfield Arms where 10 Coton players were joined by several members of Cambourne team, and after an hour or so by Alistair who had decided to go and do his shopping at the adjacent Morrisons before getting a beer (note: get your priorities sorted). It is the mark of a pub that has connections to cricket that it will have jugs available for 50s or 5 wicket halls. That the Monkfield didn’t have jugs, it tells us that the pub – like Cambourne in general – still has a few years to go to reach maturity. The Marstons Pedigree was quite nice though.

As we reflected on a fine all round effort and the contrast from the debacle at Comberton thoughts turned to impending visit of Waterbeach to the Rec.

See you next week. Rob.

Highs:

• Superb Team Fielding - 5 Top Drawer Catches - Bullard, Allison, Sparnon, Kaye and East
• Another Stumping from Alastair Breward - taking glovemanship to new levels....must have been drinking Carlsberg.....probably!
• A Club Record Opening Partnership - of 166 (Chris Cooke 78 not out and Ross Chandler 55 not out)

Lows:

• No Rosy Lea at Tea
• Andy's 'Big Daddy Splash' on a reclining Neil. 'You don't want to see that lot coming at you at pace...' You can still see the dent.
• I can't think of anything else - what a belter of a day