1 Brings 2?

Fresh of a victory we roll on with confidence to our next game. Who are we playing? Pylewell Park, second in the league and they have only lost one, where we have only won one. OK, this seems like it may be a bit of a challenge…..

First up as captain I have a selection challenge, not as in having enough players but the opposite. There is good availably across the club as well as in the 5^th team with a few new players joining as well. This means I am left with having to makes choices, the main one being between playing youth or older players. On the one hand, an avowed aim of this team is to help develop youth players. On the other, if I leave a youth player out I know that they will get a game of cricket in during the week, maybe two, as many play in different age groups. Every adult player I leave out though, I know it means that they will not get a game at all. Another factor is that it seems we will be playing one of the strong teams in the division, so if I don’t pick a team that can complete we might end up getting a complete dicking, which is no good for anyone’s development. So I end up selecting a fairly strong side, the strongest that we have probably put out this season. I do have a rule to include at least three children in each team which I kept to. Although I may have cheated a little bit as two of them were U16 and amongst the strongest players in the team, well able to play at a higher level.  Still, if you are going to have rules, if you make them self imposed you should know how to lawyer then to your own advantage.

The Toss

So, mein Kapitan, you are a wise and sagacious cricketing captain type person, can you talk us through your thinking of choosing to bat or bowl first so we may learn from your enormous intellect? Asked no one at all. Ah, I’m glad you asked me that, I rhetorically reply to the voices inside my head. Nice hot day and hard pitch would lead me to think batting first is a very good idea. But then, early afternoon it was overcast, and you only use one ball in the game at this level which means you may want to take advantage of the conditions to bowl first. However, I am unsure how the pitch will play, as the weather has been baking and preparing pitches has been a bit hit and miss. So far this season we have had really difficult wickets to bat on and also some belters. Which would it be today? I didn’t have a Scooby and no idea of what a good score may be. It could be 125, or it could be 240. So I thought I would choose to bowl first so the opposition could figure that out for us. After all this 4d chess thinking brilliance I promptly lose the toss. The opposition captain thinks for several seconds and says he will have a bat. What thoughts were going through his head? Was it a fine calculus of advantage and tactics? Or was it the thought of ‘it’s going to be a baking afternoon so I’m buggered if I want to be standing in the sun for several hours’……. Either way, Alea iacta est; on with the game.

The opening overs were a parsons egg. The first few overs were very loose with a lot of runs being scored early but then the bowlers found their rhythm. The bats continued to attack though, leading to the run rate staying very healthy (including what I thought a beautifully hit 6). But it also lead to a few wickets falling. So after 8 overs the score was 42 / 3. A run rate this early of more than 5 an over  I considered was far too high as the fielding captain, but having 3 wickets down gave me some hope.

Then came on the two sixteen year olds to bowl, and an excellent display of bowling it was. At one end the bowler chose to pitch it back of a length with pace looking for bounce and movement which caused the bats real difficulties. After a couple of overs I ended up pushing so many fielders into attack positions that I only had a deep fine leg and midwicket on the on side. Only one wicket was taken but only 7 runs scored in 5 overs. At the other end, the bowling was a bit slower and more pitched up to attack the off stump with movement in the air and off the pitch. This invited the drive more but the run total was kept low and another wicket taken – it should have been two but an easy catch was put down.

Stele of the Vultures

The Stele of the Vultures is dates from the early bronze age, roughly 2500BC. It is widely believed by no historians to be the first depiction of a game of cricket. In the top register above a lower order batsman from Umma is taking guard in front of a packed slip cordon,  In the lower register Eannatum, the captain of Lagash is seen fielding at mid off in his 4 wheel battle cart, directing a fielder into a close catching position at short extra cover. So in many ways this is similar to our game at Winton in these overs. The use of spears to intimidate the batter is now of course considered to be ungentlemanly conduct. 

All of the above meant that off the first 8 overs 42 runs were scored, after the next 10 only another 29 were scored for the fall of another 2 wickets – 71 / 5 after 18 overs. I was hopeful that the scoring rate would stay down now as the bats looked to ensure that they batted out their overs. Pah, shows what I know.

The next two bowlers were an off spinner and a 14 year old medium pacer. The bats looked to counter attack, with the medium pacer particularly being attacked and going for a few. He won his battle though, taking the wicket of the bat who had been slogging him. The offy bowled with skill and although the bats looked to score of him he also took a couple of wickets. So in this section of the game, 36 runs were scored from 6 overs but crucially another 3 wickets fell. Now, with the opposition 8 down after 24 overs this should have been me as Mr Happy. But two weeks ago we had the opposition 8 down and still fucked it. On this occasion though, a returning opening bowling took the final two wickets cheaply, closing the innings out for 112.

As the fielding captain I have to say that this was the best collective bowling performance I had seen from my team all season. Opposition all out for 112 – I should be confident right? Feeling good? Looking forward to an easy run chase yes? Have you not been paying any attention at all to this blog? Or indeed how cricket works in general? I just tried to impress on my team (almost pleading) that we did not have to do anything special, just wait for the bad ball. I wanted the rest of the game to be boring, an unexciting grind to a win – how did that go? Well…….

It started off very well, both opening bats looking to be cautious but willing to put away the bad ball (why is it that it always my batting partner that gets the bad balls). So we had got to 36 after only 6 overs, lovely. I was aware though that the opposition had started similarly so was not feeling overly cocky. Then we lost the first wicket, trying to turn a straight ball into leg, missed for a fairly plumb LBW. Off Attila goes looking disappointed. No worries thinks I, we are doing well, just keep plugging away. But then 2 overs later……

Anatomy of a wicket

If you do not like reading bad language I would advise you to skip this paragraph, if you are under 18 please get your mums permission before reading on.

I am facing fairly accurate bowling, nothing too dangerous, but on or outside off stump so I just knock it down to point, no fuss, no worries. Then another ball comes, wider, allowing me to free me arms. I launch a cover drive, the ball moves a bit and I manage to get a nick, look round to see the keeper has taken it and I tuck my bat under my arm and walk off as the opposition celebrate. I try to walk with an air of calm dignity but if you could listen to what was going on in my brain it would sound something like -  ‘fuckingbollockspetrichormingearseholebeggarwankbigdogscockepistomologyshitcheesybellendparabulabumder’.

Ah, everything I said about no worries, play it chilled, we can only lose if we give out wickets away and I go and do that. Why did I not just leave it and give it an expression of slightly pained contempt instead? Cricket, it’s a difficult game.

We then lose a few more, my particular favourite being the wicket lost to the ‘golf shot’. The one where how the batter sees a straight one, does not move their feet and gives it an almighty swing. If it connects it goes a long way, if………

I should not have worried though, as we had good batting in depth. Sargon is able to adjust his game to the situation and ‘Mr Good Time Dave’ even managing to modulate his instincts and to wait for the bad one to whack. These two brining us safely home in the 22^nd over.

So a second win of the season! With what I can safely say was my teams best all round performance this season. A thank you to Pylewell, who even as things did not go according to plan for them played with grace and good humour. How did the pitch play? What would have been a good score? Well, some balls did pop up a bit and some kept low but not sure any of the wickets could be blamed on the pitch. I think a score in excess of 200 would have been possible, the wickets falling through a combination of some excellent bowling and perhaps poor shot selection. Sometimes the batters win the contest and build a big dcore, but sometimes the bowlers do.

Match Socrecard

Having just re read this post I realise that it is overall a thoughtful attempt to accurately describe a game of cricket. I do realise that this is probably a disappointment to most of the several people that read this blog regularly.  I can only apologise for this lapse and promise normal service should be resumed next week.

 

HCL Div 6(a)

Mudeford 2s continue on their winning streak - halfway through the season, top of the table and no losses. Despite losing Pylewell Park stay in second with Mudeford 3s closing up to them with a win. Due to our second win in a row, Winton go shooting up the table to er, third from bottom. If it carries on like  this we can start to dream of mid table mediocrity. 

Winton Round Up

 A good week for the club, with four wins out of five. The ones, after a slow start are climbing the table. The three advance into the top half of their league with the 4 dominating at the top of theirs. Only the 2s lose, and are now theirs, so still in the hunt for promotion. 

Sijo Watch

Sijo again managed to sneak ut into the middle to have a bat this week, leading to another defeat. The 2s really need to make sure Sijo does not even need ot put his pads on. Mind you, the 10th wicket partnership he shared was the biggest of the innings. So maybe the 2s may start to think they could be with a calm steady bat higher up the order to stop the collapse they seem to have suffered in both  the games they have lost? 

 

Sometimes, I Bloody Love Cricket

An odd start to my cricketing day. I drive around Bournemouth as I am giving a few people a lift to the game and every road I go down there is an annoying amount of traffic. So I get to the game, if not late, then a little behind time. A warm beautiful day it is though, with BBC weather reporting a precisely 0% chance of rain. So I am thinking, if I win the toss, that is bolted on to bat. As we are getting close to the ground though, it starts raining. This impossible rain keeps up for half an hour. On the plus side this is one of the few grounds in this league with covers which are rolled out. But the pitch probably does get some moisture on it which will juice it up for bit until it dries out. I duly win the toss so am left with a decision to make. ‘Ah, we’ll have a bat’ I decisively / foolishly  / bravely say.  

So, how did that work out? Opening dates started of cautiously in the face of some accurate bowling – making sure that we got off to a solid start. When a bad ball came along it was dispatched. The first wicket going down at 32, so not a disaster as long as it was built on. And built on it was with the remaining opener pushing on well supported by No.s 3 and 4 to get to 124/3 at almost 6 an over. As the captain I had a warm fuzzy feeling about this. We then lost a couple quickly, which for this team is always a dodgy thing, as the batting order has the ability to panic and jump like lemmings over the cliff. Will Lochhead played an excellent steadying hand though, not trying to smash it but keeping things on course, the run rate dropped a bit but a decent score was being built. This allowed the lower middle order to come and attack, upping the run rate again for a very creditable 221 of you actual cricket runs.

A good score, but would it be enough? The pitch was a good one and the outfield was hard and fast. Bransgore I knew also had some very decent bats, so game on. I was informed that their first opener was a danger, a very capable bat. The opening ball of the innings was sent down and thudded into the pad and from where I was, look very LBWish – with the umpires finger going up! One run, one wicket. The second wicket fell a few overs later. This led to a couple of very powerful hitters coming to the crease, and hit powerfully they did. Upping the run rate considerably. This was another point of danger for this team – witness last week when we went from a winning position to losing it (the game / our heads / focus) when some bats counter attacked. Today though no one panicked, the bowlers continued to bowl well, the fielders remained focused and we took a wicket, then another and things snow balled from there to a convincing win.  

As captain, the most pleasing thing about the win was that it was not due to one or two people have a ‘day out’. It was a good all round team performance with everyone stepping up as needed, which was nice. We had come very lose to victory in a couple of games before falling short, so it is nice to now win one.

The Winton captain at the end of the match

Anatomy of a Catch

Early in the Bransgore innings I was put in the position of having to take a catch, a position which I hate….. The ball was hit straight – and in the air. My first hope was that it would be a caught and bowled, nope going over the bowlers head. So, next I hoped that it would be closer to mid on (I was mid off), nope, slightly my side of straight. My final despairing hope was that it would also be too high for me to take – but buggery flip, it was not hit hard enough and it was already dropping. Ah, I don’t like this for many reasons – I had to make a decent amount of ground. While the ball was not absolutely flying it was hard enough and worst of all I HAD TIME TO THINK ABOUT IT – nightmare. I managed to get in line and thinking about it I saw that although dropping it was still going to be head hight so made the mental decision of ‘fingers up’. To the general surprise of everyone in the team and my utter relief I managed to hold on to it. So, this is fair warning to my team, I have taken a catch this season, I do hope you are not expecting me to do something as competent again.

Sijo Watch

A double instalment as I did not included this section in my last games write up. Two weeks ago Sijo, the captain of the 2s got to have his first bat of the season – scoring a creditable 14 at No.11 This game was also the 2s first loss of the season. Last week, Sijo was back on form. He has to get padded up but was not able to get out into the middle. His team also recorded a crushing victory. There seems to be a pattern building up here. So for all the players in the 2s, for your hopes and chances of promotion I beseech you – try to not let your captain have a bat……..  

Match Scorecard

 

 

Sometimes, I Bloody Hate Cricket

If you are one of the many several stylish, tasteful and discerning people that choose to regularly read this blog, you have probably noticed that this instalment is being published over a week late. My apologies for that, but the game that I should be writing up annoyed me so much I couldn’t face it, hence the radio silence.

The game was against Sway, a team in a very similar position to us in the league, leading to us hoping that we had a chance of coming away with the laurels. Having won the toss, I chose to field. The pitch looked ok but wanted to give my bowlers a chance to use the shiny hard ball (at this level remember, only one ball per game). As a captain, choosing to field always seems to be a risk, as if the opposition get off to a flyer you feel a bit of a fool. No worries of that in this game though, we had Sway at 72 / 8.

AND THEN WE STILL BLOODY LOST

What? How? Why? Fa crying out loud…….. From 72 for 8 they ended up on 190. On a good pitch this should have been doable but we ended up 159 all out.

Where can blame and credit lie for this? Well, lets look to myself first. As captain, could I have done anything else? When we had them on the ropes, I was happy to carry things on as they were, they were working so why not let them carry on working? I could  have been more proactive, brought back the opening bowlers with more attacking fields to wrap things up, this may be a lesson learnt.

Next, got to give credit to the two bats that put on the 100 runs stand. Fair play, they did the business, with a mixture of defensive batting when needed and attacking strokes when able. They were also very active in hustling the quick singles when they could. Well played gentlemen.

There is possible also an issue with the mental strength of the team when things started to slip. Rather than people stepping forward to calm things and take responsibility it all got very ragged, the team got a bit shell shocked. Quick singles were given away when they should not have been – people were not in their position and on their toes. To stop the rot at one point as captain I quickly called everyone in to speak about being switched on and doing the basics better, which did have an effect. By then it was a bit too late.

So 190 runs more or less given away. The pitch was playing well though and it should have been chased down. Too many silly mistakes, to many people not taking responsibility to make things happen when they should have done (talking about the senior players here, not the youngsters, me included). This led to a game that should have been a win petering out to a distinctly annoying loss.

72 for 8 should have led to out first win of the season, instead it become the worst loss of the season instead. Bah, sometimes I bloody hate cricket………….

Winton captain at the end of the game

 A tale of woe

 

Cancelled, Abandoned, Abandoned, Cancelled

The wicket is the strip of light brown underneath the lake......

Last weekend was wet in the South of England and I don’t think there were many games played. It had rained heavily overnight but had stopped raining Saturday morning, so my first job was to check if it was even possible to play on the wicket and ground, or if it was already too wet.

When inspecting the ground as the home team captain, there are a few important things to keep in mind. First, you have to inspect the wicket, especially on an uncovered pitch. While doing this, the most important thing to consider is ‘can you get a decent team out?’. If you are struggling for numbers, or are only making it up to 11 by calling in really weak players you may want to notice just how soft and unsuitable the wicket is to play on. Conversely, if you can field a strong team, then this probably means that the sun and breeze will dry it out nicely before the start of play. Then you need to be sure that the outfield and especially the bowler run ups are safe to play on. When doing this it is important to consider the quality of the opposition; if they are unbeaten at the top of the table you may find that the run ups are far too wet and slippery to use safely.

So after checking that I had a decent team and the opposition were bottom half of the table the ground was ok to play I did not call the game off. This was somewhat frustrating as there was a lot of rain forecast for the afternoon but it was not raining at the time and forecasts can be wrong so there was no reason to yet call the game off.

So, how did the game go? Yeah, rained off after 14 overs or so, a frustrating day all round. Any interesting incidents? Well, a contentious caught behind was given. I say contentious, to be more precise, everyone on the ground including the umpire thought there was a good nick, the batter disagreed. There are two ways for the batter to handle this:

The ‘cricket approved way’ – fixed the umpire with a hard stare for just a second then slowly walk off slowly shaking your head.

The ‘don’t teach this to the kids ‘way. Audibly disagree with the umpire’s decision and walk of muttering semi verbalised swearwords.

Now, I do not mention this to make fun of or chastise the batsman in question (OK, maybe just a little bit). But because it illustrates two important points about being a cricketer.

Point the first

Being a batsman is psychologically really hard. You play once a week, and probably look forward to the game. As a bat you can go out to play, and it a matter of minutes, if not seconds, wham, that’s it, game over, no second chances. This can be tough, especially if you are given out in a way you perceive as unfair.

Point the second

People involved in cricket have an idea about the game, its image and their own behaviour that they often do not live up too. ‘It’s not cricket', 'fair play' and being respectful to your opponents are nice ideals but are often observed in the breach. This is not just a ‘village cricket’ thing either, but seems to be a culture throughout the game. I have seen in low league games men swearing at opponents – including children. It is also nepotistic; I have seen captains and coaches pick players based on not if they deserve to be picked but if they are a mate, or the child of a friend, rather than on merit. Such selfishness extends throughout the game. The MCC claims for itself the right to be the holders and guardians of the ‘spirit of the game’. Their claims to this were tested in the last Ashes series when Jonny Bairstow was controversially run out by Australia. Shortly afterwards, the Australian team has to walk through the ‘Long Room’, full of MCC members. A chance for them to show the world the culture of the MCC. Did they behaviour with dignity and gravitas, making the Australian team wilt under a silent condemnation all the more powerful for being unspoken? Or did they behaviour like a group of entitled children who had just heard the world ‘no’ for the first time in their lives?  

The MCC, a complete bunch of utter members 

Don’t get me wrong, I have met a lot of lovely people through cricket. But in my somewhat short time in being involved with the game, I have come across far to much behaviour that I would describe as ‘not cricket’.

New Feature

Which I am going to call ‘Sijo watch’. This season Sijo has taken over captaining the 2s and has won five out of five – fair play to him. So far though, in every game he has not yet had a chance to bat, with a month and a half of the season gone. So, each week, I will be reporting on how close Sijo actually gets to wielding the willow.

Winton Round Up

It rained

Div 6A Round Up

It rained some more

 

Well, That Was Unexpected

An away game against Mudeford 3s. Still not sure why they are in the same section of Div 6 - 6A, as Mudeford 2s rather than one of them being in 6B but ho hum. I was assuming that this game would be at Mudeford Rec. This is a ground that is functional, but feel sure that no one in the club would be too offended if I did not describe as one of the most beautiful that I have been to. It has some nice trees in the background and a really good chippie opposite, but no breathtaking vistas of the English countryside. However, a few days before the match I realised that if their 1s and 2s take turns playing at home the 3s must play their home games elsewhere. When I checked I was sent a link to a map of the ground that was labelled as ‘Bisterne Football Club’. Great, this was going to be a ropey stretch of astro in the middle of a field that for 10 months of a year was used as football pitches so the outfield would be dangerous to play on; oh ffs. Imagine my surprise when I turned off a quite country road into a sports ground that had been fully converted into a cricket pitch with a good square and smooth flat outfield. This being situated with views of beautiful countryside in every direction. On top of this, it was a perfect day for cricket, sunny without being overly hot. A perfect setting for a game of cricket. Don’t go telling the captain of Mudeford 1s or he might go getting ideas about what ground he wants to play on……

 

Bisterne Cricket Ground, a view from the boundary at the close of play, looking west

Winton 5s are coming into this game of the back of two bad defeats. Not due to the opposition being so much better than us but due to a lack of effort and fight on our part leading to batting collapses. As captain I found this intensely annoying and my main priority was for this to not happen again. Winning the toss I elected to bat on what looked like a good pitch. It did indeed play well all day, a little up and down but nothing too mental.

Striding out to with my partner we agreed we needed to be solid, create a base for others to build on, didn’t need to do anything mental. Can you guess what happened? First wicket down with only 7 on the board in a frustrating fashion. Attila was given out LBW by his son. I thought that I heard a nick but what boy does not want to give his dad out LB? Indeed Freud argued that this rite of passage for any young man was an expression of a desire to clear the way for his own future. He probably also said something about it being an expression of a primal Oedipal urge about wanting to shag your own mum, but Freud was a bit of a perv like that. It might also be a case of as Alex said ‘it was plumb and I didn’t hear anything’, which is also fair enough. Wicket number two fell shortly after for 18 in the eighth over and I was worrying about another collapse and ignominious defeat. I was determined that this would not happen and Harry, the new bat was of similar mind. So with a plan of just not losing any more wickets until the 20^th over and then seeing where we were we dug in. We let wide ones go and flat batted anything straight and we did let quite a few maidens go. As we got our eyes in we started to strike the ball to start the score ticking over.

All this meant that after twenty overs we were 56 /2. OK, not a great scoring rate by any means but in our previous game we were all out for 61 so I was more than happy with that as an improvement. With wickets in hand though we could try and push on  and I had a hopeful target of 175 in mind – which was just over 5 an over in the second half of the innings. Ah, alackaday, both Harry and I went quite quickly, Jacob at 5 showed a bit of fight but succumbed just as he was starting to look comfortable, followed by the No.6 for a duck, leaving us 89/6 in the 30^th. This could go south very quickly and even if we weren’t skittled limping to 125 just would not be enough; my estimate being 150 was the bare minimum to make a game of it. But then Alex T and Adam L stepped up, Alex taking the lead in attack and Adam showing steady support they managed a 50 partnership in 7 overs before Alex went down. With the tail also chipping in we made it to 154 by the end of the innings. Not a great score but far better than what it looked like it could have been and enough to make a game of it. The fact that several people in the batting order stepped up when needed was also very heartening.

Although I did not say so to the team, I was not overly hopeful going out to bowl, as Mudeford seemed to have a few people top order that could whack it and we would need to get them out quickly.  And to be fair, with Alex Leach leading the charge there was a regular clatter of wickets; the score being 25/3 at the end of ten overs – game on. To try and keep up the pressure I turned to that handsome young devil, a certain A Worsdale, to see if he could produce a wicket or two; as to everyone’s astonishment, including his own, he has been regularly taking wickets this season.

I managed to take two wickets. The first could be described as ‘a beautifully flighted delivery, the angle of the ball confusing the bat who played a false stroke and was caught at square leg’.  To be fair, it could also de described using phrases such as ‘rank full toss’, ‘hit straight to fielder’, ‘taking wickets with shite’ and ‘lucky bastard’. I would therefore like to thank the bat for the gift of his wicket. Mind you, I also have to say it was a good catch by Harry – it was hit at him very hard. The second wicket was the result of a lovely shot – a beautifully executed lofted straight drive. Unfortunate for the bat, there were two factors that got in the way of the six he was looking for. The first was that the straight boundary was a decent size, not massive but certainly bigger than Winton.  The second was that stationed on that boundary was Adam Loader, who is a) a tall lad and b) probably the safest pair of hands in the team. So just as it looked like the ball was soaring over his head for a six he stretched both arms above his head and the ball smacked into his hands. It is gratifying to see a plan come together.

Unfortunately, although we got Mudeford 6 down their Wicket Keeper Alex Burns stepped up to guide his team to the win scoring at a decent rate but without taking many risks. A 7^th wicket in the 32 over seemed to be no more than a consolation as Mr Burns hit a 4 in the 33^rd over to tie the scores and that, it seemed, was that.

But then Alex Leach took his fourth wicket to dismiss Mr Burns, leaving the scores level and two wickets to go – interest was revived. Adam Nichols then bowled an over of dot, dot, dot, dot wicket! Only one more needed to tie the game. The Winton team crowded the bat, The Mudeford team watching had gone from a relaxed calm to a rigid oh ffs this can’t happen disbelief. Final ball of the over, this is what makes sport thrilling, what would happen? The bowler completed his run up, a whirl of arms and legs and released the ball. Then the umpire outrageously called the ball a wide to seal the win for his team. I say outrageously, when to be fair, after 5 awesome balls in the over, the last ball I think was so wide it may have been in a different postcode to the batsman by the time it smacked into the keepers gloves.

So, no last minute miracle, no thrill of pulling it out of  the bag as we went down to a loss. I am not so worried by this loss though, as there was a great spirit and effort showed by the team. A team that had 4 U14s in as well as a couple of other young lads, playing against men. To be good at cricket it is at least as important to have the correct mental attitude as well as technical skill, so the young lads learning that attitude is an important part of the role of the ‘development’ team. Would also like to thank our opponents for an enjoyable game and enjoyable days cricket.

Match Scorecard

Winton Round Up

The ones continue their uneven start to the season with another loss on an away day to the Island. The 2s and 4s both continue their winning streaks both making it 5 out of 5 with the 3s joining them in the winning column.

HCL Div 6(a)

The big game this week was first played second – Pyewell Park v Mudeford 2s, with Mudeford coming away the victors. When that is added to Mudeford 3s outrageously lucky and undeserved win, it puts Mudeford in both top spots. For Winton 5s, the next few games are against teams at our ewnd of the table so a good chance to pcik up some points. No disrespect intended, I am sure those teams are thinking the same about playing us. Will be interesting to see how it goes.    

 

 

 

Time to Step Up 

Or at least to Step in Time

So, a home game against Lymington, who had won their first two games, with the opening bat Mr Tollerfield scoring a century in each one, so could be tricky. Their last game they were skittled out for 29, so I was carrying some hope that they had some vulnerabilities. Chatting to their captain, he described the loss as due to facing a surprisingly fast bowler for this level of cricket and the team could not deal with the pace. He also said that they were playing with 3 U14s, which they would not be in the game against us. So, we may be facing a stronger team than they had previously put out.

We lost the toss and Lymington decided to bat. Was in two minds as to what I would have done so I was happy enough with this. I was aware that the Winton pitch had been a bit naughty recently but was confident that it would be playing better so batting first might have been nice. But still, we get to use the new ball and if we bowl well could limit them to a gettable score.

On we crack, our opening bowlers take a wicket and keep scoring opportunities down in the first ten overs. After this though, ‘Mr Century’ is joined by a couple of ‘big biffer’ batsmen and the run rate starts to climb alarmingly, so by drinks Lymington have score well over 100 runs and are accelerating. This is worrying; a big score is in the offing. On the plus side we had also managed to pick up a couple of wickets so not a complete disaster.   

This is a situation that makes it genuinely interesting to be a captain, as if I just let things drift it could go very bad, so what to do? The plan I decide to go with is to bring back one of the opening bowlers straight after the break to see if he can tighten things up at one end whilst turning to the young lad A Worsdale at the other to see if he can get a wicket or two with his ‘toss it up’ slow deliveries.

Surprisingly enough, this plan worked out bang on. Alex kept it tight one end while the lad Adam spun his web at the other taking three wickets. During this period Lymington also suffered a retired hurt, someone going down while running for a second run. My first instinct was ‘he’s fallen over get the ball in’. It soon became apparent that this was a proper injury so the game stopped and the gentleman had to hobble off – all the best to him and hope it is not as bad as feared.

After this clutch of wickets the ball went to the strike bowlers and the innings was soon wrapped up. After twenty overs I was fearing a score well in excess of 200, so to finish of the innings for 166 was a performance that I was proud of. One fear was the pitch was getting worse as the innings went on but with a target of only 4 an over I felt it was more than doable. A nod to Mr Tollerfield – who just missed out on his third century of the season by being left stranded on 94.

And then we had a bat, er, yeah, that was not so great. Now, people may point to the fact that I got out for a duck and this is true. I was out playing a defensive shot to a good ball – which was better than I could deal with. Too many of the team got out swinging. Or even more frustratingly, playing a half hearted push shot and chipping the ball into the air for a catch. Not flat batting it into the ground like they should have done. The forward defensive shot seems to be a dying art. 

It gives me a semi just looking at it

So what should have been a doable run chase into a chastising 61 all out, a bit frustrating really. The pitch was getting to be difficult to play on and a couple of people did show tenacity and got out to difficult balls (one being an ankle high skimmer going under the bat of a defensive shot, again). But overall, a performance that could have and should have been far better. I can only refer my team to the post game team talk in the blog entry for the last game.

This is how bad it’s got

On Play Cricket for each team there is a ‘Hall of Fame’ for each team. And for my team this shows me as having the best performance in a game for the team with both bat and ball. I do not say this to blow my own trumpet. Well, ok, maybe there is a little self bugle tooting going on. But I mainly say this because there is no way I can be described as the best batter or bowler in this, or indeed any other, team. And the fact that I am performing better than everyone else in the team I fear says far more about everyone else than it does me. First two games of the season everyone was on it, the level now seems to have dropped. Some come on gentlemen, time to extract digits.

Winton Round Up

The 1s are up and running with a win – get in! Both the 2s and 4s maintain their 100% start to the season. Four out of four for the 4s and the 2s. The threes had a match that I can sympathise with……

HCL Div6(a)

Pylewell Park and Mudeford 2s both maintain a 100% start to the season to go first and second. They play each other next week – an early season 6 pointer? Mudeford 3s are snapping at their heels in third. At the bottom there are three teams yet to win a game – I will not be so gauche as to name them…….

 

 

 

 

Welcome To the New Forest Cricket Tardis

I like the New Forest, I go there camping, and walking. It is lovely, some parts giving off a proper ‘forest’ vibe, some more heath land. Some beautiful panoramas. A lovely place to visit, apart from the inconvenience of gangs of out of control gangsta ponies roaming around doing whatever the faq they please, causing trouble and disrespecting everyone they come across. But being a forest, it has a very low population density. That is one of the reasons why it is a great place to spend some time in. It does however have a shit ton of cricket clubs, many of them with multiple teams. At the last national census, it was calculated that there were more cricket clubs in the New Forest than people.

Burley High Street 9PM on a Saturday night

But it was to the New Forest we went – namely playing Bashley and Rydell High School Cricketing 11 (go the T-Birds!). I did not actually play in this match, was busy that day. You may think that this would cause me some problems trying to do a write up of the game, and you would be right. But not for the reason you are thinking. Doing a blog post about a game of cricket that I did not see is really not a problem. If I can see the score card and have a chat to someone that was there half of that problem is solved. When you put this together with the fact that I have a fertile imagination, no qualms about making stuff up and no actual interest in giving a factual recount of the game in question you can see that this is no real problem at all.

No, the problem I was mulling over last Saturday was far more fundamental. If my team won and I did not play, indeed was not even present on the day, how could I claim credit for the victory? You see, quite a tricky one eh? It’s not impossible, as if you are one of the er, 10s of people that was reading this nonsense last year, you will know that I managed to claim credit for the victory v Lymington in which I did not play. But it does take me an even more than usual willingness to ignore facts, accurate reporting and sense of decency to pull it off. Happily for me though, my team managed to lose, even without the handicap of me playing so all that worry was wasted. All that really remains is for me to give my team its post game talk reflecting on the defeat, so here goes –

“You should all be ashamed of yourselves, you let yourself down, your parents down and most of all you let me down. You all should go home and think about the pathetic way you have embarrassed me today”.  

You may be asking yourself why I would mention the players letting their parents down in an adult match. This is because I first used this speech several years ago when the U9 girls team that I was managing first lost and it had such a powerful effect then I see no reason to change it now.

How did we lose? Well, the openers managed to start well, getting to well over 50 before the first wicket fell. The rest of the team then decided to show a misguided sense of solidarity with their opening bats by all getting out in quick succession. Ah, what cha gunna do? It happens sometimes. Any bright points, well a good opening stand, obviously. Bowling wise, Alex Leach opened the bowling and only went for 7 runs in 5 overs, which is a commendable effort. Champagne moment? That is awarded in a completely different game – see below.

 Match Scorecard

Winton Round Up

The 1s managed to maintain their consistent start to the season by coming second again – remember guys, you are letting yourselves and your parents down…..

The 2s and 4s both maintained their 100% start to the season, which is nice and the 3s posted their first win as well.

 

HCL Div 6(a)

Well, the main game I would pick out here is Lymington 4s. v Mudeford 3s. Despite winning their first 2 games of the season Lymington conspired to get themselves bowled out for 29. Probably wasn’t the pitch as Mudeford had already posted 230. My guess would be a good bowling performance allied to a ‘one of those days’ for Lymington. The Champagne award this week therefore goes to Carl Turner for a stellar bowling performance with figures of 6/5/5/7. Well played sir. Now, we are playing Lymington next weekend, so if they could put in another ‘one of those days’ that would be great! How likely is that though…….