If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same

 

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same

 

A half hour drive gets me to the ground, where I park. The car park is very close to the boundary of the pitch and I realise that I have just parked smack bang in cow corner, so back in the car and move it to somewhere sensible.

Out of the car to greet team mates and opposition. Also the ponies, who are in charge of everything in the New Forest and will wander onto the pitch whenever they god damn please.

The white markers are the boundary

Then onto ‘Cricketing Ritual No. 1’ – Inspecting the pitch. At this level, this usually this involves looking at it and thinking ‘a bit of grass coverage but should be ok and play fairly well throughout the day, yeah bat first.’ However, this pitch was green and proper damp, which meant that it would keep low and seam about like your mum after a few large G&Ts; before drying out under the days hot sun, meaning less sideways movement and reliable bounce. It was screaming ‘bowl first’ as loud as any pitch I have seen. We promptly lost the toss and got put into bat.

This did mean that I got to open the batting with my son – which is just lovely for a dad. There are also complementary aspects to our respective styles of play that make us a useful opening pair: He is right handed, I’m left, he prefers batting 1, I prefer 2, he is a more aggressive stroke maker, I’m more flat bat, he is good at cricket, I’m, well, these comparisons can be taken too far.

Opening the batting we quickly realised we had a game on our hands, as the two opening bowlers, whilst not express paced, were accurate, experienced and knew how to exploit the conditions. We quickly agreed that the plan was to protect the middle order, see these two off, take any bad balls on offer and see where we were after the first ten or so overs. We managed this very well, the score being 30 / 0 after 11 overs, not express scoring but a good start in the conditions. The first wicket then fell to the most outrageous piece of incompetent umpiring that I have ever witnessed, giving an unbelievable LBW decision to a ball that clearly struck the batsman outside the leg stump. I refused to even look at the umpire as I walked off, managing to keep my composure and dignity in spite of this nonsense decision.

This did give me the opportunity to sit and admire the surroundings.

The view from the pavilion 

The second wicket went down a run later before Jude Lee came to the crease. He and Sargon put on a 50 partnership at a good clip, building towards a decent score. It was at this point it become clear that a bowler named Neil was not well liked by his team mates. Jude offered them a few catches off Neil’s bowling that they refused to take, spilling the ball onto the grass with weak excuses of ‘losing sight of it in the trees’ or some such.   

After 25 overs with 8 wickets in hand we looked to push on to a competitive score, without great success though.  Neil was getting so pissed off with his team mates that he ended up taking a caught and bowled as no one else was willing to take a catch for him. The next wicket went shortly after but things were not looking to bad, as we had some decent bats in the middle order. But they came and went in far too rapid succession followed by a tail of woe, slumping from 83 / 2 to 110 all out. Special mention must go to Chris Lee, who invented a new way to get out. The ball hit his back pad outside leg stump and he managed to rabona it through his legs onto the stumps, not sure how but it was a rare piece of skill.

This left a not over challenging run chase but you never know with cricket. When the first wicket of Godhills innings went down – nicked off to 1^st slip in the third over, hope started to rise. However, Chris Houghton played a good innings, cautious when needed and looking to punish the bad ball, he made 52 before succumbing. He was joined at No 3 by Chris Wyver, who I think had a bus to catch as he was full of aggressive intent, helped by a dry pitch. The cows being fully in danger.

At this ground ‘cow corner’ is not a meaningless cricketing cliché

He inevitably fell (chopping on) but hit a quick 35 before going, which was plenty when chasing such a low total. An innings of single minded unsubtle intent which was quickly over, but you could see he enjoyed immensely. I only hope for Mrs Wyver’s sake that he does not make love like he bats……. Godshill then went on to wrap it up.

As for individual performances for Winton: Sargon top scored, dealing with a very tricky opening spell before building an innings, he will be disappointed to not at least have gotten his 50. Special mention to Jude; having to go out after your team has lost 2 quick wickets and rebuild an innings is never easy; the fact that he did so as a 13 year old showed very good character. Bowling wise, no one really stands out. A special mention to Sargon, who was the only bowler used to not a take a wicket but bowled a very good ‘how did he not take a wicket’ spell.

For Gosdhill, on top of those already mentioned, Jon and Simon opening the bowling were bang on it. Sam Scott also did well bowling, starting a bit wayward and giving some runs away before he recovered to take 4 wickets. And finally Matt Robb, a left arm slow bowler, who was the pick of the bowlers for either side, bowling accurately and moving it off the pitch for figures of 8/5/7/2, impressive indeed. A big thanks to Godshill for playing in good spirit and good luck to you for the rest of the season – am sure you will do well.

Match Scorecard