Abandon All Cricket, All Yea Who Enter Here

Bugger me, rain happened

The last match is not an easy one to write up for a few reasons. The first is that I was not playing, I did manage to come and go so watched some if it (was on running daughter around duties for the day), but not all. The second was that it was abandoned at the break, as there was a lot of rain, so not too much to commentate on, but hey, let’s give it a go.

Winton batted first, with the openers scoring 28 before losing a wicket, which is not awful. Although it must be said, there did seem to be something missing. No one could quite explain what or why, but it was generally agreed that the batting at the start lacked a sense of style, grace and all round manly handsomeness. What this was I could not possibly say, but it is an odd game sometimes.

This was then another game where a young lad had to step forward and save the innings. Which Jude Lee did with determination and grit, scoring 51 n.o. while wickets regularly fell at the other end. Due to this, it was more a ‘hold the innings together’ knock, as he never had the freedom to properly get after the bowlers. This is a complement however, as it is harder for a youngster to perform when things are hard than if it was going swimmingly at the other end. We got to 172 a.o in the 39^th over. Which for us is a decent score, but strikes me as unders for a game at the Winton Bowl.  

And then it started raining and well, didn’t stop. Game abandoned so not much else to say. Apart from I tried the alcohol free Guinness for the first time ever and was impressed. Also, must mention that the gentlemen from Pylewell played the game and dealt with the weather with good humour and grace, so I and I say word up to bredwin, and that.

Elsewhere, most other games were abandoned as well. One of the few that were not was Winton 3s V Cadnam 3s, which Cadnam won in a rain hit DLS result. This was Winton 3s first loss of the season. They retain top spot, just ahead if Bournemouth 4s in second. Behind them two, there are 4 teams all close together, with 0.86 of a point between them all in the battle for third or overtaking the top two. So if either of the top two lose a game, there are plenty of teams waiting to pounce and overhaul them. And the top two teams play each other this week. There are seven games left and the team that wins that one is looking very good for promotion. The team that loses it will not be out of the race, but they will be back with the chasing pack. A high stakes game indeed, with bolas de acero needed.

 

Whichever captain loses this will have let their team down, their club down but most of all themselves down.

No pressure

Match Scorecard 

 

 

The Energy of Youth

Will Always Lose Out to the Slightly Dodgy Knees of Experience

For once this week I thought I would challenge myself to do a proper game report, with some sort of narrative description and highlighting good performances and all that jazz. So sit back and strap yourself in for what promises to be possibly a tepid ride.

Winton Dev Team V Bransgore 2s. Both teams alike being a mix of youth and experience, but with Bransgore far higher up the table. They win the toss and elect to bat – textbook. Was not a completely cut and dried decision though, as the pitch, although still decent, had lost some hardness due to a lot of rain in the past week on an uncovered pitch. As only one ball is used in the match, batting first means you are giving your opponents the new ball, which, if they have bowlers that can exploit it, can be a bit risky.

The opening 8 overs were a bit of a contradiction, with the two bowlers bowling well, taking a couple of wickets but still going for over 5 an over. This can be reconciled by the fact that the bowling was overall a good quality but against bats that were experienced and looking to score. So wickets were taken, but anything a bit wayward was got after.

A special mention goes to Alfred Dearing, who took the wickets and again impressed the opposition with the pace of his bowling for such a young lad; he will only get faster and better. He went for a few 4s but I don’t think he should be worried about that. I hope that his coaches over the next few years don’t coach out his pace and aggression with a mantra of ‘line and length’. Sure, the more accurate anyone bowls the better. But with the pace he has now he should be coached to be a weapon, scaring batsmen and hunting wickets. Or that’s what this idiot on the internet thinks……..

There was then a rain break for a bit more than an hour. For a while it was looking touch and go but the rain abated and the sun came out, with the pitch drying. The captains agreed to cut the game to a 30 over match. This may have been slightly in Winton’s favour as Bransgore did not start of batting knowing it was going to be a shorter game. However, they had started aggressively, getting runs and losing wickets, so I don’t think they would have done anything much different anyhow.

What was to their disadvantage though was the dampness that had gotten onto the pitch during the rain, which made it stickier and harder to bat on. This was exploited by some decent bowling, particularly by Alex Tekeli, whose bowling is medium pace. He puts it in the right place, letting the ball and wicket do the work, challenging the bat to score of off him. Such bowling will never get him the plaudits of the pace of someone like Alfie Dearing, but by far the best bowling figures in the match of 6/0/15/3 can’t be argued with.

So the scoring rate lowered as the wickets fell, before a final push at the death that saw the score rise to a very decent 154 from 30 overs. Special praise going to Mark Hooper, who opened the batting and scored 69 n.o. at a strike rate of 75. I get the feeling he could have gone harder and scored more but he had to manage the fact that wickets kept falling at the other end, if he had gone as well his teams batting would probably have fallen apart. He batted with a mix of caution and controlled aggression that took his team to a competitive total, being paid the ultimate compliment by the opposition of fielders on the boundary when he was on strike, followed by the field squeezing in when he wasn’t - ‘give him a single’ was the plan.

So, was 154 from 30 overs a good score? Just over 5 an over? I thought it was decent. On the one hand, Winton Oval (The home of Cricket™) is a small ground and runs can be easy to come by, although it is not billiard smooth and the council probably don’t keep the grass as short as they should. On the other, the rain that had fallen on the wicket made it sticky, you could see how more difficult the batting had got for Bransgore after the rain interruption. I thought the 8 or so overs they had before the rain, scoring at over 5 an over could have been decisive.  Also, our batting has not so far covered itself with glory; we have seemed to always find a way to lose despite having some decent bats in our side. So it would be fair to say  I was hopeful rather than confident.

Out strode the openers, to face bowling that could be described as experienced rather than rapid. This however did not make it easy, as on a sweating pitch the ball could a bit of a bugger to play. We did ok though, going at slightly over 4s for the first 7 overs, which is a decent start. I then manage to get myself out to a bad ball (again). Too short and too straight I pulled it. But it was slower than I thought and bounced a bit less than I anticipated, so instead of it being that brutal pull just behind square for 4 that was in my mind’s eye, it hit low on the bat and popped up to midwicket. Still, at 32/1 the team was on its way, not a disaster. I would also like to say say that the scoring on play cricket is off. It has me facing 42 balls, which as I was out in the 7^th over and I distinctly remember Atilla playing it cagey and facing quite a few more balls than me in those overs, can’t be right. I also think I scored more than 6 (but not much more…..) Think there may have been confusion in recording who was facing in the early overs.

Off I go, in comes No. 3. Who managed to get himself out from an inside edge onto the pads before trickling onto the stumps, getting a sinking feeling…….

Next player to get praise though is Sargon Worsdale. Came in after his team lost two quick wickets so there could be problems. His first ball though was over pitched and too straight and was driven through mid on for 4. His next scoring shot a couple of balls later was from a ball a bit to short and smashed for a 6 over deep midwicket. Scoring 25 from his first 13 balls, including two 6s and three 4s he changed the narrative arc of the game, the field spreading onto the boundary. I was a bit worried, as he is a young lad who may have continued trying to hit out when his team needed him to be calm and take them to the win. He did this though, taking the easy singles now on offer and only going after the balls that really deserved it, which kept the scoring well ahead of the run rate.

Which brings us to the youth V experience issue when batting together. Playing a shot to the longest boundary, it wasn’t going to go for a 4, so leaping into action he shouted ‘2, take 2’. To receive the reply from the other end of ‘only the 1’. Being keen he returned with ‘turn and go, turn and go’, which he promptly did, to see Atilla at the other end still well out of his ground for the first run and not anywhere near ‘turning’, let alone ‘going’, so he gave up on the idea. Ah, to be young and fit again, with a body that works as you want it to……

Attila Setting Out For a Single

Attila gave good support, before eventually succumbing to to the plumbest LBW you will ever see. After that, 2 bats fell for a duck bringing back fears of a collapse. Going into bat at 7 was A Dearing though, who batted sensibly and well, giving good support to close out the game for our first win in weeks. I like playing cricket. Winning is also nice, put the two together makes for a happy day of sport.

The final runs were scored in a style that can been seen in different ways. With two runs needed to win with four overs to go the game was finished with a lofted on drive that went over the boundary, over the cycle track and over the fence into the long grass on the slope. As the bowler, you can think ‘that was a good shot’ but also think ‘possibly a bit unnecessary’. For the bat though, after guiding his team to victory in fine style he had probably earned the  right to finish the game with what a 1980s journalist describing Viv Richards would describe as ‘swagger’.

So, a second victory for the Kapils. It started with a  disciplined bowling performance that was regularly taking wickets. Followed by a batting performance that the openers got off to a decent start, with one of them hanging around deep into the innings, someone in the top order getting a good score at faster than a run a ball who towards the end was well supported by someone in the middle order to close it out. Textbook, cricket is an easy game eh?

Game Scorecard

 

 

 

The Cauldron of Sporting Competition that is Hants SW Div 6

Already At the Half Way Stage

Sadly no game was played last week. Although there was no rain on the day, the night before it was torrential and Brockenhurst, our opponents, said that the ground was to waterlogged to play, which was a shame. The fact that the England game was on early evening obviously had nothing to do with it. Although it must be said that they were probably looking for an excuse to cancel a game against such mighty opponents…….

 We are though, already half way through the season (time flies). What is the table looking like? Well, it is split into two exact halves. Between the 9^th and 10^th  places is a gap of almost 6 points on the average score, which is kind of massive.

Looking at the top of the table first, Winton 3s have opened a gap at the top of the table, they is followed by Bournemouth 4s, where there is another gap before Godshill and then another smaller gap ahead of the chasing pack. These three teams have to be favourites for promotion, however they are not yet secure. If Godshill or Bournemouth lose just one game the chasing pack will be closing in. And there are enough teams in that pack to make sure any slip up will be taken advantage of. Winton, due to their lead are more secure. They can probably afford to lose two games and still be secure in the top three. As they have not lost any so far they should be feeling confident.

The chasing pack should remain hopeful, with the fixture list probably having a large say in the proceedings. A run of games against the bottom half teams will probably see any of those team rising up. Likewise games against other top teams being much more nip and tuck.

In the bottom half things are also close, and the aim for all these teams must be 10^th position, an aim they can all attain to claim the ‘best of the rest’ title. If any of these teams manage to get into the top half of the table that will count as a fantastic second half of the season performance.  

Lets hope it does not rain too much…………………..

Hants Div 6 SW Table

 

Hants Div 6 SW Match Day 8 Round up

As you were really

Winton 3s carry on their impressive march through the season, still averaging over 23 points a game. Bournemouth 4s, after their outrageously lucky and undeserved win stay in second place. Godshill did not play, their opponents scratched, so their average stays the same to keep them in third place.

Two teams scratch this week, which is a shame for them and their opponents. I think a lot of teams may have found it hard to get a team out though, especially those that have several players from South Asia. As for some reason their may have been something going on which meant that a lot of Indian players were not available?

The weeks are rolling around quickly and the coming weekend marks the half way point of the season. I may do a proper round up of the 'season so far' then.

 
History Used To Be Written By the Victor

Now it’s written by any idiot that can be bothered to make a half arsed effort to write a blog post 

I was dropped off early on a day of perfect cricket weather, sunny but not too hot and a light breeze. Bournemouth’s second ground was conspiring to look lovely as I walked across the outfield. I then spied what looked like a doddery old gentlemen looking confused and like he didn’t know what he was doing by the large brick scoreboard. Wanting to make sure he was ok I walked in that direction. It turned out to be the Bournemouth 4s captain, so my first instinct had been correct…..

The teams arrived and there were friendly greetings. A lot of times I find opposition teams standoffish, which strikes me as odd. They are the type of people that like cricket, so a bit weird and probably have few friends, so you think that they would be happy to talk to people that share the same interest. Quite often it is a no though. So it was really pleasant to play a match with friendly people.

The pitch was rock solid and looked like it would play very well. The outfield was also looking good – which I was worrying about because this cricket pitch was used as football pitches for most of the year and in the past had large bare patches. Today though it was looking lovely, save a few dips filled with sand that I presume were where the goalmouths had been. A friendly game in beautiful weather, a perfect day.

But what about the game? I hear you ask. About that……

We won the toss and chose to bat. It was an easy decision, the pitch was solid (helped by the lovely weather we have been having) and the outfield was hard and flat. Attila then decided to get himself out, a ball that pitched on leg he decided to step inside and let go through. It swung back toward the stumps and lit the leg stump. Standing at the non bowlers end the confused look of ‘that can’t be out’ towards the umpire was quite funny, (sorry Atilla) and off he had to go.

Other learning, the wicket keeper brought a helmet onto the pitch but was not wearing it when standing back and he kept it next to him. One piece of slip fielding later the ball goes into the helmet and 5 penalty runs – yeah you don’t want to do that.

Me and Matt then got to about 60 for 1 off of 10 overs, cracking on and a really good start to the innings. Apart from a couple of wayward overs though the bowlers were bowling quite well. But with that pitch, nice and fast and true, and that outfield (the same) anything with a bit of width, or a touch short, all you had to do was get bat on ball and it was going to the boundary. So we were hitting at least one 4 most overs. I was given a life though. An accurate good length ball spat up a bit so took my splice and looped up for a dolly to the Bournemouth captain standing at short extra cover which he flapped at and put down. The bowler turned and walked back to his mark without a word, the rest of the team looked on. What was the expression on their faces? Anger? Denial? At  this stage of the season I think most had got to acceptance.*

 Bournemouth 4s Captain

A recording of the dropped catch

 I then gave away my wicket though. There had been a bowling change to slower bowlers who were bowling quite well. However, I received a poor ball, over pitched on the legs. However, rather than smearing it over cow like any self respecting semi skilled batsmen, I decided to play a cross bat shot. Poor ball, shiterer shot and off I go. After that things unravelled, and we went from 60 to 1 in 10 to 144 ao in 35. There were some decent bats in the side, with runs there for the taking. It seems people followed the example of the openers again, with most people getting out to poor decisions rather than good bowling. Although to give Bournemouth credit there was good bowling as well, also good decision making from the captain. With the pace bowlers, anything that was a bit wide got despatched. So he bought on two slower bowlers who bowled through for 16 overs.  They bowled well, but it also meant that the bats had to work for their runs, hitting the ball hard rather than just using the pace.  

With such a low score on such a high scoring pitch the game was not really in doubt. We only took 1 wicket and were facing 3 very decent bats. They defended the balls that they needed to and use the pitch and ground to take boundaries when they were offered. Scoring at five and a half an over the easily chased down the score. A special mention to Chris 'the wall' Lee in the field though, who was at short extra cover. He threw himself at everything that came at him, no matter how hard. Brave and committed, leading by example.

Again I had a lovely days cricket and enjoyed myself. Losing is starting to get annoying though. Winning can turn into a habit, but so can losing. With the bats we had in the side we could have built a competitive total and put pressure on, but we didn’t. Think we need to find more of a focus and winning mentality. There are good players in this side, that aren’t doing themselves justice…….

 Match Scorecard

*OK, I suppose I will have to be fair to Dave. He was fielding close and I had hit the ball on the up proper hard, so he did well to get his face out of the way and get his hand to it and then it was one of those ‘it sometimes sticks’ kind of catches. This time it didn’t. Although it was a dropped chance, it was a hard one and can count as a four saved as much as a catch dropped. Although I never realised how much like Mike Gatting Dave looks.......