I’ll Tell You What I Want, What I Really Really Want

 

I’ll Tell You What I Want, What I Really Really Want

A cream scone and a lovely cup of tea, ta

Just what is it that you want to do? We wanna be free, to eat the lovely little sandwiches cut into triangles, and we wanna get loaded with cake, and we wanna have a good time, and that’s what we are gunna do, we’re gunna have a good time, we’re gunna have a cricket tea.

Funky bottomed groovster

Turn down the medium pace, turn up the bass.

Early 90s Techno

If you are a youngster and have no idea what I'm going on about, ask your mum.

So, where was I? Ah yes cricket, why do you play it? What’s it for? I mean, what’s the point of it? Even at Hampshire League, South West Division 6 it takes up the thick end of a Saturday and for what, where do you get the pleasure? Well, not where people that do not play cricket imagine. When I mention to other people at the club that last weekend I would be playing an away game against Beaulieu three things were mentioned

1.      It's a beautiful ground, a lovely setting for a game

2.     They put on a really nice cricket tea

3.      At some point, a game of cricket may break out

And for me this is my order of priority. If I am going to be spending hours on a summer’s day doing this stuff I want it to be a good setting. Football is by far a more popular sport in England, and the equivalent at this level would be Sunday morning footy, in some non descript public park, probably in the rain. Don’t get me wrong, I love football, my first sporting love and loyalty is to the Arsenal, but the experience of playing football at an amateur level would not ever get me out of bed. Whereas the setting of Beaulieu Cricket Club on a summers day is of sublime beauty which exults the soul. Even with no sport, just a picnic, couple of drinks and friendly people it would be a lovely and relaxing way to spend a day. In this setting cricket is an optional extra.

View from the Pavilion

View towards the Pavilion

But on this day a picnic was not needed. As Beaulieu is one of the few clubs in the league that still put on a tea. And the thing is, it does not have to be mental overboard, some sandwiches, cake and scones, a few pots of tea and I am as happy as a pig in truffles. The ‘cricket tea’ is a strange but wonderful sporting icon, which was destroyed by Covid. It was common before 2020 but after the coming back to life of social activity after the lockdowns it was a casualty, not many clubs do it anymore, especially at low levels. The conflicts about this at Cricket Club AGMs were played out across the country, with the ‘no tea’ brigade winning conflict after vote. Ah well, the modern world eh? That’s progress. Or entropy, sometimes it can be hard to tell the difference.

The simple beauty of a cricket tea

Oh yes, a game of cricket did indeed break out. Sadly I have lost the pleasure of playing with my boy. He seems to have now decided to play with the 2s, which is sad for me, as spending the day playing sport with him has been a true pleasure. But he is far better suited to playing at a higher level, and his team won and he did well, so all good. On the plus side, as I was driving to the game on my own so got to choose the music and I was in a Ministry type mood – the mind is indeed a terrible thing to taste. But Jesus Built my Hotrod is probably the greatest piece of music to drive a car to fast down the A31 ever written, which I thoroughly enjoyed; Listen Get This…….

Ah ding ding dang ah dang along ling long

We lost the toss and got put into the field. And our openers started well, taking a couple of wickets and keeping the scoring rate down to about 3 an over. Then their number 3 and 4 had a bit of a stand. Jithin Abraham especially doing the business. Anything short or over pitched he sent. By 20 overs they were up to 91 and accelerating. We stuck in though, took the wickets that were needed and managed to bowl them all out for 160 of 35 overs and were feeling confident at the midway point. This was misplaced……..

It turns out the pitch was a lot harder to bat on than it looked. It wasn’t fast but was sticky and the ball just did not come through, it was very difficult to get away. This is not to blame the conditions though – they were the same for both sides. I also want to praise the bowling of Kevin Ammanamthatta. An orthodox left armer, he bowled accurately, fired it through with decent pace and a tweak on it to make it move just enough. He took 4 wickets of 8 overs for 15 runs, very well bowled. All of Beaulieu’s bowlers did well though. I would not call them particularly dangerous, but they all put the ball in the ball in the right place and let the slightly awkward wicket do the work. Well bowled. I think the deciding factor in the game was our bowlers put in too many short balls, that their No.4 bat Jithin put away, fair play. On the plus side, it was a good day and enjoyable game against pleasant opponents. Winning would have been good but did I mention the clotted cream and jam scones?    

Match Scorecard