Summers coming and train spotting just isn't exciting enough for me........

How do you get your kicks? Some adrenalin junkies get drawn to extreme sports like golf, or crown green bowling. For some, not even this level of craziness is enough and they get into such bonkers pursuits like train spotting. But when even the sight of a Class 73 fails to move you, or you are too jaded to even get excited upon knowing that a Sprinter Class 158 unit has a Perkins engine installed, then you need to take your thrill seeking to the next, extreme level. That level is the Hampshire Cricket League, Division 6(a). Strap in baby we are ready for take off!

You are probably already drooling looking at this Class 73, but how would you feel if I told you that this baby is a bi mode?  

The new season is upon us! The weather reports during the week were predicting showers but come the day the morning was warm if a cloudy, with it due to clear later, lovely cricketing weather. First game up is against Suttoners 2s, who finished mid table last season – so above us. I seem to recall from playing them last season that their batting was their strength, with some experience and skilled openers followed by some hard hitters. So, a good challenge to start with. We are going with a team that mixes youth and experience with 4 young lads who will be playing their first competitive adult game.

As it is a new season I am determined to prepare for each game properly, like a professional. So, as I am sure Ben Stokes does on the first morning of a test match I get a load of washing out onto the line to take advantage of a sunny day. Following this I give my daughter a lift to her dance class. To get to the game, my wife drives me to the venue as she will be needing the car later in the day. During the ride, to help me prepare for the game, she takes the opportunity to remind me of what she feels are my more egregious character flaws and the fact that I am probably a bit selfish to be spending the whole day playing cricket anyhow. I am sure Mrs Stokes would do no less for Ben.

So, well prepared and fully focused I stride onto the pitch to have a look at the wicket. It has a lot of grass, including a few clumps and looks a bit damp. I win the toss. Checking my self imposed rule / advice of ‘bat first unless there is a reason not to’, looking at the pitch I say ‘we’ll have a bowl’ and hope that it dries out as the day goes on.

The first few overs were an interesting match. Winton’s two opening bowlers are both U14. Suttoners opening bats by contrast, would not I feel overly object to being described as more to the ‘veteran’ end of the spectrum. Youth versus experience, which would win out? The two young lads bowl really well, helped by the conditions and the hard new ball but they have to put it in the right place. Shanmukha going for only six runs off of his five overs. Alex going for an even more miserly one of off five. However, they did not get a break through, due mainly to the skill and attitude of the bats they were bowling too. Speaking to their captain (one of the openers) he said that he would have bowled first as well. And going out to bat it required ‘proper grown up batting’, by which he meant patience and an ability not to panic. They were facing a ball that was moving off the pitch and had really uneven bounce but they played cautiously and watchfully and did not panic even when they had only scored 7 from the first ten overs. If we were bowling at bats that had started to panic at the lack of runs our opening bowlers would have probably taken a few wickets but it was not to be. 

Having seen off this difficult spell, as the pitch dried and they got their eye in the bats started to accelerate the scoring. Winton bowled well so run rate never got completely out of hand but taking wickets was tough. We were give a bonus in a run out that was never really on. One problem that the Winton team has is that the bowlers are all similar, right arm seam. All decent bowlers but no real change up to challenge the bats with something new (similar to how it has been watching England play for the majority of the past 30 years……) The only option for changing it up was to bowl myself. My bowling is left arm slow / loopy. It does have the ability take wickets but at the risk of tempting the opposition to hit out big. Having a couple of set batsmen in who had plenty of wickets in hand with big hitters to come would risk having the run rate accelerate a little too much. In the end though my hand was forced, one of the bowlers having to stop bowling due to an injury. Bringing myself on I managed to take the wicket of the other opener in my first over – a top edge straight into the air. If given the choice I would have taken myself off immediately to let someone with a bit more pace bowl at a new bat but I had to bowl a couple more.

And so the innings went on, with the Suttoners scoring at a decent pace ending on 236 / 4. Which meant they scored at about 7 ½ an over for the last 30 overs, a good scoring rate to be sure but without completely breaking the bonds.

Was I confident of chasing the score down? I thought it would be tough, we have some decent bats and even though our younger players are decent with the bat chasing down a big score in your first adult game can be daunting. We needed to score at 6 an over, Easy enough in the short term but over after over meant that we needed to keep pushing.

Still, Atilla and I went out with the standard openers attitude of, ‘let’s not go crazy for the first ten, try not to lose a wicket and see where we are’. We were helped off to a very decent start by the first couple of overs from both ends being a bit wayward (first game of the season and all that) before the bowlers found their rhythm and tightened up.  Still, after the first ten overs we had hit about 40 for no loss, which while not up at the required rate was a very decent start. A discussion was then had about needing to start pushing on. The most immediate outcome of which was Attila playing more aggressively a getting caught off a top edge – bugger. However, this did lead to Dave ‘good time not long time’ Baugley striding to the crease. This meant that the scoring rate went up somewhat.

Which is a good time to reflect that in the limited overs amateur game there are two different types of top order bats. Test V IPL, Boycott V Gale, Love you long time V Wham bam thank you mam. Both styles are needed in a side; however both have a built in flaw that the bat must guard against. Mr IPL can score quickly but they must realise that it is not only 20 overs. You are still allowed to respect the good ball and flat bat it, that way you are still around to whack the next bad one for six. For Mr ‘Long Time’ they need to realise that it is not a Test, they have a duty to their team to keep the score ticking over. This may be rotating the strike, or it may be accelerating after getting your eye in. This is of course easier to judge when batting second – you can see where you have to get to. But even batting first you need to be aware of how you will make runs at a decent rate. Scoring 50 not out of off 120 balls, taking half  the balls of your teams innings may be good for your individual figures but it may also mean that you are skilfully batting your team to defeat. A slower mistake than swishing across the line to a straight one but sometime just as costly. Both extremes need to be avoided.

But I digress,  Dave starts to do what Dave does and the run rate kicks on nicely. In the twentieth over, he really hits out, including a couple of sixes. With just one more ball to go before the drinks break, we are back up to the run rate needed, only one wicket down and things are looking good. Dave then proceeds to swish across the line to a straight one and is bowled……..

Reflecting on this in the drinks break, Dave has whacked a quick 41 off about 20 balls getting us back to needing about 6 an over. Would have preferred him to carry on a bit longer but a mighty effort. I need to play my part by keeping the score ticking along. I am helped in this by Alex, the next bat. A young lad but maturing into a capable batsman, who played an excellent game, blocking the good ones, taking the singles on offer and smashing the bad balls to the boundary. In this fashion we are closing in to the end game. Some overs going for not many, some going big but overall keeping close to the run a ball needed rate. My only worry is that we never get a couple of overs to get ahead of the rate and as we get to the final lap are met by some good bowling, particularly from Adam Clifford. Not lightening fast but fast enough; and accurate on length and line making it hard to get any ball away.  This game was going to the wire, we were slightly behind the rate and with wickets in the bank risks needed to be taken. Because of this I decided to push it with the running and called Alex through for a second run. If there was a clean pick up and accurate throw I know I would be in trouble – and trouble there was and off I trotted in the 34 over……

In this gamble I had given away the ‘two set batsmen’ advantage and the next few batsmen that came in fell in a clatter of wickets. No opprobrium is attached to this, they were looking to score and win rather than save their own wickets. Far better to lose trying to win than lose with a whimper. The game went to the last ball but sadly we came up 4 runs short.

However, it was an enjoyable day, a game of swings and roundabouts which was in doubt to the very last ball. Four youngsters from the club were blooded into adult cricket in a tense and close game. In fact 5 were, as there was a Winton Youngster, Charlie, playing for the Suttoners – his dad has links with them so they are playing with the Suttoners. Charlie came on to bowl at the death and held his nerve in a tight situation. I Would also like to thank the Suttoners 2s team for a good game. On the pitch they were competitive but friendly – just as it should be at this level.

Match scorecard

Inquest – Why did we lose?

Firstly, have got to say the opponents had something to do with it – they played well. But where could we improve? Can I blame Dave for swishing across the line? After getting 41 that would be a bit churlish. Should I blame myself for the bad decision for the second run? Well, it turned out to be a bad decision but I did bat most of the innings and get my team in sight of the winning post, so will give myself a break. No, I am going to point my finger elsewhere, specifically at our fielding.  When we batted, the Suttoners were on it all through the innings, from start to finish, they gave us nothing. Our fielding by contrast was lacklustre. More than once a fielder let the ball go through them because they could not be bothered to get down and get their body behind the ball, turning quite a few singles into 4s or 3s. A few times their bats could drop the ball into the ring and get through for a quick single. The fact that these runs were not highly risky means that our fielders had gone to deep or were not walking in, on their toes. At points there was a lack on energy and focus on the field from some players and we must have given away at least 20 runs because of this. This was the difference between losing by 4 runs and celebrating victory with a few overs to spare. I usually say that talk on the field should always be positive. But in this case I will make an exception and tell the team that if they see a team mate giving runs away due to laziness or can’t be bothered attitude then they can tell them that it is not ok. Mistakes I can accept, not bothering in a competitive environment? Nope, you should not be there if you are not willing to give it your all.  

 

‘Champagne Moment’  

This is a hard one to award – as I am going to award it to myself for getting a 50. Now, you may be thinking, a 50, not that big a deal. But, as some people reading this are aware, I only first picked up a cricket bat just over three years ago, in a spirit of setting myself a challenge and seeing if this old dog could learn new tricks. One thing I have learnt is playing cricket is not easy, it’s really not. In this blog I usually do a very English line of self depreciating humour but just this once I am going to say ‘yay me’, a first ever 50 is worth acknowledging. OK, we all know how the cricketing gods work and for the rest of the season they will be kicking me up the arse and laughing about it but for this game, I done good.

Winton Round Up

How did the other teams do? Well, the 1s get hit by a heavy dose of ‘bank holiday weekenditis’ and had to go out with quite a few key players missing, going down to a defeat. The 2s got off to a winning start in a high scoring game. During the course of the day they lost a couple of players and ended up fielding with 9 men but the 300 they scored in the first innings saw them through. The 3s went down to what seemed like a fairly strong side and the 4s set off the Dorset campaign with a victory against Rolex. A team which plays on Winton’s pitches so a bit of a derby and therefore nice to win.

Div 6a round up

Well, as it’s the first week all that can be said is that half the teams won and half lost, no real conclusions to be drawn there. The game of the week may by Mudeford 2s V 3s a high scoring game that the 2s came out (perhaps unsurprisingly) on top. Two conclusions can be drawn from this game. The first is Mudeford seem to have produced a decent batting pitch. Second, in scoring 300 from 40 overs their 2s  seem to have some decent bats who are starting  off to the season in very good form. Wouldn’t want to be the mugs who plays them next. Who are we playing next week again? Oh ffs……….