The Sun Is Out, The Sky Is Blue

 

Barnes Wallis New A Thing Or Two

A week where there was plenty of availability, which throws up differing problems for the club captains. The 1s are playing away – on the Isle of Wight, so they all go together in a mini bus. This makes selecting a team for the 1s captain really easy. He just picks the 10 blokes he most enjoys drinking with and off they go………..  Er, I mean he picks the 10 blokes he thinks will make the best team and off they go. So on for the 2,s 3s etc For me though, it is not so simple. The ‘best’ team is not my sole criteria. I may get some players dropping down if there is lots of availability. But there are also people that regularly play at this level. I also have to make sure I am including some youngsters. Then I have to look at the strength of the opposition – Mudeford 2s are quite decent; losing isn’t a disaster but I want to avoid a dispiriting defeat. So, I have to consider a few different things when selecting a team. I end up with a team of four sets of dads and lads and three more. There are some decent dads and indeed lads mixed in there so it is a fairly decent team; perhaps not the strongest I could theoretically pick but good enough I feel to give the opposition a decent game.

I get to the ground nice and early so I am not feeling flustered, the pitch looks decent and I think I would choose to bat first (goes to show how much I know). I promptly lose the toss and get put in to bat. Not so bad thinks I, I was wrong.

The pitch was a bit naughty, very up and down. I have forgotten my helmet and this is the first time I really wish I was wearing one; as the ball could shoot of a length, or indeed keep low. My opening partner Reece and I going into ‘survival’ mode, seeing if we could get through and wait for the ball to go a bit soft and the pitch to bake a bit in the sun. As it turns out, we can’t…… I get out for 3 of off 19 balls. This sounds kind of rubbish but I am indeed the highest scorer of the top 6. We are down to 28/6, with only 6 of those runs of the bat. It is starting to look like the ‘dispiriting defeat’ that I want to try and avoid. I should also say, that this is not only due to the testing conditions. The Mudeford bowlers bowled relentlessly on an excellent line, which would have been difficult to deal with at the best of times.

A perfect release at the crease

I was wearing a Go Pro so have some actual footage of the bowling to show how hard it was to face.

In game footage

We then had a slight uptick, with Sargon Worsdale and Kiran Mandivalli coming to the crease. Kiran threw his hands at most things, Sargon blocked the straight ones and attacked the wider ones. They both got into their 20s before getting out. Kiran nicking off, Sargon playing a textbook forward defensive stroke and the ball shooting under his bat (I was umpiring and he had a proper ‘da faq’ look on his face after the ball careened into his stumps). With this effort managed to crawl our way up to a mighty 96 all out. Probably not enough……….

But we thought we would give it a go. It would be pointless trying to defend such a score so we went with the ‘have to take wickets’ plan. The pitch was calming down a bit (or the ball was getting softer) but it was still a bit naughty. So, slip, gully, catching extra cover (if not quite silly). We made a decent fist of it as well, with Mudeford, a team with some very good bats, 7 down before they managed to chase down the total. It got so desperate, even I had a bowl, got a wicket too. So again, close but no cigar. A fun game played in a good spirit and although we lost it was a fighting loss, and not the crushing defeat that I feared when we were 6 down.

For the champagne moment, an honourable mention to Adam Loader for a very smart slip catch, throwing himself forward and to the left. But the award this week goes to James Burns, who hit the winning runs. After the scores are tied on 96 he won the game with a boundary. This is of course always a stylish thing to do. In this instance it also has the added bonus of giving an extra batting point. I think it is fair to say Mudeford 2s are targeting promotion this year and the teams at the top of the table may well end up with the same number of wins. So the bonus points could be very important, come the end of the season that extra point could make the difference.

Match Scocrecard - a tale of woe

Winton Round Up

Well, despite a captains innings from their er, captain, the 1s managed to come second.

The 2s made it 2 for 2 to keep going to the top of the table.

The 3s are finding the start of their promotion year a learning curve, Div 5 is certainly a step up from Div 6.

The 4s are bossing it in Dorset with another win.

HCL Div 6(a)

I notice that all the teams that are a clubs 4s or 5s are huddling towards the bottom of the table; apart from Lymington 4s who are the seasons early pacemakers. Do they have some good players dropping down? Some really good youngsters spreading their wings? Have they just been a bit lucky in the first 2 games? We shall see as the season unfolds.