What could possibly go wrong?
OK people, lets go, summers here! Time to get your cricket on! Oh yeah baby! What’s that? Check the weather report? Er, ok, and let’s see what the weather is going to be up to……. Oh grease my lazy nipples, that’s a fucker.
Or, to be more straightforward, the weather forecast was that it may hold of raining for a part of the day but by the middle of the afternoon the monsoon will have arrived. Even worse, in the morning it was looking quite decent weather wise, with my daughter refusing to believe that it would turn so badly. And, as it was not raining and therefore there was no reason to call the game off, off to Slades Farm the team did pop.
Cunning Captaining Planning
Well, as it seemed there was no way the game would go full length the question in my mind was how could we try and win? As you’ve got to always try and win whatever the circumstances or why bother right? The answer that my mind gave to itself was the only way to get a win out of the day was bowl first, knock em over quickly and then chase the score down. Our opponents, Ashmore CC went for another plan though. They went with the ‘only turn up with eight players’ plan, which I thought was a bold strategy but felt that it may not be optimal, indeed being a bit ‘rock’ to our ‘paper’. Now, another piece in this jigsaw was the pitch, would it be a high scoring belter or a mine field? A question that I really did not have an answer too and would be finding out during the game. How did it play? Well, the bounce was a bit variable, with quite a few balls keeping low with a very occasional you that would rise. I would not say unplayable, but defiantly a tricky. On the whole though, useful for my ‘lets try and win’ plan.
How did it go?
Well, with the Ashmore openers coming out, our bowlers got to work, Masum leading the charge. In a period of slight wayward but hostile bowling he took 4 wickets in 6 overs. Bowled a few wides but he ones that weren’t were on the money, an impressive spell indeed. This was back up by Mohi taking a wicket as well, leaving Ashmore reeling at 35 / 5. This was a combination of good bowling, a tricky pitch and bats that were looking to play shots leaving me hoping that we could grab a quick win. However, the two bats that then came together at the crease – Andy Taylor and Rob Guy, had much more ‘hard bitten’ air to them. They seemed to have a ‘you’ll have to take it, because we wont give it’ attitude going on, that put the break on the wicket jamboree. Anything that deserved to be whacked, got it. But everything else was carefully watched and met with a flat bat – proper cricket. I found this annoying but sneakily admired it as well. Then the rain came and that was that.
Anything else of note in the short time of the game?
Well, long time readers of this blog will be shocked to hear that I took a catch! Ball was struck well and I had to make ground and take it on the run – ball stuck first time giving the impression that I was competent at this cricket malarkey. This also means that I can adopt an air of ‘do as I do’ when as captain I urge my team to get their bloody collective finger out when fielding. On the down side, it does also probably mean I have peaked too early in the field for the season and will probably not be taking another catch this side of Christmas.
Winton CC Roundup
1s
Matched abandoned
2s
Match abandoned
3s
Have you not be paying attention?
4s
Yeah, you know already
5s
That’s a Yahtzee
Dorset Div 3 Roundup
Take a bloody guess. Rain, matched abandoned and more rain. Apart from Rolex v Christchurch, who got an impressive 64 overs in for Christchurch to snatch a narrow win in a reduced overs game. I presume they must have agreed to start early. Or, maybe as the downpour only lasted about an hour and a half, they sat it out to play again. At my game, and I suspect all others, the rain was so hard when it came, and the forecast so bad we gave up on the idea. It seems like patience may be a virtue.
So, a damp squib start to the season – things can only get better yes?.......
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