Fixtures & Results
LONG WHATTON - Sunday 2nd May 2010
Match report by Paul Taylor
So there he stood with new ball in hand, ready to ‘unleash hell’ …well maybe not quite but as Brown Dog junior stood at the end of his run up, his memory must have cast back to the same time last year. That was ofcourse the first ball of the season and he fell sideways, breaking his finger and played the shortest game of cricket in the history of well, er cricket really. I mean he effectively got injured before the first ball had travelled half way down the wicket.Beads of sweat considered peppering his forehead, but the fact that it was 9 degrees centigrade sent them back to where they came and he ran in for the first ball.
I can’t actually remember what happened, but suffice to say no broken fingers, no trips to hospital and the book records a maiden. Demons dealt with, on with the game.
This was Long Whatton and I had forgot my socks. I was last in the changing room and was getting organised in the shower area, as this was the last space available. Benno threw me some socks. They were old, knobbly and had seen one or two matches. Beggars can’t be choosers I thought. At leats they are branded I noticed. But whats this? Not Nike, Adidas or maybe even G&M – no they were ‘Georgio’…..the first choice for gay cricketers. Ah well, on they go – along with 5 layers on top- as its now 8.5 degrees centrigrade.
You recall that we are bowling and to be fair its not a bad start, with Vicar nipping in with a surprisingly good 8-4-15-3 and Richard containing well with just 25 runs off his 8.
Joe Allport making his DCC debut bowled well and Benno was split into 3 spells (a first for him) and conceding just 28 runs, albeit 16 of those came in his last over! Spinno (2 wkts), Brown Dog snr and Danny(2 wkts) all had a go as well and they ended up at 196-7 after 40 overs. Bearing in mind they were 95-5, its fair to say we let them have one or two more than we wanted and predictably their captain made 60, before he was stumped by Ady off Danny.
Tea is good at LW and today was no different. The cup of tea was particularly good to warm the inners and hands which had been starved of warmth for the last 2 ½ hours.
We kicked off pretty well with 40 in the first 10, predominantly from Ady, who looked very nice indeed. But as he stepped in front to the left arm over opening bowler, the crooked finger of doom was lifted by Mick and Ady trudged off. I capitulated to an LB as well but to one that kept low from their spinner (captain Alex after batting 3 and getting sixty bought himself on as first change). So when Mick gave Joe out LBW as well – although he was convinced he had hit it, we awre 75-3 and it was time to relieve the Vicar of LBW, er umpiring duties. Thus it came as quite a surprise to me when the first ball I umpired saw Ian’s back leg chock in front of middle stump. It took a few fleeting seconds to think of any way possible to turn down the appeal, but I succumbed and the first four batters had all gone for 80…all LBW.
This was a shame as Crossy was looking good with 32 to his name and the fielders getting agitated, remembering his bludgeoning of the year before.
There were nineteen further scoring shots, mainly ones, as we crumbled in the cold to a dismal 113 all out. Seeing 8 wickets fall for 38 runs was no fun, but there you go. Their captain bowled his full 8 overs, getting great value for his subscription, but rendering half his team to barely a game. They didn’t seem to care though.
We licked our wounds and looked forward to better and warmer days ahead.