Venturers vs Rode
Sunday 9th Septmeber 2007
Author: Gregory
Lost by 6 wickets. Venturers 133 Rode 134-4
Part of the joy of village cricket is a large man determined to hit the ball out of the ground or fall over in the attempt. At Rode the ground is wedged between a housing estate and a cornfield, and hitting the ball into either of these is forbidden, which slightly spoils the fun. Everything else, though, is right and calculated to help the large man fall over: picturesque view of the church; undulating outfield; impressive tea; good pub.
We batted. We batted quite well, to start with: at least, Richard did. Roger was less fluent, but he stayed there for a while and was then bowled off his pads, perhaps seeking a run from a ball he would have played defensively if he had hit more of the others. Alastair began as he always does, looking like a number 11 for half a dozen balls and then producing a perfectly timed shot, in this case a leg glance. There were several more where that came from, and after a dozen overs we had a solid base and wickets in hand. Then Alastair was trapped in the crease and palpably leg before; but Fluffy (another who looks terrible at first and then improves) also hung around until about the half-way point.
Then a small collapse started, Fluffy leg before and Richard hitting a short ball to cover, and without Kevin and Chintan to hold it together the innings gradually fell apart, despite a brisk fifteen from Andy Young. Alex's runout was a sign of the disorder that prevailed at this stage. At 94 for eight we were in danger of not putting up a fight, but there was still Simon left. And Steve. Steve's batting resembles Matthew Hoggard's, though not as much as Chris Middup's hair resembles Ryan Sidebottom's, in that he can and will block but has no shots beyond the intermittent swipe. Block he did, while Simon hit a series of fours, and they put together the highest stand of the innings. When Steve tried the swipe once too often and skied a catch to the keeper, Gregory showed that he is not quite shotless himself and he and Simon batted out the overs and brought us to a semi-respectable 133.
To defend that we needed wickets, and especially the wicket of the dangerous opener. He stuttered to begin with and was just beginning to play well when Andy, who had bowled well up that point, produced a full toss. He opened his shoulders and mistimed it completely, giving Ian G a relatively straightforward catch. The other opener had a couple of close shaves against Ian's bowling, and thereafter concentrated on survival. Simon replaced Ian after ten overs, and bowled well. After a few more, Gregory, who had not played for eight weeks and was therefore liable to be even less predictable that usual, replaced Andy. The first ball was a leg-side full toss: four. The second was a double-bouncer, scooped to mid-off, Adam, who threw it in the air. The batsman waited, as convinced it was a bump ball as Adam was that it wasn't. Nobody else was quite so sure either way. Perhaps the square-leg umpire should have been consulted (Fluffy, who was square leg, though it was out), but amid all the doubt the batsman survived and hit the next two balls, further assorted rubbish, for four. Gregory switched to round the wicket and hit his pads twice, enough to persuade Roger to risk another over. When it came, after a rather calmer over from Simon, the first ball went for six. Then, suddenly, the WD40 that had been applied to Gregory's shoulder took effect and the next ball landed in a sensible place as the batsman aimed at the pub. Alex completed the stumping efficiently, and later in the over one bounced and turned and Fluffy caught the resulting skier. Maybe we had a chance.
For this we needed someone else to have as much luck as Gregory. Simon, however, was bowling far too sensibly and getting no reward at all. Moreover, the new batsman was also far too sensible and they just ran singles and hit the bad balls when they came. Nearly forty more runs had been accumulated, and Steve was on for Gregory, before Simon finally removed the opener to a good low catch at short midwicket by Roger. Next ball Roger nearly did it again, as the new batsman tried an idiotic heave that fell just short, and a repeat the ball after gave us hope. But he survived; Simon was out of overs; and Steve and Roger, though they bowled quite well, got no further.
It was a bit closer than it looks from the scorebook. We dropped a couple of catches but we had many fall just out of reach. Apart from the bump-ball incident there were two lbw decisions that went against Ian and Gregory but might have been given. Not outrageously wrong ones, just close. And the opener would have been run out if Ian's long-range shy had hit the stumps, which it nearly did. Perhaps we were two pieces of luck short; but really, we were thirty runs short.