Monkton Combe vs Venturers, Wednesday May 4th

Venturers 131-6, Monkton Combe 135-4

Monkton Combe folded a couple of years ago but they recently unfolded again, and we found ourselves in their picturesque pavilion amid the wild garlic and the shirt signed by Alastair Cook (odd, as he was at school in Bedford). In sunshine it is best to bat first because the setting sun makes the ball hard to see later, but today was cloudy and we were put in. Roger made rapid progress against an initially wayward left-armer, but Tom Rosoman found the going harder. Also, the bowling at the other end was the brisk but accurate medium pace often found in good women's cricket, and we don't really know how to deal with it. We kept her out but she gave little away. Fortunately we also found out about her very good throwing arm by observation rather than by a run-out. The left-armer found his range, so although we didn't lose wickets we didn't get very many runs either. The innings was half over, and the score fifty, before Roger got a good one from another, slower, left-armer. Soon afterwards Tom was bowled by a leg-spinner. Shashank struck his first ball, a gentle full toss, resoundingly for four and threatened more damage, but soon picked out deep midwicket, who caught a good catch above his head. Ilyas did much the same: two fours and then a miscue. Yamin was unluckier, out to a really good one-handed catch. A good quickish bowler appeared rather belatedly and accounted for Alex, caught at the wicket. Through all this Iain kept scoring steadily, and he and Chris, who hit two sixes in two balls, helped us to a fairly satisfactory total.

The victim of Chris's two sixes took immediate revenge. He was partnered by the bowler of leg-spin, who set the pace early on, and they took advantage of being already familiar with the slightly strange slow bounce to carve a series of boundaries. The effect was less noticeable at first, because Satish gave them little opportunity, but Tom Robinson at the other end was treated quite severely, as were Yamin, Gregory (especially), Chris and Ilyas. Both openers reached fifty by the thirteeth over, playing more and more casually as they went, and were then forcibly retired by their team-mates. Ilyas promptly bowled the replacement for the second opener; Satish, by far the best of the bowlers, took out the middle stump of the best-looking of the newcomers. Gregory was allowed a second over and found his length, bowling two more with successive balls; but by that time they needed only five to win. It was, therefore, rather a pity that we had dropped one of the openers first ball. We also dropped several other catches, mostly rather hard and at least one extremely hard, though they had done the same. The fact that fourteen of the eighteen wickets we have taken so far this year have been bowled (plus two catches, a stumping and a run-out) suggests either that we bowl straight or that we can't catch. We think we know which it is.

Fixtures & Results 2011