So it's back to Otford, and a hot day ensured we would finally get to hosting St. Marys's Green Street Green after a couple of previously aborted attempts. Hopefully no hot heads would accompany the aforementioned weather, especially as Beechwood's winless trot was threatening to spill over into June. With Keith withdrawing; having not fully recovered from his surgical encounter, we were once again indebted to Michael Noblett for stepping in to help us out. Tony won the toss and asked 10-men St. Mary's to bat. Scott has been a good if luckless spearhead so far this season and continued that trend today, and for the first time this season he would have his mucker Hamish bowling in tandem with him. It was Hamish who made the breakthrough, destroying opener Wanstrot's timbers with the ever reliable slow beamer! It was a fortunate but welcome dismissal as the opener had already smited a couple of blows through the covers. 11-1 then, and new bat Field joined opener Hobbs to try to keep their momentum going. This they did especially after yours truly's first over went the distance but I was able to break through Field's defence to peg St. Mary's back to 47-2.
Bradley replaced Scott from the cowshed end -Scott once again not having his bowling backed up by his fielders - and it was about this time that the fielding in general started to lose its wheels, with Deano in particular getting the teapot and tumbleweed treatment off his team-mates that had been lately been saved for me. In fairness, Deano's response wasn't the greatest, and maybe it was the heat, but the whole unit looked a bit flagging and lacklustre and Beechwood really needed to "haul ass" for want of a better phrase, otherwise we were looking dead and buried. Luckily Nobby held on to dismiss batsman Stammer off Bradley, and even luckier, the resulting finger injury didn't leave our fielder with a break this time! Nobby then got a bowl at Bradley's end, (getting a bit confusing out there with Bobby, Nobby and, dare I say it, more than one of us who could answer to Blobby!) and Beechwood finally got their fielding together with Ian Mac leading the way effecting a smart stumping to dismiss left-hander Boniface (D.). I was a bit fortunate to dismiss Hobbs, bowled off his pads to leave St. Mary's on 101-5, and then I thought St. Mary's had adopted a sleight of hand approach by immediately sending out their just dismissed batsman and getting him to bat the other way round...until I was put right and informed that there were two very identical brothers on parade...Anyway, myself and Nobby wrapped things up, and St. Mary's were dismissed for 123, a smallish Otford total but one that would be tantalising for Beechwood, taking on board the heavy weather we've made of putting totals on here of late.
Everyone who had not yet been on teas-duty was hoping Scott was going to come up short but the rascal played a blinder and served up a great spread. (Everybody now hoping that they get to perform their turn of duty AFTER Keith!) After a couple of hours toil in the field Tony decided he wouldn't risk his ankle at the top of the innings and experimented with Nobby opening up with Adrian. Sicknotes Keith and Larry sportingly agreed to relieve the playing staff of umpiring duties on this day which showed no signs of cooling down. Both openers were steady and fairly solid in the face of some accurate and occasionally nippy bowling from the St.Mary bowlers before Nobby was adjudged lbw with our score having reached 40. Dean was next in and after surviving a near run out disaster early on, got his head down and pushed the score along with Ade until he too got the finger and Beechwood were pegged back to 61-2. The aftermath of this incident seemed to drag on for an awfully long time, and while I'm certainly not going to round on just Deano here as it could be somebody else next week and somebody else the week after that, I'm going to issue a general appeal here...It's pointless us giving Larry all the encouragement he needs and deserves with his playing if we're going to discourage his doing something that's a VITAL part of what we do on a Sunday afternoon. The new respect campaign starts here. The main protaganists in this episode have drawn a line under events and moved on with no harm done, being the sensible souls they are, and one hopes Dean fires his current therapist before he next dons his whites!
Back to the cricket then and the ever impressive Boniface (D.) produced a blinder to dismiss the set-looking Adrian (34), and his next ball was similarly too good for the DoC, who looked like he'd nicked it with the naked eye but has been recorded as bowled where it counts. 70-4 then and Bradley and Bobby needed to steady the ship but with the score having edged up to 83 Bobby skied one which was pouched by the bowler. Bradley eased our nerves with a couple of mighty blows, one of which cleared the club-house with ease, and in partnership with Hamish, who was looking solid out there, got us up to 109 before he tried one big shot too many and perished, having scored 35. It was one hell of a luxury to have the skipper coming in at such a nervy time and although Hamish wore a few for his efforts, neither he nor Tony looked too troubled as they took their time in ensuring that Beechwood tiptoed over the line, Tony finishing undefeated on 11 and Hamish 8. (Two scoring shots!!) Thanks to St. Mary's for their part in what was for the most part an enjoyable afternoon, and special thanks to Larry and Keith for performing their thankless tasks. Oh, and special no thanks to Dean who used up all the warm water before the showers returned to their normal scalding Otford state... Just joking, mate!
After a run of winless games it was certainly nice to get a win under our belts, especially as it looked such an unlikely event early on, and it will be similarly nice to play an away fixture next time out, albeit a far-flung one. See you there.
Beechwood:
Cooksley, Freeman (c), Garnett, Hill, Kelly, McCrea, McLachlan, Noblett, Robinson, Savory, Warner
Final words from the DoC:
Good fightback in the field and dogged determination with the bat (apart from me!). Thanks also to St Mary's for a very friendly and enjoyable game of cricket. |
