After a couple of tricky away games to say the least, it was nice to get back to Limpsfield's familiar surroundings. After being given the runaround by the youthful souls of Addington and Merstham it was nice to see new opposition Nuxley CC sporting a more mature cast of characters as we warmly welcomed them to Grub Street. With a few guys on their hols or various other sporting trips and Bradley unfortunately calling in sick on match-day it meant the DoC had to once again return to The Well to field a team for a fixture. This week The Well contained one Larry Culhane, making an earlier than intended return from injury and managing to tear himself away from creating obscure Facebook groups, and welcome returns for Lee Bates and Ian Burgess to Beechwood's ranks.
After what seemed like an eternity trying to work out which strip was actually intended for us to use, Nuxley, having won the toss, decided we could have first go on it. Cheers! With Woody promoted to open with Ade, Beechwood actually made a half-decent start on a track that looked to pop and spit from ball one, and the ultra-positive Woody was finding the gap through point early on, and it actually looked like that was where he was aiming it as well! Beechwood got to 28 before Adrian was well taken low down at mid-off, and Hamish ground it out with Woody before he was caught with Beechwood on 49-2. This was soon to become 67-7 however, as a procession of Beechwood batsmen came and went having fallen victims to the difficult nature of the pitch.
Burge was taken close in on the off-side, Blaster was run out after a misunderstanding with Woody, (couldn't blame the pitch for that one) Ian Mac snuck one behind, The DoC (and skip for the day) was cleaned up without seeing it (our sightscreen has been declared too dangerous for use!!) and Woody's long and sensible vigil also came to an end but not before he'd top-scored with 28. Nuxley change-bowlers Jones, Warner and Russell retuned impressive combined figures of 18-6-20-5 during this collapse. Larry and Scott staged a mini recovery, although during this Scott would unfortunately pick up an injury which prevented his bowling later on, and it was left to myself and Stu to try and steer us over that magical three-figure line. At 94-9 all looked okay for this as in an attempt to feed us, occasional bowler Hahn was given an over but I somehow managed to turn that into a maiden, and I had to suffer the ultimate cricketing embarrassment of having standing umpire Ashley Woodward wincing at my shot selections! Stu then promptly edged one that spat at him and that was that, Beechwood bowled out for 94 in 41 overs that were better viewed from behind the sofa...or in the bar. Hamish then dealt a huge blow to those of us yet to be put on tea duties by delivering the goods on the catering front. Bugger!! Well done though Hammy...
It's an oft used adage that low-scoring encounters are usually exciting ones, but this is only true if both sides play ball, otherwise it's just...well, a thrashing basically, so it was a fair bet that if Beechwood were to restrict their opposition to fewer runs than ourselves we might just have an exciting game on our hands. Omens weren't great on the bowling front however with Ian Mac donning the gloves in the absence of our two other keepers on a deck that looked tailor-made for him to bowl on, and this made worse by him having to keep in gloves kindly loaned by the opposition; his own ones still in the Austrian kit-bag! Scott, as already mentioned was unable to bowl, Larry hadn't bowled since May and Blaster hadn't bowled since Strange Fashion were a boy-band!! Blaster was given first over however, and it didn't take long for him to get his shape back, and although we did get one polite enquiry, we didn't get a full-blooded lbw appeal from him - more's the pity as it might have scared some of the rabbits away.
Me and The Blaster had both openers back in the pavilion with Nuxley on 14 but they had edged up to 33 when Heany drilled one back at Larry who'd replaced The Blaster. Everybody held their breath as it hurtled towards his stricken hand but in nestled in safely without any dramas for what was unbelievably his first Beechwood wicket for the season...although his umpiring has claimed the odd scalp!! Nuxley progressed to 59-4 when Ian Mac smartly clung on to dismiss Russell who had scored 27 and he was in on the act again when he pouched to dismiss Andrews off Woody who'd replaced Larry with no addition to their score.
One particular over from me proved to be a crucial and comical one. With Nuxley reasonably healthily sat on 62-5, Batsman Jones drove past my left hand for four runs, and yes I did rather pull that hand away, or bottled it you could say, but anyway a further push for one saw Scott swoop for what was perhaps an unlikely run out but no matter as there were plenty of bodies backing up, but I swear I heard the ball go "Meep Meep!!"" as roadrunner-style it evaded the fielders one by one and rolled across the ropes for five runs...Drat!
With eleven taken off the first five balls of the over, (I'd been reasonably tight up until then) Jones then carelessly picked the wrong one to charge and was bowled through the gate. Beechwood had their tails up when Woody struck again and when an impossible single was then called by Warner, his partner was having none of it and Burge swooped to effect the run-out of the stranded caller by a mile. Woody mopped up the rest of the tail (something the Aussies can't seem to do!) with Macca taking another stunner to claim the final wicket. Beechwood home by an incredible 16 runs! Apart from a couple of spills Beechwood had played a great second half of the game.
There was some sympathy for Nuxley, who'd tinkered with their batting order, because we've all been there before and had things backfire when attempting similar tinkerings. (Although my doing it in a league match might be considered a little over-eccentric, but that's another story!!) A great game then, and one hopes that we can entertain Nuxley - who played the game in great spirit and looked evenly-matched opposition - again in future seasons. Also a word of congratulations for The DoC... We haven't always performed for him when he's had to don the extra stripe in the past, but at least our second innings performance went some way towards putting that right...until next time!!!
Beechwood:
Bates, Boss, Burgess, Cooksley (c), Culhane, Garnett, McCrea (wk), McLachlan, Savory, Warner, Woodward
Final words from the DoC:
A great fightback on a difficult pitch; the attitude in the field was tremendous. It actually made captaining enjoyable for once! |
