I'll be brutally honest, I shed few tears when our stint at Otford is done for the summer each year. Sure, it's a lovely place to play cricket, which until this season usually provides belters to bat on, and the scenery is fantastic etc, but there isn't a great deal of space to get changed here and we all know the problems with showers, gates and such-like, plus any half-decent batting line-up usually puts our bowlers to the sword, but... I have to say I enjoyed coming back here for this one-off. Of course, the changing-rooms haven't expanded and the showers still remove any traces of a suntan from those brave enough to enter, but for some reason it felt like visiting an old friend this time, and yes, perhaps I've finally warmed to the place, so much so that it would be nice to play here a bit more in future. (AGM topic, anyone?)
Back to the present, and we welcomed Broadway (Sidcup) CC for their first visit to Otford, who no doubt had memories of their trouncing of us last season still fresh in their minds. Broadway won the toss on a hot day and invited us to have a bowl at them, and when Hamish's first ball of the afternoon was rather harshly wided you wondered what sort of contest we were going to have but fortunately things settled down after that and Hammy and Larry both bowled decent if luckless opening spells with Larry's first over in particular full of jaffas. Opening batsmen Thurman and Briggs grew in confidence however and started to play their shots and ran at almost every opportunity but Beechwood still looked energetic in the field although Boris untypically spilled one off the luckless Hammy. Woody replaced Larry and I came on at Hammy's end, but Broadway looked in little trouble until on 59 when Thurman drove back to Woody, who held on for his first catch in aeons. New bat MacNeill continued in a positive mode and a few Beechwood heads started to drop as the fielding started to become a little ragged in the heat. A couple of unsuccessful bowling introductions of a reluctant Stu and an experimental DoC passed by and a few more heads started to drop as Broadway cruised to 115-1 when Briggs was finally trapped for 41. Broadway started to push on for quick runs from here but fortunately Beechwood started to up their game again with some inspired pieces of fielding by Ade and Brad effecting two run-outs and a few slogs across the line gifted yours truly a few scalps. My dismissal of batsman Walsh was a classic as it sent middle stump cartwheeling out of the ground...the fact that the ball never bounced beforehand is neither here nor there, us bowlers take anything!! That dismissal had Broadway stuttering a bit on 143-7 and worse was to follow as the last three wickets could only muster two more runs and Beechwood had staged a mini-recovery to restrict Broadway to 145 all out. My own figures were fairly decent but I won't be posting them on Facebook, I promise!
We all enjoyed our tea, a great effort from the Boss clan, (Oh dear, is it me next?) and set about chasing down Broadway's total. Without getting too far ahead of things, I'll take this opportunity to state it was another typical 'Beechwood at Otford' batting performance. With the skipper electing to bat in the lower middle-order, there's a lot of pressure on Adrian to build a platform for us and that pressure increases greatly when he watches three of our guys heading back for the hutch with only 29 on the board. To be fair, Hamish did get a good'un after Woody's early departure, but Brad rather threw it away, picking out the guy camped at deep mid-off. The all too rare these days arrival of Sammo to the crease would be a boon in this situation. I always liken his arrival at the wicket to some poor creatures falling into a pool of piranhas, with a frantic and frenzied display following the previous tranquillity on the water's surface. His arrival didn't quite have that effect today but even a rusty Eggy still forced frequent field changes, mis-fields and of course a few run threes. It also took the pressure off Adrian, and this pair steered Beechwood up to 85 before Glenn was leg before. Adrian passed 50 and was looking set before Murdoch breached his defences, Ade admitting it was a tired shot he played but no surprise or disgrace there after a 50 stand with Eggy! Beechwood's wheels rather fell off hereafter, the Skipper's gambling on his batting position not paying off when he was unfortunately adjudged lbw, and Larry, after one glorious cover drive, followed this up by running out The DoC. (Larry is turning Otford into his own personal Bermuda Triangle) and Walsh extracted revenge on yours truly first ball, albeit with a slightly better delivery than the one that got him. Boris survived a confident appeal at short-leg but he and Larry held on for a last few nervous overs and Beechwood closed on a rather below par 115-8, albeit in a hugely enjoyable game. (Our first draw of the summer!) Thanks to Broadway for their great spirit throughout the game and well done to our guys for their occasional flashes of steel that this game required. I doubt that he'll get to read this but also a huge thank you to mine hosts at The Crown for his gesture afterwards. I hope I wasn't alone with the skipper in thanking him on the night, especially after the gannet-like way everybody set about tucking into it! Whelks and Cockles followed as well...Bloody Marvellous!!
Beechwood:
Boss, Cooksley, Culhane, Freeman (c), Hill, McLachlan, Morton (wk), Salmon, Savory, Warner, Woodward
Final words from the DoC:
Another enjoyable game of cricket against the boys from Sidcup. Otford was a picture, and I too am really starting to warm to the place. Will be a good AGM this year! |
