23 Aug AVCC v Aldbourne
We returned home to the beautiful setting of Garsten Field, Rushall on a cloudy, windy day to face the might of Aldbourne…..a very strong team - well known to us, with 2 of their players already having starred for us this season. The pitch looked good, albeit a little soft from multiple rain showers that week and on the morning of play. But overall, very good condition.
AVCC had a strong line-up, with the return of our Zim twins of terror - Michael Rae and Jeremy Richards (the only guy to score 2 hundreds for us, and put a hole in the pavilion roof). They brought with them a bushy-bearded terrorist-looking guy who turned out to be our old friend and player - Matt Boothway, and he was also warmly greeted back - and he fielded for us briefly as we assembled (late as usual) and then played for Aldbourne - distinguishing himself well (grrrh!).
Not sure who won the toss, but Aldbourne opened the batting. Good. Exactly what I would have wanted as the rain would bound to cause some low bounce. Would it be a slugfest or a shootout at the Garston (OK) Corral? All of our previous games with Aldbourne have been close - sometimes with lots of runs and, sometimes, real tight low-scoring affairs. But always tight matches.
Jamie Corden and Michael Rae opened the bowling. Both bowled fast and well. It was clear their openers were not looking to settle and they were wanting to hit out and have a slugfest with us. The cross-wind was tricky, blowing the ball off track by 12-18 inches - meaning the bowlers all had to work hard for accuracy. Michael made the break-through with the last ball of his first over, bowling Chinock. Jamie weighed in with the next ball and bowled the other opener, Hawkins - 2-3. Game-on!.
Not to be outdone, Michael took another wicket (M Singh) next over (3-5), before Sumit Surendron (who had top-scored for us in an earlier game this season) decided to start driving the ball for multiple boundaries. But we were chipping away, and Michael bowled H Singh making the score 18-4. Great spell from Michael who used the wind well, and took 3-8 off 3 overs. Jamie bowled well in tandem - 1-14 off 4 overs.
Change of bowlers and Graham Newland and Max Glibbery took up the task. Max bowled tidily and threatened regularly, with highly creditable figures of 0-12 off 4 overs. Graham made the key breakthrough of getting Sumit caught by Ed Olley (great catch), followed soon after by Matt Boothway who looked like he might repeat his high-scoring exploits, but against us. Jamie Corden took the second catch and Graham ended with good figures of 2-15 off 5 overs. 46-6! Really strong position.
We turned the screws from thereon in with David Battison and Matt Dancey giving their tail-enders no respite. Both bowled excellently, with David taking 2-9 off 3 overs and Matt 2-2 off 2.3 overs, including the prized wicket of Matt Haslett a returning former player of ours.
83 all out in just 21.3 overs. Wow! Probably our best bowling performance of the season and for a long time beyond. No catches dropped, and a sterling job by Bruce behind the stumps having to deal with the difficulties of a greatly moving ball due to the cross-wind. Well done all. Interestingly, 6 of the wickets were bowled, 2 were lbw’s and only 2 were caught.
So the now familiar home-produced teas for one came out and we replenished and prepared to go out and bat for the runs. Confidence was high and batsmen below the openers had to be persuaded to put on their pads.
But we found batting hard. Matt Haslett, now of Aldbourne, bowled superbly and gave little away, and was a threat throughout. Quresh was the other opening bowler and bowled superbly too. Runs were hard to eke out for our openers - Ed Olley and Shane Williams. Unfortunately, disaster stuck i the 7th over and Ed was caught in the slips off Matt for a very well played 10…the score now 13-1.
Jeremy Richards, our leading centurion, took to the field, and looked calm and composed, taking a 4 off his first ball. Exhale, deep breath, all will be fine…..
Matt finished his spell 1-8 (7 overs) and we saw off Chinock who bowled fast and accurate for (1-14 off 6 overs). Their spinner - Whateley came on. Spinner….that means runs doesn’t it. Hmm….not this time….Mr Whateley ran through our order taking 5-11 - taking the wickets of Max (0), Shane (5), Matt D (0), Jamie (0) and then Jeremy (a fine and patient 22). A couple of controversies on stumpings (especially for Jeremy). Sumit got David (1) caught and bowled, and suddenly the game was looking beyond us as we reached 61-8. Bruce Carter in the middle and Simon Campbell (persuaded by Graham to go to 10 instead of 11).
Whateley should now go on our ground’s honours board (if we had one) for “fiffers”. Interestingly, the only 2 fiffers from opposing teams have both come from Aldbourne, both for spinners. For the history buffs amongst you. the ground record is 5-7 by Mark Banham (vs Wilton), followed by Graham’s 5-11 vs All Cannings.
With good batting from Bruce (3 n.o) and Simon (21 not out)….we saw ourselves home to victory in the 31st over.
Very tense by the end. The now, bitingly cold wind, did not make the situation easier.
A really good game. Not a slugfest in the end, more a shootout and strong will to survive and win. Great spirit by both teams and we socialised with our friends of Aldbourne over beers for quite a while afterwards.
Also many thanks to Quresh of Aldbourne. I always let my daughter - Skye - who now scores for us - have batting practise at the end of a game. Quresh joined in and fielded for us and bowled in our mini-game. I thought that showed a wonderful spirit and action from him. Much appreciated.
Collingbourne next up.
16 Aug Marden v AVCC
Despite the inclement weather of recent times, we returned to the pastures of Marden for our annual playing of the Richard Cox Memorial Trophy - a hotly contested prize - in memory of a much-loved former player of Upavon and Marden. AVCC were the current holders.
The portents were not good….the weather apps forecast thunder, lightning, biblical chaos and showers from mid afternoon. How would we ever complete a 35 overs match in such conditions?
On arriving at the ground, the word “interesting” was applied to the pitch by the various AVCC players. Not so much cut as rolled - there were tufts of flattened long grass, bald patches, and wet patches on the pitch and a long, wet outfield which rose like a platform well above the wicket. Very short boundaries on 2 sides indicated it could be an afternoon spent in the hedges and with the neighbouring herd of cows….who at one stage all lined up against the fence to welcome the AVCC team.
The big question…should we bat or bowl first as we did not expect the conditions to get better, nor indeed to finish the game? However, that decision was taken out of our hands as Graham lost the toss and, with a big smile, the home captain put us into bat.
Without an established opening partnership this season, Tim Gent was volunteered, and Matt Dancey actually volunteered, to open for us. They went out on time, and under slate grey skies.
The youthful Marden bowlers did not allow Tim and Matt to settle. There was very variable bounce…one ball pea-shooting past the ankles, the next up in the ribs. Not easy to play on. The ball was not moving well on the wet outfield and it looked like a war of attrition was to get underway. No problems we thought, we have Boycott Gent to deal with that.
Unfortunately, Matt was caught for 2 followed swiftly by Tim also for 2 having been lbw. 8-2 in the 5th over. Batsmen then came and went quite quickly as the conditions weighed them down against some accurate Marden bowling…..Shane Williams bowled for 3, David Battison lbw for 4, and Stephen Flower caught 5, and Julian Lishman bowled for 8. 33-6 in the 16th over! Julian did manage our 1st 4 - in the 10th over. Graham Booth - their wily spin bowler, and annual nemesis of unwary AVCC batsmen had us in his thrall, despite considerable sledging and commentary from Tim Gent who had now returned to the field as an umpire.
So we found ourselves staring down the barrel of potentially our lowest ever score (which incidentally was against Marden - 50 - in our 1st season, 7 years ago)….could AVCC stop the carnage? Francis Naumann and Jamie Corden were newly in the middle to do so.
Francis announced himself with a bold 1st ball 4 over the top and into the long grass. Looked like a good statement of intent. Jamie was let off with the most shocking dolly-dropped catch on 0, and then looked completely re-invigorated by such an amazing miss. Suddenly the runs began to flow; 4’s were struck with aplomb by Francis and Jamie…..the Marden field widened and the bowling started to look less assured as we started to dominate the ball. In 12 overs, this dynamic duo - added 80 to the score before Jamie was out for a well struck 45, and with the score was now 113-7 after 28.1 overs. We now had a defendable score but was it enough? We were concerned.
However, Simon Campbell was persuaded to put on some pads and see if we could put a match-winning total on the scoreboard. He started quietly, and Francis was then caught for a well-batted 37 (his top score for AVCC to date) with the score on 120-8 at the end of the 29th over. Young Ollie Lishman went out to join Simon.
Then the fireworks commenced. In 5 overs, Simon largely single-handedly took the score from 120 to 193-8, innings completed. Ollie did a good job holding off their quick bowlers defending stoutly and well, and enabling the strike rotation, Ollie finished on 1n.o. Good innings. As for Simon, he scored 72n.o….68 of those runs in these last 5 overs as he completely dominated the despairing Marden attack with 8x6’s and 3x4’s - twice hitting 3x6’s off a single over. The 6’s were hit with staggering power and the last 5 overs took longer than the previous 12 as much hunting and rooting in hedgerows and the long grass took place. An absolutely magnificent innings.
After the tea interval, we took the field feeling that we now had a winning total, providing we could handle their hard-hitting Trowbridge quartet. The first of these, Oakley, announced his intent with a straight 4 with the first ball of Matt’s opening over.
However, Matt Dancey and Jamie Corden, our opening bowlers, bowled exceptionally well and contained the Marden openers so well that they were consistently behind our run-rate.Jamie made the breakthrough in the 6th over - 19-1 bowling the non-Trowbridge opener. By the end of 10 overs, Matt and Jamie had done an excellent containment job, and the score sat on 32-2 - with Jamie doing an amazing caught and bowled of the Marden captain. Both Matt and Jamie bowled well and looked very dangerous.
Stephen Flower and Shane Williams were then handed the responsibility of containing and making inroads the dangerous Trowbridge batsmen (we had a pair at the crease now).
Stephen bowled fast and and tidy and kept them contained. The Trowbridge opener (Oakley) took a shine to Shane, and encouraged by the example of our Simon, hit 3 big 6’s off Shane’s first over, losing 2 of the balls beyond the hedgerows and probably still travelling on their way to Swindon…..
But life can change, quickly……Shane’s next over - started with another big 6 in the same fashion - leading Shane to suggest he came off - when with Shane’s next ball, Jamie Corden caught Oakley close to the boundary of a high steeling catch. Good hold. Vital wicket. Oakley was out for 45. After that, Shane bowled his normal excellent deliveries and got a 2nd wicket with his last ball. 6 overs 2-45.
Sadly, Stephen pulled a muscle in his 3rd over when looking lively and dangerous (indeed, even with the ball :) ).he had to retire for 0-5. Graham Newland took over and completed the over. With Graham’s 1st full over - he trapped the other dangerous Trowbridge batsman (Tallantire) lbw, and then went on to take 3-11 off 6.3 overs, including 3 maidens. Could have been even better as 3 catches dropped off his bowling too.
David Battison, also now limping badly with a pulled muscle, came on and bowled 4 fine overs, 3 of which were maidens, taking 1-2. And Ollie Lishman showed us our future by taking a wicket first ball with a good in-swinger, followed by a 2nd wicket in his next over taking a very creditable 2-5.
Marden had collapsed from 61-2 to 106 all out - so AVCC ran out winners by 87 runs.
At 33-6 in our 16th over, this did not look like the eventual result, or our expected total. But all credit in batting to Francis, Jamie and Simon for giving us a winning total. All the bowlers did their bit to take wickets and keep them below the required run-rate throughout.
Overall a good game, played in a good spirit, with much banter, and with no thunder or showers. AVCC had retained the Richard Cox trophy.
Now to get our walking wounded fit….there was much hobbling going on, and we are also grateful for Jemima Naumann who acted as a substitute fielder for Stephen.
G
