Middlesex Championship Division 3 (1st XI)
22nd July 2006

This story starts out one stormy looking day at the New Calypsonians ground, which is a long way away from where I live. One bus, three trains and a long walk later we arrive at the ground to a rather flat looking wicket on a sloping oval with no visible boundary line. For once everyone arrived early and we took it upon ourselves to warm up with some stretches and catching practise. Quickly the injuries started to add up before we even bowled the first ball, a bent finger here a strained muscle there, but the spirits were still high.

The opposition won the toss and decided to bat, as half their team had not yet arrived. From the outset the openers looked like they did not belong and M.Ridgway quickly proved that to be correct, with two quick wickets, one LBW and one of the easiest catches you could take all season by yours truly. With both bowlers in stride and looking very aggressive Tom then got in on the action and we had them at 3 for 10 and we were gaining momentum. Queue in “the rain”, it starts to fall but quite softly.

G.Farley was brought to the crease at first drop and started out quite slowly at first until he found the middle and quickly despatched the skipper over the boundary which caused a minor delay as we had to find the ball, he was hitting the ball very cleanly and hard all innings. M.Peet the bat at the other end looked like getting out every ball but managed to just avoid losing his wicket consistently for the whole innings, he even survived after hitting the ball away from the stumps with his bat, after playing his initial shot. This caused quite a kafuffle and discussions ensued until the umpires conferred, pulled out the rulebook, which had never been used before and he was deemed not out.

G.Farley was looking very comfortable against the quicks so the skip quickly decided to bring on Rashid and this brought about a result immediately with Farley holing out to Buckley in the deep. The Rashid and Buckley duo were soon back in action again teaming up to remove Greves and they were stumbling again at 5/66. Queue in “The Harder Rain” which is now starting to come down heavier but we are on top and keen to stay out and keep the pressure on. The ball by now had turned into a bar of soap making life very hard for the bowlers but we toiled on. The next batsman in however, Griffith, had glasses and after stopping a few times for him to dry them so he could see the ball coming (quite unreasonable we thought), he decided enough was enough and it was time for a break. The rain subsided slowly and we came back onto the ground aiming to wrap them up quickly and get in to have a bat.

Armed with the bar of soap and wet foot marks the bowlers were working hard to no avail, the pair put on 78 to take them to 144 before Griffith was bowled by the destroyer Le Grange, who went on to clean up the tail end taking two more wickets (two bowled and one caught by Rashid) while Tom chimed in with the wicket of F Farley (commonly known as the mouth), with yours truly being on the end of what essentially equated to a hospital pass finishing his flashy but brief innings. They had battled their way to 155 which was a few more than we would have hoped considering the good start, but a good result nonetheless.

We had a quick tea then put our heads together to chase down that total, the pitch did not have a lot in it so this was looking very achievable. N.Ridgway and Gramps walked out to face the new ball and took their guards. F Farley (the mouth) was to open the bowling and began his run in to bowl to Gramps.
His first delivery came off the shoulder of the bat, flew over the keeper and almost went for 6, all of this before Dyll had moved. That of course is using a little poetic license but not a hell of a lot. The first over for memory went for 12 runs all off the edge past the keeper for 4.

After the discussions that followed a few things were to be noted: a) that the slips and keeper basically served no purpose at all, b) that no one here had ever faced someone that quick, c) that M.Ridgway by his own admission had never bowled that fast before. I was starting to sweat and was hoping that the openers and the rest of the team would do the job before I was required. And it certainly started out that way.
Dyll and Nick did an amazing job of staying out there and both scored 13 runs before being removed, let it be noted that the bowler from the other end was actually bowling a tighter line and there were very few runs coming from there.

The wickets started to tumble pretty quickly and with a couple of ducks to Buckley and Britto, one of which from memory was a bit hard done by, things started to look dire. Rashid chipped in with 13 and yes that is now 3 bats out for 13, tell me that is not a bad sign, and when Swaps was out for 2 for F Farley’s 5th wicket we were 6/63 and looking very shaky. But then in come Pred and Gert and with both batting very solidly they saw off the opening bowlers and started scoring quickly with Pred hitting a 6 and a 4 in the same over from G Farley to ensure a change of bowling, things were looking up and the target was coming closer.

Pred was then out on 30 after he got a half tracker that stayed low i.e. almost rolled along the ground. With M.Ridgway, Lonnen and myself to come we needed about 60 runs and with Gert in good form still out there it was looking doable. But alas it was not to be and the tail folded quite quickly being rounded off by myself taking a run on the last ball of an over so I could face the pace of F Farley, bad decision. But in my knowledge that Pred had schooled me beforehand, watch out for the Yorker, just dig it out I was feeling some confidence in between the blinding fear. First ball, right on target, now I thought I tried to dig it out, but the sidelines insist that I tried to drive the delivery for 4 maybe even a 6, needless to say it was all over. F Farley doing most of the damage taking 6 wickets.

To sum up it was an interesting match that in the end was a little closer than it looked. I think the main deciding factor being that we decided to stay out in the rain turning the ball into mush just because we were on top, ahhh hindsight it is a wonderful thing. Brilliant efforts to note from M.Ridgway, Le Grange, Rashid and Lonnen for their bowling and top work from Le Grange again and Pred for their batting. And a quick mention to any batsman that had to go out and face F Farley’s pace and mouth.

AC