Prior to the start of the match, much debate was had as to whether the Ruislip ground was a nice little cricket ground or far too small for its own good.

Ruislip won the toss and elected to bat on a pleasant afternoon – the early day sun having decided to hide behind the clouds, and only to emerge for whenever the ball took flight.  From the sight of several Ruislip players turning up with their lunchboxes and Spiderman Thermos flasks of juice, it was clear that Ruislip have a good set of youth players to fill out their Sunday side and it was one of these, G Woon-Sam, who ably opened the batting with Gannon.  Gillman and Wilkinson opened the bowling for Ploughman’s and the score was, initially, kept to down.  Britto, Barron, McNee and Walding replaced the opening bowlers and continued to press hard for a wicket.

The Ploughmen gave it their all and were unlucky(*) not to have a wicket when Britto appeared to have Woon-Sam caught before the opening partnership had reached 50.  Unfortunately the young opener did not believe the ball to have carried to the fielder and the pairing continued to pile on the runs.  The partnership was finally broken on 147 when Britto caught Gannon off his own bowling for 48.  This did not, however, prompt any collapse as Woon-Sam continued rapidly on towards his century.  Wilkinson returned to close out the innings and was rewarded with three wickets, Mayor being stumped by the ever-encouraging Buckley as he set off down the wicket and Woon-Sam finally holing out to Britto in the deep, and the skipper Phull going leg before.  Windsor then came to the crease to score very rapidly and put a dampner on some of the bowlers’ figures and Ruislip finished their allocation of overs with 288 for 4.

A fine tea followed, although it has to be said that it was not in the same league as anything that the PCC offer at their home matches.  My personal highlight would have to be the use of cheese in every variety of sandwich, coupled with the old-school Cadbury’s Mini-rolls.  As PCC reflected on the Ruislip score, the positive points to note were the excellent attitudes in the field, both in chasing down every ball and in the encouragement offered to team mates.  Club fishing skills have also been improved due to the regular disappearance of the ball into the brook behind the boundary, and the Wilkinsons are now the proud owners of a few additional sticklebacks for the family pond.

The PCC innings did not start so well, as some fast and accurate bowling put paid to Lloyd, Hargreaves, Nicholls and Walding without any trouble for the scorers.  Having scored steadily during this period, Buckley then holed out to the other Woon-Sam brother.  McNee was caught soon after and the PCC were in trouble as Gillman went to the crease to join Britto.  For the record, it was at this point that yours truly decided it was time to put on a pair of pads.  What followed was a highly entertaining demonstration of how to bat aggressively as the two Ploughers went about their task.  A partnership of 131 followed and with the pace of the scoring, the match was looking more open.  Britto hit one six that still appeared to be climbing as it cleared the treeline and sailed into the road, while Gillman put one fantastic shot over the clubhouse to bring up his half century.  Both batsmen were putting away the bad ball with dominant ease and we all hope that this kind of form is carried on into the forthcoming league matches.  Unfortunately Gillman’s fine innings came to an end as he hit another youngster, Windsor, into the deep but not far enough and Boreham held the catch.  This was Windsor’s first wicket in senior cricket and his second followed three balls later as the tie moved to a new owner.  Having enjoyed a full hour or so in my pads, I decided that my (borrowed) cricket bat was too shiny to trouble the ball with and departed to a first ball duck.  The remainder of the batting was cleaned up fairly quickly and Britto was left high and dry on 78 at the end of a superb innings.

Although it was a heavy loss on paper, things could’ve proved very different had an early wicket gone down in the Ruislip innings, or had Britto and Gillman had more support from those before and after!  A few further beers were enjoyed, a couple split and an exploding glass enlivened the proceedings, making it a very pleasant afternoon but for the result.

JCO (apparently aka John Terry and proudly searching for THE club tie….)

(*) for those wanting the non-fence sitting version, replace unlucky with “outrageously and undeniably robbed through the threat of tantrums and the ball being taken home”