After being selected to play the 2nd XI, your faithful reporter (Nicko) had his cricket quota sorted for what was to be a very warm weekend ahead. However, a call went out midweek that a Sunday side was short. The game was 5 mins from home and was a chance to be played with my oldest mate at plough, G Wolledge. On this specific Wednesday, I was out at a long lunch and had just enough cocktails in the system to a) think I would be fine doing a double header in the heat and b) pluck up the courage to ask to play cricket both Saturday and Sunday. Luckily, the delightful Maddy (Nicko’s partner) was fuelled by the same cocktails and agreed to this one-off.

Come Sunday morning, after a 78 over game followed by beers and a number of song renditions as the DSG the previous day, I was having a small amount of regret. The body was not happy with what the cocktail fuelled mind had agreed to earlier in the week. But there is no bad day at the Plough

Our skipper for the day Elmo asked us to get there for 12:30. I arrived bang on time to find myself just the second person there alongside the skipper. The rest of the XI trickled in. Niraj arrived with a lifesaver package for the day with a makeshift Eski/Cooler/Chilly Bin (whichever you prefer but it is an Eski) and enough ice and cold water to see us through. Absolute legendary effort. Aislynn rolled in with a backpack full of beers. We were set. Now all we needed was Elmo to win the toss, sit back with a water and watch the oppo sweat it out.

Elmo did not win the toss.

We were obviously bowling.

By this stage Grant had arrived. Or should I a shell of Grant had arrived. The man had been in bed since Wednesday. He was not in a good way at all. A herculean effort to show up although it may well still have been easier to play cricket rather than deal with two kids at home in the heat.
Elmo had pulled me aside earlier and as good Sunday captains do, asked if I would prefer more a bat or bowl today. I said I didn’t mind but a bat if anything. So obviously the logical thing to do was throw me the new rock. Not sure I had ever done it before so thought ‘bugger it lets have a crack’. There was a significant slope on this ground and I had very little interest in chugging up hill so I spoke with my opening partner, Dinesh Kinger, about it and initially tried the age card until Rob pointed out that Dinesh was most likely older than me. I then tried the weight card and by this stage Dinesh just said you take the top end.

Dinesh produced as amazing opening spell where his bowling was just too good for the batters, a real measure of control. I managed to pick up a few cheap wickets and Millfields were on the back foot. Josh Kerr was the introduced into the attack with immediate effect, picking up their gun bat with his first ball thanks to a fantastic catch from Elmo and Millfields were 4/27.

Ean Smith and Elmo were introduced into the attack. Elmo kept his cool as about five catches were shelled off his bowling. I actually dropped one off him the day before so when a high sky ball was headed out to me on the boundary, I was exceptionally determined to not let him down again. It was well struck but I held onto it…………until the point that I realised by next step back was going over the boundary. The modern cricketer would have simply thrown it up, stepped back in and retaken it. My brain and body don’t work that fast and I simply threw the ball back into the field before I stepped over. During this debacle, the batters had not run so it was a very elaborate dot ball.

Elmo rightly hit me with a ‘Any danger this weekend Nicko’.

After facing the three spinners, the batsmen we reasonably well set. I think they were a little surprised when we suggested to them that getting their helmets back on might make sense. Because Azza was next up!

Azza bowled exceptionally well picking up 3/7 off his six overs including a one handed worldly from Rob Mead with the gloves. There were a couple of runouts to Elmo and myself during this period. To Millfields credit, they managed to bat out their overs and ended on 171 off their 30 overs

Despite being mentioned in the Pitchero description, the Whatsapp group description and a number of times in the Whatsapp chat itself, about a third of the team did not bring their own tea. Benjamin Barnard did a run for those non listeners. We were then out to bat needing about 6 an over.

Grant ‘Jordan Flu Game’ Wolledge and Ean Smith opened up. It was a vert steady start reaching 30 before Ean was bowled. The Shell of Grant kept going along. Our middle order of Benjamin, Elmo and Niraj then fell victim to some delightful off-spin and we fell to 4/70. The shell of Grant was almost out of gas. He had been joined by Azza. Yeh that bloke who bowls hooping rapid can also bat a bit. He picked up the tempo and put on a 50 run stand with Grant which certainly turned the chase from tricky to very doable.

Grant eventually fell for an incredibly hard earned 46 (off 53). He would never admit it but I think he was happy to get out. He was done and what an effort it was. We continued to lose wickets but Azza was still plundering the ball everywhere. We got to the last over needing five to win. Dinesh was on strike and we had two wickets in hand. Dinesh clearly thought this had gone on long enough and plundered back-to-back 4s to seal a fantastic win for Plough.

It was a fantastic day out. I got to meet a number of new plough both at the game and back at the DSG for some victory beers which always taste better. My cocktail fuelled decision was the right one after all. Not sure how many times you can say that.

Match report from Nicko Dowell