IBMSHCC Updates
Checking back, it looks like I owe a couple of updates on the cricket (cue huge groan from audience :P). Well, technically it's three, as I didn't write about my appearance for the Saturday team against Nomansland, but given that I only got 1 run, I don't have a lot to write about! Anyway, here they are, under cuts so some can ignore! ;)
Our first fixture against this team. We didn't really know what to expect, as they have a fair few teams in some quite high up leagues. They arrived with a Purbrook-esque mixture of youth and experience, some of which looked like they were quite good.
With John off on his honeymoon (bad form, getting married mid season!), Trev was skipper with me as vice skipper. Trev lost his first match of the day during the toss and they elected to bat.
Tight opening spells restricting the scoring but didn't get any wickets and as a consequence, with wickets in hand, it allowed them to push the rate up towards the end of the innings, finishing on 161-6 at tea. I didn't set the world alight with my bowling, no wickets in five over for 32 runs. It just wasn't working and my right shoulder was hurting so I think I was bowling within myself as a result.
After a BBQ tea, which was a little delayed, we then set about chasing the target down. I was batting at number 4, but was soon out in the middle due to our top order failing once again. The bounce hadn't been great all day, but I managed to get to 24 before being bowled by one that pitched half way down and then took out my stumps about 6 inches up! :( Second innings in a row I'd got to 24 and then got bowled (note : there were 49 days between innings, hardly the way to keep in form?!). I was a tad annoyed, as I felt ok out there and we weren't exactly blessed with batsman on the day.
Bob Tate came out and hit 34 before being given out to a somewhat dodgy LBW decision, much to his very vocal displeasure! And then our innings tailed away, with Graham and James (16 and 15 respectively) putting on 30 odd for the final wicket to give our total of 110 the vauguest hint of respectibility, but we still lost by 51 runs :(
My stats :
Bowling
5 over
0 maidens
32 runs
0 wickets
Batting
24 runs
2 fours
2 sixes
Bowled
No catches
As a shock to the system, we were playing a game 2 weeks in a row! For me, first time since April!! Damn you weather! :P
I'd started the day in a hotel in Hemel Hempstead, after attending the Redbourn festival the day before. A 100 mile drive is just the kind of warm up you need to a cricket game, especially when you're driving through rain, which is always a bad sign.
By the time we got to the ground, however, we were greeted with a bit of sunshine and clouds, but nothing too threatening. The ground was nice, pretty big, with a hard looking pitch. It did have some fairly big ramps up at each end which I thought would make bowling / wicket keeping somewhat difficult, but hey, same for both teams and all that.
Trev was again stand in skipper and duely continued in John's excellence in losing the toss and we were in the field. Bob and Taddy opened the bowling and we soon discovered that the outfield was quick and that anything that got through the infield would most likely whizz away to the fence!
Taddy managed to snag a couple of wickets fairly early on, but this only brought their numbers 3 and 4 bats to the wicket and they both set about tonking all bowlers to all parts of the ground. They were rattling along at 8 an over and their number 4 soon got to his 50.
By this point, James and Himanshu were the bowlers and James soon snagged the number 4, bowled for 61 (I think) and soon after, the number 3 departed for 39, again bowled.
At one point, we were staring at a huge score against us, but the departure of these two wickets gave us hope and the scoring rate certainly slowed to a more normal Sunday pace. After that, wickets fell semi regularly amongst the odd boundary here or there.
I managed to take a catch and then drop another one (I didn't expect to get near it and stuck a hand out. It hit square in the palm but I didn't close the fingers in time to make the catch. Shame.
Their last wicket partnership got a few runs, with "rug" causing their number 10 all sorts of problems and borrowed player Ian Burns keeping the number 11 quiet at the other end. When they swapped ends via a single, their number 10 seemed more at home with the pace of Ian, so I suggested that he tried a slower ball and that promptly took a wicket. In the words of Hannibal from the A-Team, "I love it when a plan comes together".
So, from staring down the barrel of 300+ for 2, we'd got them all out for 215. Although they didn't use all their overs, we were running behind time (mostly caused by having to run to get the ball from miles past the boundary about 3 times an over).
We were again short of batsman, so I had to open the innings with Trev. Sadly, Trev didn't last out the first over, falling plum LBW for another duck! This brough Kev Gledstone to the crease, who survived the last 2 balls.
The next over saw a lad with a rather long run up for little speed in the delivery and I had to wait for the first ball. The rest of the over saw me hit 1 four and then bottom edge the rest. The trusty Matrixx bat vibrating terribly in my hand and I quickly called for a replacement, even though I managed to hit another 2 fours before I changed over ;) Although, i did get dropped via a caught and bowled and also caught from a contentious no ball!
The new bat came out and it felt much better, and a few more fours followed for me. This led to a bowling change, with their left arm chinaman bowler coming on ... a chap who'd I heard could spin it both ways and had a devilish quicker ball. Que me having all sorts of troubles against him :( I don't face big turners very often and I just don't really know how to play it. There must've been at least 4 or 5 stumping appeals, some of which were very close I guess :S
Kev got out at some point after getting to 15 and I was joined at the crease by Ian, who, having played the spinner the week before, was now giving me advice ... basically, keep him out at all costs! hehe
I was still trying to play shots and I got a couple away, although not for very many runs ... I think 1 four through mid wicket and a couple of singles. Ian was hanging in there at the other end. The next over I faced from the spinnner resulted in me getting a couple of fours, which was nice ... I'd kinda worked out what he might be bowling, from his field changes bluffing me etc. He did, however, get Ian out via a top edge skier caught by the keeper. Bob Tate was next in, and promptly lobbed the first ball from the spinner to short mid wicket to be out for a golden duck ... he was not happy!
In stepped borrowed player number 2 ... and 9 year old kid, who was the son of one of their players, who stepped in for us on the day. I have to say, for a 9 year old, he was jam packed full of confidence and little jibes and sledges for the opposition. He would've bowled, kept wicket, opened the batting had he had his way! hehe
Not sure if this is all in the right order, but they also bought on their left handed number 3 bat to bowl, who, confusingly was bowling right arm! He was swinging it into my pads, but I managed to get him away for a couple of fours and a straight six, which was palmed over the boundary for my 3rd dropped catch and also brought up my 50 :D First of the season. :D
Following that, I was determined to go on, but following another couple of fours, I got bowled by an off spinner (annoying, having seen off the really good spinner, to get bowled by someone who wasn't turning it so far!) for a knock of 65 with only 9 of those runs not coming from boundaries ;) hehe
I was annoyed to get out, but I was pleased on 3 counts :
a) getting more than 24 (which I'd got 3 times this season!)
b) getting more than 35 (which meant I'd scored more than 1000 runs on a Sunday)
c) getting a 50 (my fifth on a Sunday and 6th overall)
After that, the innings chugged along and the run rate definitely slowed, despite a few lusty blows from Himanshu and Matt, but with wickets falling regularly, including the 9 year old, who was out for 5 well made runs.
Their left arm spinner was now back on and he cleaned up the tail finishing with figures of 8 overs, 3 maidens, 15 runs and 6 wickets. Nice!
So, we lost by 60 runs ... but a fun game nonetheless.
My stats
Did Not Bowl
Batting
65 runs
11 fours
2 sixes
Bowled
1 x catch
Our first fixture against this team. We didn't really know what to expect, as they have a fair few teams in some quite high up leagues. They arrived with a Purbrook-esque mixture of youth and experience, some of which looked like they were quite good.
With John off on his honeymoon (bad form, getting married mid season!), Trev was skipper with me as vice skipper. Trev lost his first match of the day during the toss and they elected to bat.
Tight opening spells restricting the scoring but didn't get any wickets and as a consequence, with wickets in hand, it allowed them to push the rate up towards the end of the innings, finishing on 161-6 at tea. I didn't set the world alight with my bowling, no wickets in five over for 32 runs. It just wasn't working and my right shoulder was hurting so I think I was bowling within myself as a result.
After a BBQ tea, which was a little delayed, we then set about chasing the target down. I was batting at number 4, but was soon out in the middle due to our top order failing once again. The bounce hadn't been great all day, but I managed to get to 24 before being bowled by one that pitched half way down and then took out my stumps about 6 inches up! :( Second innings in a row I'd got to 24 and then got bowled (note : there were 49 days between innings, hardly the way to keep in form?!). I was a tad annoyed, as I felt ok out there and we weren't exactly blessed with batsman on the day.
Bob Tate came out and hit 34 before being given out to a somewhat dodgy LBW decision, much to his very vocal displeasure! And then our innings tailed away, with Graham and James (16 and 15 respectively) putting on 30 odd for the final wicket to give our total of 110 the vauguest hint of respectibility, but we still lost by 51 runs :(
My stats :
Bowling
5 over
0 maidens
32 runs
0 wickets
Batting
24 runs
2 fours
2 sixes
Bowled
No catches
As a shock to the system, we were playing a game 2 weeks in a row! For me, first time since April!! Damn you weather! :P
I'd started the day in a hotel in Hemel Hempstead, after attending the Redbourn festival the day before. A 100 mile drive is just the kind of warm up you need to a cricket game, especially when you're driving through rain, which is always a bad sign.
By the time we got to the ground, however, we were greeted with a bit of sunshine and clouds, but nothing too threatening. The ground was nice, pretty big, with a hard looking pitch. It did have some fairly big ramps up at each end which I thought would make bowling / wicket keeping somewhat difficult, but hey, same for both teams and all that.
Trev was again stand in skipper and duely continued in John's excellence in losing the toss and we were in the field. Bob and Taddy opened the bowling and we soon discovered that the outfield was quick and that anything that got through the infield would most likely whizz away to the fence!
Taddy managed to snag a couple of wickets fairly early on, but this only brought their numbers 3 and 4 bats to the wicket and they both set about tonking all bowlers to all parts of the ground. They were rattling along at 8 an over and their number 4 soon got to his 50.
By this point, James and Himanshu were the bowlers and James soon snagged the number 4, bowled for 61 (I think) and soon after, the number 3 departed for 39, again bowled.
At one point, we were staring at a huge score against us, but the departure of these two wickets gave us hope and the scoring rate certainly slowed to a more normal Sunday pace. After that, wickets fell semi regularly amongst the odd boundary here or there.
I managed to take a catch and then drop another one (I didn't expect to get near it and stuck a hand out. It hit square in the palm but I didn't close the fingers in time to make the catch. Shame.
Their last wicket partnership got a few runs, with "rug" causing their number 10 all sorts of problems and borrowed player Ian Burns keeping the number 11 quiet at the other end. When they swapped ends via a single, their number 10 seemed more at home with the pace of Ian, so I suggested that he tried a slower ball and that promptly took a wicket. In the words of Hannibal from the A-Team, "I love it when a plan comes together".
So, from staring down the barrel of 300+ for 2, we'd got them all out for 215. Although they didn't use all their overs, we were running behind time (mostly caused by having to run to get the ball from miles past the boundary about 3 times an over).
We were again short of batsman, so I had to open the innings with Trev. Sadly, Trev didn't last out the first over, falling plum LBW for another duck! This brough Kev Gledstone to the crease, who survived the last 2 balls.
The next over saw a lad with a rather long run up for little speed in the delivery and I had to wait for the first ball. The rest of the over saw me hit 1 four and then bottom edge the rest. The trusty Matrixx bat vibrating terribly in my hand and I quickly called for a replacement, even though I managed to hit another 2 fours before I changed over ;) Although, i did get dropped via a caught and bowled and also caught from a contentious no ball!
The new bat came out and it felt much better, and a few more fours followed for me. This led to a bowling change, with their left arm chinaman bowler coming on ... a chap who'd I heard could spin it both ways and had a devilish quicker ball. Que me having all sorts of troubles against him :( I don't face big turners very often and I just don't really know how to play it. There must've been at least 4 or 5 stumping appeals, some of which were very close I guess :S
Kev got out at some point after getting to 15 and I was joined at the crease by Ian, who, having played the spinner the week before, was now giving me advice ... basically, keep him out at all costs! hehe
I was still trying to play shots and I got a couple away, although not for very many runs ... I think 1 four through mid wicket and a couple of singles. Ian was hanging in there at the other end. The next over I faced from the spinnner resulted in me getting a couple of fours, which was nice ... I'd kinda worked out what he might be bowling, from his field changes bluffing me etc. He did, however, get Ian out via a top edge skier caught by the keeper. Bob Tate was next in, and promptly lobbed the first ball from the spinner to short mid wicket to be out for a golden duck ... he was not happy!
In stepped borrowed player number 2 ... and 9 year old kid, who was the son of one of their players, who stepped in for us on the day. I have to say, for a 9 year old, he was jam packed full of confidence and little jibes and sledges for the opposition. He would've bowled, kept wicket, opened the batting had he had his way! hehe
Not sure if this is all in the right order, but they also bought on their left handed number 3 bat to bowl, who, confusingly was bowling right arm! He was swinging it into my pads, but I managed to get him away for a couple of fours and a straight six, which was palmed over the boundary for my 3rd dropped catch and also brought up my 50 :D First of the season. :D
Following that, I was determined to go on, but following another couple of fours, I got bowled by an off spinner (annoying, having seen off the really good spinner, to get bowled by someone who wasn't turning it so far!) for a knock of 65 with only 9 of those runs not coming from boundaries ;) hehe
I was annoyed to get out, but I was pleased on 3 counts :
a) getting more than 24 (which I'd got 3 times this season!)
b) getting more than 35 (which meant I'd scored more than 1000 runs on a Sunday)
c) getting a 50 (my fifth on a Sunday and 6th overall)
After that, the innings chugged along and the run rate definitely slowed, despite a few lusty blows from Himanshu and Matt, but with wickets falling regularly, including the 9 year old, who was out for 5 well made runs.
Their left arm spinner was now back on and he cleaned up the tail finishing with figures of 8 overs, 3 maidens, 15 runs and 6 wickets. Nice!
So, we lost by 60 runs ... but a fun game nonetheless.
My stats
Did Not Bowl
Batting
65 runs
11 fours
2 sixes
Bowled
1 x catch