Justin time
A
beautiful sunny day, a newly mown outfield and a wicket rolled with our
new motorised roller - what more could one ask. Having won the toss, the
opposition asked us to bat and Messrs Symondson & Redfern took first
knock. An interesting contrast in styles was on view as Redfern's early
scything swings, usually without contact with the ball, frightened any
birds within half a mile whilst Symondsons cultured drives and cuts soon
soothed the spectators into a semi somnolent state.
However, Justin soon found the range and crashed his way to a quick 42
which included 3 sixes until having his stumps rearranged. Fernandes then
joined Symondson who continued his elegant way to 40 when he was bowled
by one which kept low. I joined Edgar and it was at this point that the
game took on an element of farce to say nothing of groundhog day, as Edgar
clipped one to midwicket where the fielder in making a fairly ordinary
attempt to complete the catch split the webbing of his hand as well as
adding insult to injury by dropping the catch. Although lacking the drama
of two years ago when we thought the fielder had been killed, the result
was much the same with the injured man being removed to hospital by a
fellow fielder whilst the visiting Captain suddenly remembered an urgent
appointment and departed homeward in a cloud of dust. The remaining 8
fielders were supplemented by two of ours and we continued.
Somewhat upset by the turn of events, Edgar chased a wide one and gave
catching practice to cover while I wafted at one outside off stump and
nicked it to the keeper. A minor crisis but cometh the hour, cometh the
man and Mike Pearmain put them to the sword with some excellent blows
and rescued things with a quickfire 32 until being caught at long off.
We were then treated to some great entertainment as Brian Hallam made
an excellent 18 combining authentic cover drives with his full repertoire
of comic tumbles, somersaults and full length dives. The only other incident
of note was a splendid running catch by Toby Cudworth to remove the Chairman
playing his signature drive over gully. The innings closed on 174 all
out.
Following a splendid tea courtesy of the current Mrs. Wright, tastefully
laid out by your Captain, the Pyestock innings began as though the opening
batsman had a date and was late for it. It must be said that he was assisted
by some wayward early overs by my predecessor who had to be removed from
the attack to spare him further punishment but Toby then settled into
a good line and length and was rewarded when the opener (50) hit one off
the toe of the bat to Steve Reece at cover who took the chance with ease.
Edgar meanwhile was beginning to work his magic and removed the Captain
(having returned from his appointment) who was beginning to look dangerous
and with the arrival of his spin twin into the attack, any possibility
of defeat receded and they subsided quickly from 57/1 to 88/8. The other
opener achieved a first by having the sheep in the adjoining field volunteering
to be next Sundays lunch by scoring (if this is not too generous a word)
6 of the 87 on the board at the time of his dismissal. The opposition
bizarrely attempted to avoid defeat by calling 20 overs at 6 o'clock but
once this subterfuge was confounded, the tail was cleaned up by Messrs
Reece and Cudworth (Senior) leaving us victorious by 65 runs, the last
batsman, showing a lack of the Colin Cowdrey spirit by refusing to bat
with one hand.