Concorde CC - West Country Tour review 2008
The Tour got off to a less than perfect start when news reached me as I arrived in Westbury for our first game that it had in fact been cancelled due to heavy rain the previous day. This was disappointing and condemned me with others to an afternoon sightseeing in Bath.
However, things picked up with the team dinner at the Inn at Freshford that evening. Justin ordered a pint of the Landlords home brew called ‘dark and handsome’ and one had to admire his fortitude as he succeeded in drinking a third of it before, with watering eyes, he was alerted by the awful smell that it was well and truly off.
As usual, we all succeeded in over doing the fine wines and ales and awoke on Saturday feeling truly awful – at least I did! Having summoned my will power we drove to Christian Malford for our first game.
The wicket was truly sodden and felt like a trampoline to walk on and despite some heavy negotiations, we found ourselves being asked to bat. Mick Reeve opened with Toby and seemed in very good touch straight away driving a couple through the covers for 4 but Toby found it difficult to get the ball away and succumbed for 3. Justin too found the slow pitch awkward but was just getting the feel of it when he middled a full toss to deep mid wicket and was caught. Nick joined Mick and whilst it still looked difficult, runs began to come. Clearly deciding that attack was best, Nick lofted an enormous 6 over long off and followed it with 2 more in the same direction.
On Micks demise for a vital 25 I joined Nick and found the middle quite quickly and things looked good until Nick was unluckily bowled off his pads for 35. I continued to 27 until caught in the deep and our innings subsided to 143 which looked defendable on a slow track. Titters continues to find a length hard to find this season and went for a few early on but Matt was tight and our second string of bowlers, Myself and Toby were also tight without threatening much. It was left to Ian, with his innocent but deadly medium pace to get amongst them and wickets fell to him at regular intervals with him finishing his 8 over spell with 6 wickets.
It was however, obvious that Christian Malford were never quite out of the game and a good push by their tail left them requiring 4 off the last over which they duly achieved off the last ball of the game.
Disappointing to lose but a competitive and enjoyable contest against a very nice bunch who looked after us very well. We then departed for the obligatory curry in Bath at which Titters, clearly under the influence of a few drinks, revealed that in 2002, he had won a competition on Radio 1 to host a radio show and was taken to LA and Las Vegas with Chris Moyles and Chris Evans where he hosted a show as well. After that, he hosted Glastonbury for Radio 1 – Who would have thought it!!
The young lads then departed for a night of debauchery on the town whilst the more mature members headed for the hotel for a pre bedtime cup of cocoa. As usual, there was a wedding in full swing and we derived much entertainment watching the antics of the locals and particularly the dress sense of the local maidens.
Sunday saw some fairly rough looking youngsters descend for breakfast I was not optimistic of our chances against All Cannings. On winning the toss, they elected to bat, never a good sign, and were quickly racking up the runs. In a 35 over game, the opposition made 176, the most notable moment coming when a not unattractive young lady came to the crease as last person in and showed a reasonable degree of efficiency. Nick finished with 3 wickets with a mixture of medium pace and leg spin and there was some tight bowling from Matt, Ian & Toby.
Our innings got off to a slow start against some testing bowling with Ian and Mick never looking quite quick enough between the wickets and when they were out, poor Justin simply could not find the middle of his bat. The harder he swung, the less distance the ball went until finally he middled one straight to deep extra cover.
Under pressure for runs, I tried to cut one off middle stump (never a good idea) and was bowled and a succession of batsmen following got themselves out. The one exception was Nick who took the innings by the scruff of the neck and attacked hitting 3 sixes and single handedly bringing us back into the game. Assisted by a cameo from Will who hit 2 sixes we looked to be in good shape until Will suffered the ignominy of being LBW to the afore mentioned young Lady and returned red faced to the pavilion.
At the start of the last over, we needed 15 to win but a succession of excellent yorkers could be hit for no more than singles and we finished 12 short. Nick was unbeaten on 64 – a fine effort in the circumstances.
The Hotel, having made a mess of our booking and told us we had to move out on Sunday, we ate a final meal in the local pub and headed for home, a day earlier than scheduled.