On a weekend where the spirit of cricket was the focus of attention, the Concorde 12 went above & beyond. You might question that having 12 in a game requiring just 11 players would contradict this, but on arriving Nomads notified us that they were short so Concorde generously loaned them a player. Little did we know how much of an influence it was going to have during the game.
On a fine sunny afternoon Concorde won the toss and elected to bowl on what looked like a green & damp wicket. Jack Dominy opened up from the house end trying to repeat last year’s effort against Nomads. However, the wicket was slow and any variation of bounce slowed it up even more. At the other end young Adam making his first appearance of the season bowled with significantly more zip & control than last year and despite a good 6 overs was unrewarded for his efforts. At this point I must emphasise a number of chipped drives went agonisingly over the heads of mid-off and extra cover. It was a little surprising that finally the Nomads opener reached for a ball outside off stump and placed it straight to Andy Marshall at point, with the score a little over 50. Andy Marshall replaced Adam and immediately started to squeeze the batsmen extracting a little movement off the pitch. After 20 overs a well earnt drink was taken and tactics were discussed with the resulting decision of replacing Jack with Jerry to see if “let’s have 1 for drinks” would work. Even we were surprised to see Jerry’s first ball, pitched on a perfect length was tamely pushed back to a very grateful bowler by the other opener. This was the start of Jerry’s “magnet hands!”
The number 4, having be dropped by Andy off Jerry at point, drove viciously at a full ball outside off stump only to see Jerry instinctively pluck the ball out of the air grateful Andy. Not long after the same formula was used, although the force of the shout was considerably less than previously, giving Andy his 2nd wicket and Jerry his 3rd catch. The opening bowler came to the crease and not impressed with Andy’s brand of slow bowling was dropped at mid-on by Ash trying to smash his first ball out the park. Fortunately for Ash this did not cost Concorde any runs as a few balls later from the other end Jerry took a stunning caught & bowled to an extremely well struck drive, resulting in Nick W asking the question “where has my dad gone?!” With 5 down and less than 100 on the board all seemed to be going to plan, then striding to the crease, fresh from watching another DVD of how to play the straight ball came Nigel “The Concorde 12” Wright. Despite playing & missing on a number of occasions early on, Nigel managed to keep everything out that was straight, something that the Concorde batsmen should have learnt from. Little by little the score crept along and with Ross Ormiston from Wellington, NZ, at the other end working George and Nick Wright’s varieties of spin, Nigel started to blossom. Ross was finally caught off a leading edge by Andy off a deserved Adam in his 2nd spell. Ash came on and picked up a couple of wickets bowling full and disturbing the batsmen’s stumps. This had taken a lot of time, a bit more time and Nomads finally declared on 170 at the end of the originally scheduled tea break!
Concorde discussed the order over tea and decided that our best chance was to start steady and see what the position was with 20 overs to go.. As mentioned previously Nigel’s ability to play the straight ball should not have been underrated…. In short only 1 batsman was caught out. Nick Freeman & Andy opened up and Concorde immediately started to struggle. The medium pace opening bowlers were extremely accurate and moved the ball around. Nick was soon trapped LBW by a ball that straightened for 4, Nick W having deposited a 6 into the tree (only scoring shot) was then bowled by a ball angled in at middle and nipping away to take off stump. The reliable Andy, now joined by Ash was then LBW for 9 by a ball that came back and kept low, Ash following him back shortly after bowled while playing an expansive drive for 8. Prev joined the party 2 balls later for a duck, again having his stumps rearranged. Chris T came to the crease and joined Elliott Smith making his debut for the club. Unfortunately this partnership didn’t last long either, Elliott, yes you have guessed it being bowled for 1. At 30 for 6 Jerry joined Chris and said “looks like the draw is our only option”. In agreement Chris set about the task by playing out a maiden. A few balls later Jerry on nought left a ball only to hear the clatter of his timbers behind him – the ball having nipped back a little, giving the opener from the clubhouse end his 5 wickets. Adam joined Chris and played with maturity beyond his years, playing the straight ball on its merit and picking up runs, particularly off his legs. The partnership flourished to above 20 and we had eaten into 11 overs of the final 20, when the 4th bowler changed from slow mediums to spin. This did the trick as a ball with air was attacked by Adam and perhaps trying to hit it too hard, dragged it to mid-on, out for 14. 2 balls later Jack was bowled by a ball that turned sharply through the gate for a duck. Even George’s trusty forward defence was then breached, bowled in the same fashion as Jack for the 4th duck of the innings, leaving Chris not out on 9, joint 2nd top scorer!
All out for 58 and a hefty defeat, 7 players bowled and 2 LBW, the top score that came from a Concorde player was from Nigel Wright who we had generously loaned to the opposition. It just proves that respecting the straight ball (not as much as Jerry!) gives you every opportunity to stay at the wicket & score runs….