Printer-friendly pageWednesday, July 16, 2008
Inner City LSSC cricketers forsook their London penthouses for leafy Surrey and the first leg of the mid-season rural break. Coldharbour C.C. have a picturesque ground on North Downs beauty spot Leith Hill, but the skipper's early attention was drawn towards a green, some would say lush, pitch that caused him to insert the opposition. Of course the pitch was unlikely to change its character during the afternoon and a more plausible explanation became apparent when DT revealed that he had negotiated a rare time game, giving the side batting second the opportunity of hanging on for an undeserved draw.
Our opening bowlers began with looseners that had varied results: a Keenan full toss smacked over extra cover for a one-bounce four and a Berkeley long hop clipped gently to the eager hands of Paul Pearce at square leg. When John Griffiths took a catch in the deep, Pete had taken wickets with his two worst balls in a challenging opening spell from both ends and our hosts were 13-3. A change of bowling brought the first of many searches for the ball in the local undergrowth but DT produced a good one to leave Coldharbour on 51-4. That soon became 100-4 and very nearly 150-4 before we removed the number four bat, known to the scorebook as 'TD', for a flawless 70. However, we noted that successive batsmen were becoming younger and fitter, suggesting that early successes had been a cruel deception. A fellow named Dawe helped himself to 93, assisted by characteristic LSSC generosity with catches, including one at long on. I'd prefer to dwell on the uncomplaining way this fielder repeatedly trudged from long on to long off; OK, I'm complaining now, but that won't have the same crushing affect on team morale as it would have done during the match. Newcomer Joss Agnew also endeared himself to his new team-mates with a spillage, but there are a fair few of us who wouldn't have moved fast enough to lay a hand on this chance. With a Mr. Hopper also hitting 50, Coldharbour declared on 254-6. LSSC had bowled 42 overs without a break, other than delays for ball retrieval which had developed a distinct tactical element towards the end of the innings.
Tea was as splendid as it was welcome, my particular favourites being the home-made Coronation Chicken and a trifle topped with summer fruits. Some captains would have used the 30 minute interval to explain our strategy for the innings but DT's edition of Brearley's Art of Captaincy contains parts expunged from later versions. The bit about letting the team work these things out for themselves, for example - it's next to the chapter about relegating an established batsman to the bottom of the order in case he gets delusions of ability.
Certainly the message was mixed as we set off on a 'chase' of 1 hour plus 20 overs with Paul Pearce as an apparent pinch hitting opener. Six overs later, Paul was still looking for his first run in 3 visits to this ground, but then came a spate of four boundaries in an innings of 16. Paul was eventually run out, an unnecessary wicket in what was already a rearguard action. Damien Chalmers did his best to atone for his part in the mix up, his innings including some nice shots before ending on 25 - true to form we were losing wickets regularly and there were even doubts whether we would make it to the last 20 overs. DT and Pete were steadying the ship as the over count began to reduce but another run out hardly helped, and then Coldharbour introduced a tidy bowler who they had been holding back. With both of the skipper's late replacements (myself and Nick Head) registering ducks, the side were eventually all out for 111 - an apt score that also makes the margin of defeat easy to calculate… a whopping 143 runs.
On the plus side our bowlers did well for the most part as Coldharbour's score must be put in the context of a small ground. Tony Grimes' four overs for 16 was tight, Paul's 43 off 5 less so and Joss wasn't asked to contribute more than one over for 21. We really wanted a decent batter to stay in for a while but there were notable 'not availables' while you couldn't help but feel that John Griffiths umpiring while waiting for his turn at number 10 was a wasted resource. We should also mention that the normally reliable Mr. Extras had a poor day with just six runs in each innings.
Man of the match came down to Damien's 25 plus 3 catches against DT's 25 not out. Both had their faults: a couple of missed stumpings by Damien while Dave's absence from the attack when the going got tough at the end of the innings did not go unnoticed by those who did suffer. Nevertheless DT gets the award as part of the on-going campaign to stop him resigning.
Champagne moment is also unclear, largely as a result of there being no rules about when the competition starts and ends. For instance Lord Lucan's arrival as the sole occupant of the back of a taxi had an appropriately patrician air about it, but does this count as it was before the team had even left the pub? Turns out the noble Lord thought joining his mates on the communal train trip too common, but he did travel with them on the way back. I'm told this also prompted a potential champagne moment for his Lordship, but of course we're far too mature to find anything comical in a middle aged man's discomfort because of a lack of toilets on public transport.
On the field, the champagne belongs to Mr. Berkeley. First there was the cry of "mind the cars" as an early six headed towards both the car park and Pete's picnicking family - a case of misplaced priorities, surely? That a later shout that you are only as good as your last piece of fielding was followed by a dropped catch was too inevitable for my vote, but then there was the change of batting gloves at the wicket, having walked out with a left hander's pair, and then that run out - attempting a tactically useless second run when we were trying to save the game, and on a ground where such a thing was all but impossible anyway.
Coldharbour innings
Karnrumpf - Ct.Pearce, Bowled Berkeley 8
Clarkson - Ct.Griffiths, Bowled Berkeley 0
M.Weill - Ct.Chalmers, Bowled Keenan 3
Bingo - Ct.Chalmers, Bowled Griffiths 70
TD - Bowled Thomas 19
Dawe - Ct.Chalmers, Bowled 93
Hopper - Not out 52
C.Weill - Not out 3
Extras 6
254 for 6
LSSC bowling
Keenan 8-1-31-2
Berkeley 9-0-41-2
Thomas 6-0-34-1
Grimes 4-0-16-0
Pearce 5-0-43-0
Griffiths 7-0-35-1
Wathan 4-0-33-0
Agnew 1-0-21-0
LSSC innings
Pearce - Run out 16
Grimes - Ct, Bowled Martin 1
Keenan - Ct, Bowled Martin 9
Wathan - Bowled Martin 5
Chalmers - Ct wk, Bowled C.Weill 25
Agnew - Ct, Bowled M.Weill 5
Thomas - Not out 25
Berkeley - Run out 13
Shadick - Bowled Acres 0
Griffiths - Bowled Hopper 6
Head - Ct, Bowled Tapper 0
Extras 6
111 all out
