Ten men from South Wraxall spent some minutes at fielding practice before the match started, veering between ominous competence and familiar ineptitude. Their opening bowlers marked their runs out in a professional way after we had won the toss. The first ball of the match rocketed past Duncan's chest, accompanied by a loud apology from the bowler. We began to suspect that they talked a better game than they played, especially since there were still only ten of them. We liked them.

In a way that first ball was misleading, since the bowler concerned did little else wrong. The bowler at the other end was wayward, producing a mixture of wides and no-balls: when he came within reach, Paul Martin cut him firmly. Duncan accumulated, rather more quietly than usual, and we made a good start. The more reliable opening bowler produced one ball which elicited a short speech of genuine appreciation from Duncan, and in due course another to Paul which would have been unplayable even if he hadn't tried to cut it. But by that time fifty was up, in the eleventh over; and the eleventh South Wraxall player had arrived and shown why he had skipped fielding practice. In spite of everything, a West Indian on a cricket field is still assumed to be good at the game, and entertaining. He was. In fact he dropped the hard chance that Duncan gave him; but he did it by overrunning a ball that nobody else on either side would have reached. There was a running joke among the fielders about where he should be put: in a good-natured way, South Wraxall sledged themselves. But their slower bowlers put the brakes on. Duncan found the accurate but non-turning off-breaks bowled from around the wicket by one of them impossible to hit, perhaps through an excess of orthodoxy: the reverse sweep might have been effective. Gradually people got out, mostly for 14, to the steady medium-pacer at the other end. The run rate fell alarmingly.

James and Luke improved the situation, James with a flurry of boundaries, Luke with ones and twos. Not the other way round. Apart from Duncan Lee and James nobody made more than 14, but equally nobody failed altogether. Duncan and Steve both got LBW decisions that might have gone the other way, but South Wraxall dropped several catches and caught one notable one, off the last ball. Gregory had an uncharacteristic slog to go with his temporarily fearsome appearance (if a man loses one tooth he looks fierce, but if he loses them all he looks innocuous), and mid-off and mid-on collided. But mid-on caught the ball, and mid-off caught mid-on. 153 all out in 40 overs exactly was not great, but we quite fancied our chances.

Duncan Lee and James bowled with commendable accuracy. James in particular gave nothing away at all. After a couple of overs Duncan flicked off the off bail of the right-handed opener, just before his could do it himself with his heel. There were then two left-handers at the crease and they could do almost nothing: eventually one of them swiped at James, and was bowled. The score had not reached 20. Soon after, the opening bowlers handed over to Kevin and Gregory. The captain of South Wraxall is called Hamish. It is impossible not to notice this. Hamish attacked Kevin, who was having a bit of trouble with the by now damp ball, and was restrained by his partner from attacking Gregory (he had had a wild swing at James and nearly got out earlier). The rain became a little heavier. There was a debate about whether we should continue. A cloth was brought out to Gregory, and Hamish's patience ran out. The ball looped towards Kevin, then slipped from his hands. He did a very good impression of a man in the shower trying not to drop the soap: then he got caught up in the shower curtain and fell over. As he did so he knocked his elbow against the tap. By the time we got to the boundary we were soaked and there were streams of water running across the car park.

Back to the 2004 Fixtures List