The Venturers vs. Royal Oak, Wednesday 20th
June 2007
Author: Ian Benzeval (with some amendments from Gregory, and then from Rog)
Venturers - about 160 for an unknown number of wickets, (between 3 and 5) off 20 overs, Royal Oak 70/80-odd
Nobody can remember much of this game, but here is a report, mostly by Fluffy but amended by Gregory.
Venturers 160 (at least) for 5 or so, Royal Oak 80 ish for 8 / 9
The Royal Oak are a new team based around the real ale and cider pub on the edge of Oldfield Park. The game got off to a very amateurish start in that neither team had a scorebook.
Once some paper had been found Venturers began to bat on a nice evening. The early overs took an eternity as the Oak players consulted on field changes after every ball, many of which were wides or no-balls. Aravind blazed away for about 25 and Roger calmly got 50 and then decided to retire to leave a bit more work for the next few batsmen. It was already apparent that Royal Oak had only a handful of capable cricketers and the rest had been bribed to play with the promise of food at the interval. This was brought in by the landlady who watched most of the game from a deckchair next to the scorers. Alistair scored a few quick runs from his favoured hsot to square lege, and the innings was completed with Naveen hitting balls back over the bowlers head.
So The Venturers succeeded in getting a good score, though the exact figure is no longer known.
In reply it was obvious that Royal Oak's batting was as shaky as their fielding and though we failed to bowl them out, they never looked like knocking off the runs. Duncan bowled very tightly, but there was no chance of edges coming from bowling a good line just outside off stump. The batsmen were getting nowhere near it. So Duncan remained wicketless; though whether edges would have led to wickets or just to drops is also open to question. Steve P took the more effective approach of just ensuring the ball was straight and picked up a couple of wickets, for a few more runs than Duncan, but still economical.
Others chipped in. Fluffy dropped a catch off his own bowling. Then he produced a straight one, followed by another straight one. The field crowded round for the hat-trick ball. Some debate went on as to whether there should be some deep fielders in case the batsman tried to belt it. The batsman announced that he was Scottish and was certainly not going to change his style simply to prevent a hat-trick. This bewildered us and thus stopped all discussion, and Fluffy bowled. The batsman, still bemused by his own remark, belted it. It travelled straight back down the pitch at a height of about a
foot: Fluffy fell on it and caught it, sprawled on the pitch with a bruised hand and a large drinks bill.
The game was pleasant to play though quite dark towards the close. The ECB may wish to have words with Royal Oak over their slow over rate. With some more fielding practice, and maybe a ringer or two, Royal Oak could provide some entertaining local matches for the future. Much the same could be said about the Venturers.