Venturers vs London Rams Friday August 1st

London Rams 154–6 Venturers 156-4

London Rams are the cricketing arm of the Derby County Supporters Club (London Chapter), so naturally they lost. In fact the historical link with Derby County FC seems to have largely dissolved and we were told that only about two real Derby fans (Sid and Doris Bonkers) remain. It turned out that they meant there were only two left in the cricket team, not altogether.

There were only ten of the team, the eleventh being stuck in a pub somewhere, and they batted. Their openers were rather competent, and were helped by our habit of dropping them at intervals, but Adam and Rob bowled well enough to keep the run rate fairly low. Vipal and Roger, having a rare bowl himself, were only slightly more expensive, but of the four only Adam really looked like getting a wicket and he was the victim of most of the drops. The opening partnership had reached eighty, in the eighteenth over of a 35-over game, and allowing for expected acceleration we were likely to have to chase something not far short of two hundred.

At this point Fluffy made the first of two decisive interventions. The less aggressive of the openers was tempted into action by Gregory's flight, and slightly mistimed his drive: Fluffy caught it a few yards in from the long-on boundary. Kevin was introduced at the other end and he and Gregory stifled the innings entirely. A left-hander, after several random and unproductive swishes at Gregory, gloved a short ball from Kevin and was caught by Andy. The other opener, who had made seventy, gave Gregory the charge and was stumped: Alex knocked the bails off before the ball arrived but had the presence of mind, and the time, to pull a stump out when it did. Kevin did concede a few runs, but also knocked over two more; Gregory's last two overs cost one run; Matt got a wicket with his first ball. Steve had to face the final slog and was more expensive, but not ruinously so, and they ran out of overs on 151-6.

Matt and Andy set off at a canter in pursuit and, with Matt threading the ball into the gaps in the style of Ahmad, they had almost raised fifty by the time Andy steered to slip in the eighth over. Fluffy nearly did the same early on, but was probably in control of the shot really. Thereafter he had it all his own way, even after Matt unaccountably played no shot at all to a perfectly straight ball and was struck on the back leg in front of middle stump. That could have been a turning point, as Matt had been playing well and Rob, who came next, struggled for timing. He lobbed a catch off what we thought was the slow bowler, after one thump through mid-off. Roger was disconcerted by the appearance of an even slower bowler, and hit a low catch to cover off one that nearly bounced a second time, or perhaps just did. Even Kevin found timing hard. Not so Fluffy, who treated the slow bowlers with care and the quicker ones with confidence, and only got into trouble when approaching his fifty. On 48, he hit a low catch to point, who dropped it. Two balls later he drove the ball out to cover but started on his fiftieth run without completing his forty-ninth, and the celebrations had to be postponed. An easy single later in the over gave him his first fifty for anyone, and two more boundaries, one by him and one by Kevin, ended the match.

Fixtures & Results 2008