Canal Taverners vs Venturers, Wednesday July 15th

Canal Taverners 78-8 Venturers 83-5

Canal Taverners play at Victory Field. Non-vegetarian food is provided at the Canal Tavern afterwards, which is friendly but useless to some of us. The local idiots pelt the fieldsmen with unripe apples from the lower branches of the tree opposite. Apparently it's like being in Australia, although the finest example of the effect of fruit-throwing on cricket happened many years ago in Dhaka, then in East Pakistan.

We lost the toss but found ourselves fielding anyway. Canal Taverners have quite a lot of batting but Matt and Rob bowled well to them and Rob quickly induced an edge to the keeper. The new batsman skied Rob back over his head. Alastair called for it (it was closer to Rob, but behind him) but fluffed it; but Chris Middup soon caught him off Matt, a good catch from a firm drive. Before that, though, Chris had caught an even better catch off Matt to get rid of the other opener, a perfectly judged skier over his shoulder. As Rob and Matt were economical as well as penetrating they handed over to Alex W and Gregory with the score around 30 for 3 after eight overs. Alex picked up a wicket but did yield them a few runs: not many. Gregory didn't even do that: his four overs cost five runs and produced three wickets, all bowled, as well as what we were all convinced was an edge to the keeper and a very close LBW. The survivor of that appeal managed to give Canal Taverners something to bowl at, hitting four fours in an over from Chris M, but he had twice miscued just short of fieldsmen earlier. Simon S bowled two tidy overs at the end. The results were what they always are: one wicket, and one dropped catch by Gregory, who catches them off everybody else (in particular, off his own bowling).

We made a nervous start batting, even though we were chasing only 79. Alastair was yorked at the end of the first over; Chris W and Matt nearly ran each other out and before very long Chris also missed one. Alex W was initially only slightly better at communicating with Matt, but two guided boundaries by Matt and a massive straight six by Alex made put us in a very comfortable position, on paper anyway. It got more comfortable as both batsmen settled, and we needed only a dozen when Matt clipped a ball to midwicket. Soon afterwards Alex got bowled, and Simon D did not last. We needed only eight, with five wickets and plenty of time left, but had just lost three for five runs. Alex C waved his bat unconvincingly a few times, but then connected with a pull. He and Tom took their time about the last four runs, though, running three nervous singles in two overs. But then Tom, quite without warning, lost patience and simply banged one into the tennis court, leaving us easy winners.

Fixtures & Results 2009