Bill Owen vs Venturers, Sunday June 6th

Bill Owen 172-9 Venturers 173-9

What was once a cornfield at Chew Stoke is now used for rugby, doubtless a response to some technical shift in European agricultural policy. This means that it is much easier to get the ball back after it has been hit there, which raises the over rate considerably. It also makes parking a lot easier.

We agreed on ten overs per bowler rather than the usual eight, because Bill Owen had only four bowlers. We didn't expect to use this rule ourselves, but in the event we did. We won the toss, and fielded, which we should probably have done even if we had lost it.

Bill Owen have rather more than four batsmen, but there are some notable ones. Bill Owen, to start with. He is obstructive rather than destructive but it is a bad game plan to leave him in because he is quite good at rotating the strike. So we were glad when Santha bowled him, off stump off an outside edge somehow, early on. By that time the other opener had already got to about twenty as Santha and Stuart adjusted to the slight slope and, from Stuart's end, strange ballooning bounce from a spot just short of a good length. Now he was joined by his father, a less accomplished and less orthodox but still highly dangerous player, and they set about building a score. Stuart had found his range by this time and seemed quite threatening, but Santha, with the slope against him and no strange bounce, found it harder and was taken off. Instead Gregory turned the ball extravagantly, but dropped short too often. Later Adam, taking over from Stuart, also struggled with the slope and tended to bowl down leg. The son, especially, did not miss out when anything hittable came his way. One over from Gregory cost fifteen, including a six into the ex-cornfield. The father pulled and cut rather than looking to drive, but eventually he toppled over trying to sweep Gregory and Roger stumped him.

That improved matters but with a competent new batsman joining the son we were still in some trouble. But Adam's line and Gregory's length had improved, and when Tom took over from Adam he was also accurate, so things were not yet running away from us. We fielded well, and this soon became critical. The son, who by this time had made about 70 but showed every sign of wanting more, was finding Gregory harder to get away and decided to try to clear the long-on boundary. With the turn he didn't quite middle it, and Santha, a few yards in, made what was in reality a rather awkward catch look simple. Thus encouraged, Simon gave Gregory the two extra overs he was allowed, during which nothing much happened, but Tom removed the number 4 with the help of the bounce and a smart catch by Alex at cover.

Then Simon had a bowl himself. The wicketkeeper, who had come in at 5 and has made runs against us before, had played comfortably up to then but now swished and was bowled. The new batsman showed a tendency to hit and Simon stationed a deep mid-off, Gregory, who protested that he couldn't throw that far. Simon told him it didn't matter as he would catch it; but although Gregory does catch most of his catches he doesn't if Simon is the bowler. Next over a powerful swipe whizzed through his hands at head height and went for four, and two more powerful swipes followed. It looked as if we might leak a lot of runs at the end; but Roger got another stumping and then there was only the swiper to worry about. We managed him by keeping him off the strike, and his partner mostly just pushed at the ball until the fourth ball of the very last over, bowled by Simon, bounced off his pads onto the stumps. The new batsman got a full toss, which he hit up in the air to be caught, out of the sun, by Tom. As the batsmen had crossed the swiper was left to face the last ball. He swiped, hoping either to clear everything or to pick out Gregory again; but he missed and wobbled, and Roger got his third stumping, and Simon got our second hat-trick in consecutive matches and his second five-wicket haul of the season.

We needed 173, which was within reach but would need good batting. Bill Owen's best batsman was also their opening bowler, left-arm over at a good pace but rather straight up and down. At the other end was a more erratic right-armer, whose variability made him perhaps more dangerous. Roger and Alex played carefully, and there were enough bad balls for the run rate not to be a problem. The right-armer was replaced by a left-armer of similar type, and the score was past fifty when he suddenly bowled Alex, neither forward nor back.

Soon after that, the opener was taken off and Bill sent for Dr Jekyll, described as a civilised IFA, who had quietly and competently umpired for much of their innings and had been grazing peacefully at mid-off since. On being given the ball he muttered and growled; his hair turned red and his skin turned green, and little lilac-coloured flames danced in the air around his temples. He pawed the ground, trotted in off about eight paces, and bowled slow-medium seam-up on a good length a little outside off stump. His first ball found the strange bounce but Nazar's prod ended short of cover. Two overs later, though, it happened again and this time the bowler caught it, pounding triumphantly on the ground with doubled fists. But that brought in Rob, who soon began to look alarmingly competent. We were well in control at the drinks interval, and immediately afterwards Bill Owen decided to risk a fifth bowler. We saw his problem: the ball landed everywhere, there were five wides and several long hops, and it was clear that the experiment would not be prolonged. Then one of the long hops came withing reach, and Rob showed that he is indeed cut out for cricket at this level. He flapped it straight at the opening batsman and opening bowler, who of course caught it.

An over later he was bowling again, slow left-arm this time from the end that our spinners had used. On this pitch at least he was far more threatening than when he had bowled seam up, and Stuart rapidly succumbed. Next over Roger was beaten by Mr Hyde: the wicket-keeper took the bails off and appealed, but not confidently. Simon gave him not out. The wicket-keeper calmly replaced the bails. Lightning arced from Mr Hyde's chin to his boots; his eyes flashed green, then yellow, then red, then red and yellow and then back to green again. He expressed his disagreement with the decision most forcefully, although he was in absolutely no position to have any idea what had happened, and bowled the rest of the over in a sulk. Then he took his hat, apologised to the umpire and strolled placidly back to his place in the field.

Roger and Tom agreed to see off the slow left-armer and then pick off the runs afterwards. There would be plenty of time: we would win if we weren't bowled out. But it was difficult, even though Roger was playing really well. And then he got out, bowled off his pads by a harmless ball from Mr Hyde, who celebrated in a restrained way with a blast of pink steam from his ears and a bellow like a brontosaurus stepping on a drawing pin. Now the two Robinsons were batting: as long as they were there we were still all right. Tom played the slow left arm with great care and runs accumulated: the bowling was dangerous, but there were scoring opportunities. Eventually, though, he dragged his foot and was sharply stumped. Six down. Adam didn't look comfortable but survived. Kevin, mostly at the other end admittedly, was beginning to look as if he could get the runs himself, and there was only one more over of the dangerous bowler to go. Adam hit a confident four off the first ball of it and was bowled by the second: with three wickets left we needed 33, but had plentty of time.

We made a decision. Instead of Santha, who bats aggressively and was next in, Simon sent Gregory, who has no shots but some sort of defensive technique. The idea was that the good bowler would expend his last few balls on Gregory, who was not in himself dangerous to them. Once he he was out of overs there was no real reason why we should get out and we should therefore win. The plan worked remarkably well. Gregory survived and even took a single off the last ball, and in the next over Kevin assaulted the other opening bowler, who had returned, and hit three consecutive fours. With a mixture of thumps (by Kevin), wides and leg-byes they got to needing 11, and then Gregory made the mistake of trying to score runs himself and holed out to cover. But it was all right: a flick for four by Santha, a single, a two... We needed four. Kevin aimed back down the ground, missed and was bowled. So we needed four runs as Simon joined Santha. Simon survived the over.

Santha's approach was simple. Four runs: one shot. Six times he swung, and six times he missed, and six times the ball missed too, while everybody else bellowed "singles!" at him. One of the six was a wide, so with three needed Santha had a seventh swing, and this time he connected. There was a moment of panic as the ball went up in the air; but he had got it over the fieldsman and Santha and Simon, both fast runners, got three easily.

Fixtures & Results 2010