Venturers vs Bristol Academicals, Tuesday July 20th

Bristol Academicals 97-9, Venturers 98-8

So, two weeks after the Bristol tournament, we reconvened in Bath to play the rained-off final match. There was less atmosphere than there had been at the tournament proper: the vuvuzela somebody had brought then was absent, as was the trumpeter who had managed to coax a second note from it. It felt like an occasion again, though, and it rained again.

Not at first. We fielded, and after a slightly wayward first over from Stuart he and Kevin quickly put us right on top. Kevin bowled both openers in his first two overs, splitting a bail in half the first time. Stuart, getting steep bounce, induced one of the best Bristol batsmen to give a catch to short square leg, where Santha was waiting. Kevin collected another wicket in his last over and they handed over to Gregory and Santha with 29 for 4 on the board.

It wasn't really the fault of either bowler that the slide stopped there for a while. One of the batsmen in particular was extremely fortunate: Alex and those near him were convinced he had been clearly stumped, but he was reprieved by the umpire's inattention; we then dropped him twice, one of the drops going for six (neither catch was easy, though) and he did his best to run himself out as well. But soon afterwards he scooped Gregory to Santha at square leg; his partner tried to square-cut the first ball from Simon, replacing Santha so that he could bowl at the other end, and missed; something similar happened at Gregory's end. Then the rain started, and we began to get sloppy in the field, and gave away a few more runs than we should have: perhaps we were expecting that the match would be abandoned shortly. Eventually they got too ambitious and there was a run-out, and Santha won an LBW decision, but the last pair added a few, helped by the odd overthrow. They had made perhaps fifteen more than we should have permitted, but even so 97 didn't look ungettable, if the rain stopped.

It didn't stop but we carried on anyway. Nobody wanted to give up a second time; we didn't want to claim the tournament on run rate; they didn't want us to win the tournament. All exactly as it should be. The scorebook has a space for "notes". In it, the Bristol scorer has written

THIS GAME WAS PLAYED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RAINY SEASON IN BATH. WE ALL GOT VERY WET.

which is entirely accurate. We started a bit slowly, which we could afford to, and the first ball of the fifth over accounted for Chris. Worse, by now the Bristol bowlers were accustomed to the conditions, or at least had stopped caring about them. The other opening bowler splashed vigorously in and bowled Rob with a fast yorker. Mark, rainwater pouring from his straw hat, pushed vaguely at the next ball, with the same result. Alex came in; adjustments were made to the field in honour of the potential hat-trick; the bowler, sending spray everywhere like a hovercraft, produced a third fast yorker and flattened his off stump.

We were sinking fast. So were they, of course; so were the stumps, any unbroken bails and everything else except Mark's hat, which floats. Roger narrowly survived an LBW appeal at one end, and didn't survive another at the other. From 22-5, Kevin and Iain did what they could, which was to stay there, and baled out for a while. The rain slackened and the innings steadied, but we had little batting to come and the run rate was starting to climb. The bowling had become less threatening, though, and Bristol seemed to be one bowler short: there were scoring opportunities, and Kevin and Iain took them. From a hopeless situation we had reached a desperate one when Kevin was stumped, and Stuart did not last long. Santha took his usual approach, and Iain, realising that nothing else could possibly work now, joined in. Bristol appeared not to see the danger immediately, but Gregory had commented much earlier that we should win if he did not have to bat. And then, with fifteen needed from three overs, Iain was bowled. Simon went to join Santha, as he did in a similar crisis earlier in the season. They got five off the rest of the over, and then Simon chose to risk hitting in the air. This was correct, because the ball stopped in the wet outfield if hit on the ground: now Simon doubled our tally of boundaries with two fours through the off side. So the last over began with Santha on strike, Gregory padded up and two needed, although one would win us the tournament. Santha doesn't do singles: he swung, the ball went in the air, cleared the fieldsman, and he and Simon turned and swam for the second run, getting there easily.

Fixtures & Results 2010