Bristol Academicals vs Venturers, Sunday May 23rd

Venturers 118 all out; Bristol Academicals 119-4

By the beach at Weymouth there is a machine called a Venturer Simulator. Somebody there may have pressed the wrong button.

Despite roadworks and a phone call from the captain to say that he was at the Zoo and was hoping to escape soon, we were not very late arriving. Coombe Dingle, though not at all unpleasant, is not as attractive as the name sounds, and is well hidden amid anonymous suburban streets. We lost the toss and were put in. Immediately there was a problem: two highly competent opening bowlers. Fluffy edged one four but thereafter resolutely left the outswingers. He does so by playing inside the line, and the first time he did it the bowler thought he had beaten him, but when it happened regularly it became obvious that it was intentional. The bowler at the other end made some lift from a length, one alarmingly close to Fluffy's chin, and soon afterwards splayed his stumps. Roger and Alex continued cautiously, not without some luck: Alex edged a ball into his pads and it rolled into the stumps but the bails did not fall. After Roger fell, also bowled, and a slightly frantic innings from Vijay, Tom Robinson played with a little more freedom, and the bowling was less directly threatening by now: an accurate but slightly predictable off-spinner and an erratic but sometimes dangerous medium-paced left-armer from Ulster.

The weather was hot and progress was slow on a pitch with sometimes steep bounce. Immediately after the very necessary drinks interval the bounce accounted for Tom, who gloved one. But this brought in Rashid who, with a spectator to impress, was the only person on either side to try to hit the ball. Very well he hit it too for a while, taking twenty off one over from the left-armer and hitting a six off the off-spinner too; but Alex, who had been looking almost comfortable, got out around this time and then Rashid missed one, having made just over forty. That was it, really: the other Tom picked the wrong ball to pull, Adam fell to a good catch at cover, and Paul and Gregory both swiped at the Ulsterman and missed, leaving Simon stranded. Gregory's dismissal for a single brought to an end a sequence of eleven consecutive not-outs spanning a little more than three years, which had yielded hardly any runs at all.

We needed a good start to defend 118. Paul provided it, repeatedly beating one opener and then cleanly removing the off stump of the other. Rashid was perhaps tempted by the Indian weather into bowling an Indian length, but he was twice edged for four high over gully and beat the bat on many other occasions so he can't have been doing much wrong. Four overs up the hill were enough for Paul in the heat and Gregory was economical enough at first to make the run rate into a distant concern. The unpredictable bounce led to extras, though; there were odd runs off Rashid, and Adam when he replaced him; and Gregory went ill-advisedly over the wicket and bowled full tosses from there.

Adam broke the partnership with a slower ball which was lifted to Rashid at mid-on. The next batsman was talked out by his partner, who after being nearly stumped (a bottom edge saved him) instructed him that it was dangerous to go down the wicket to Gregory. So Gregory bowled him a flatter, fuller ball: obediently stuck in the crease, he flapped at it and was bowled. We couldn't build on this, though. We had just a chance when the opener gave Vijay a well-taken catch, but they had one good batsman in and one lucky one - not that he wasn't fairly good too, and we could hardly complain of our luck after Alex's escape. He was nearly LBW first ball, almost bowled by Adam and kept missing the Toms by small but adequate margins. Finally he hit a catch to mid-off. Adam misjudged it slightly and was struck in the stomach, not very hard. Had it been any other fieldsman the ball would have dropped into his hands; but Adam's hours in the gym have given him a washboard stomach. So instead we heard the gentle thwack of leather on whatever it is that washboards are made of, and the ball bounced halfway back to the batsman. Soon after this Simon had a bowl: they let him bowl one tidy maiden, and then assaulted his second over and finished us off.

Fixtures & Results 2010