Hinton Charterhouse vs Venturers, Wednesday 27th June

Hinton Charterhouse 110-5, Venturers 97-6

We never beat Hinton Charterhouse. Sometimes we get wiped out, but more often we either make a good score, which they chase easily, or keep them to something gettable, and then collapse. They have sufficient reserves to put out a much stronger side than we can, and they know how much of those reserves they need. Last year we might have surprised them, but there was no fixture.

This was a bowl-well-and-collapse year. There was a retire-at-fifty rule in force. Such rules are usually presented as a concession to the weaker side, but they aren’t: the stronger side can afford to have a well-set batsman summarily dismissed, as they have more batting to come. The weaker side may have only one dangerous batsman. In this case, though, it made no difference. Two batsmen did reach fifty, one from each side, but the rule allowed them to play out the over and both got out before it ended. Their opener was having a swing, but the over in question was the nineteenth and he could have done little else anyway. So was John, but our cause was hopeless by then.

In fact the opening partnership did much of the damage. The right-hander was the more positive of the two initially, especially when Harsh, who otherwise bowled well, gave him some short stuff. Kevin’s accuracy was too much and he edged a catch to Roger. He was followed by a short comic turn in the form of a strong-looking bloke of the sort who doesn’t understand why anybody thinks it is hard to hit slow bowling. He made only slight contact with the first ball Gregory bowled him and none whatever with the second, ending up as a batless heap as Roger stumped him. But by now the left-handed opener had got going and waited for Gregory’s bad balls before hitting them (Kevin didn’t bowl any). His partner was bit less selective and eventually Gregory bowled him, and Mark and Tom finished off well. 110 for 5, after 50 for the first wicket, was good for us.

Alistair swiped at the first ball of the innings and was caught at backward point. Chris and John were more cautious, necessarily, but gradually fell behind the rate, especially against the sharp turn found by Hinton Charterhouse’s slow left-armer. He nearly pinned John, and bowled Chris with one that spun right across him. John counterattacked with some success, and Kevin provided some support, so we didn’t really collapse; but we never managed to raise the pace enough and the match slid to its inevitable conclusion.