Bill Owen vs Venturers, Wednesday 1st August

Venturers 188, Bill Owen 191-3

We have had a number of close games against Bill Owen but last year we won both matches by seven wickets. This year’s first match was rained off, obviously. Today’s weather looked threatening some of the time, but didn’t actually stop us.

Part of the trouble at Chew Stoke is Rotation of Crops. “Turnip” Townsend, Jethro Tull (not that one) and so on. The field that the ground is set in was used for wheat for years, then rugby and now maize. It was easiest to find the ball when it was rugby, and you could also park; but maize is better than wheat.

It was a while before this got tested. Both sides were down to ten, Bill Owen temporarily (a player lost in the lanes), we throughout (Tom injured). We lent each other fielders, except for a few overs when the entire Bill Owen forces were umpiring, scoring, batting, padded up or washing up after tea. We lost the toss and batted. Alistair and Chris sensibly took things slowly. Because we have lost almost all 40-over cricket this year but some 20-over cricket has survived, it is easy to think you have to hurry. You don’t, and they didn’t. The outfield was slow but they took what runs were available, Chris even going so far as to drop the ball towards the vacant short-leg and take a quick single. After a dozen overs he lost concentration and missed, and David, a bit bogged down, got bowled by the purveyor of very slow but extravagantly spun chinamen.

This, however, brought in Kevin, who immediately played well. He and Alistair were gradually accelerating, but at this point we made a mistake. Bill Owen have a very accomplished Sri Lankan in the side. A batsman really, he also has a competent air in the field: he’s not especially brilliant, but you know he won’t drop it or throw to the middle of the pitch. Now he tried his hand at bowling. It was flattish offspin, with not much turn or variation but without the scattering of bad balls we are used to. Alistair forgot this and simply missed a straight one. Harsh immediately tried to pull a ball not short enough for the shot and was leg before. Fortunately Kevin was by now playing really well, and Jay, after a skittish start, kept him company while he started to probe the maize field. By the time Jay wobbled and got stumped we were aiming at something over 200, and Mike contributed one exploration party in the maize himself before missing the chinaman bowler. Simon contributed a few but now the main question was whether Kevin, with only Paul and potentially Gregory for support, could get to a hundred. Another six brought him fairly close, but at the start of the last over but one he miscued and was well caught by the wicketkeeper for 89.

We had 188 but we thought that might not be enough, given the batting Bill Owen had brought. It took Harsh and Mark a while to work out the right length to bowl and they didn’t look threatening. After ten overs or so Simon turned to Gregory and Paul, with instructions to slow the scoring. Gregory also did the wrong thing to begin with, going round the wicket, but Paul was accurate from the start and soon broke through with an edge to Alistair. Gregory went over the wicket and improved, and for quite a time after that they did keep the things quiet, but there were just enough hittable balls and just enough runs on the board to allow the batsmen to take no risks. Toward the end of his spell they did take a few liberties against Gregory, and put one or two in the air not very near any fielders, but Paul commanded respect to the end. So for the most part did Kevin, but still the runs came at a decent rate and no wicket fell. Heavy rain did, but we carried on.

Towards the end Jay, who had also bowled tidily, came under attack and Simon decided to have a bowl himself. In his second over the number 3 failed to get to the pitch of the ball and drove uppishly and straight at David. This brought in the Sri Lankan, by far the best bat on either side. Last year he was out second ball. This year he did not do quite so well. Simon’s next ball bounced more than he expected and Alistair caught him well off the shoulder of the bat. There were not many overs left and in theory Bill Owen could still have run into difficulties, but only if we got more wickets immediately. We didn’t, and again the interest turned to an individual hundred. Facing Simon with two runs needed and eight balls left, their opener was informed by his team-mates that he was on 94. Simon did the decent thing and bowled him a donkey drop. He cleared Harsh but hit it too high: it bounced about a yard from the hedge and vanished into it.