Venturers Vs Combe Down, Wednesday July 24th

Venturers 67-9, Combe Down 68-5

We were never really in this one, from the moment when Jamie drove over-ambitiously at the last ball of the first over and lost his off stump. Ashwyn and Ian G were both trapped in the crease. On 24th July 1487 the citizens of Leeuwarden went on strike after the local government had issued a ban on imported beer, and Ian had chosen to celebrate the anniversary by batting in clogs. This accounted both for his lack of footwork and the clunk that the ball made on impact with his toes, misleading some of us into thinking that he had hit it. Ian, knowing he hadn’t, barely looked at Bruce before walking off. Chandrabhan gave the very slow bowler a very slow return catch. Matt S and Josh were the only people who looked at all comfortable. Their stand was broken by a confused run-out, fairly low down on the scale of absurdity. James R didn’t look comfortable exactly, but he did hit one of our only two boundaries. We had left them long again, and the ground staff had left the grass long again. There wasn’t much he could have done about the ball that got him out, which threatened off stump and then left him. Matt got bowled by the very slow bowler. Muhammad and Bruce contributed a few each, but Imran miscued to mid-on. Off the last ball Gregory, who had decided to run regardless, charged down Muhammad’s on-drive like a flanker blocking a centre’s drop-kick, and deflected it to cover. This made no difference, as there was one run either way.

Jamie’s first ball caught the edge and flew to slip, where Ashwyn dropped it. We only catch slip catches off Dan. It wasn’t an expensive miss. The other opener launched a violent attack on Imran, hitting his first two balls for four and his third high in the air. Chandrabhan caught it competently, and Imran cleaned up the first opener straight afterwards. The number 4 also launched a violent attack on Imran, and later, briefly, on Gregory: by this time, Jamie had produced something unplayable at the other end. Combe Down had a self-imposed retire-at-30 rule and the number 4 reached it quickly, meaning that there was no need for the rest to hurry. They still did, attacking Chandrabhan and Gregory indiscriminately, and Matt S took two good catches. Muhammad and Bruce bowled the last few overs well but didn’t have the runs to create any pressure.