Bathford Vs Venturers, Wednesday August 7th

Bathford 140-3, Venturers 140-6

The toss was delayed due to someone from Bathford getting stuck at the toll bridge. Several Venturers repeatedly pointed out to Simon that if he won the toss he would surely bowl first, and if Alex (the Bathford captain) won the toss he would probably bat first, so maybe they should get on with it anyway, and eventually they did. Simon won the toss and chose to bowl first. Matt R asked Alex what he would have done if he had won, and he confirmed that he would have batted.

The slope at Bathford is like Lord’s on steroids. Lord’s famously has a drop of 2.5m over the width of the field (around 125m). Bathford has what feels like a 5m drop over about 50m. Perpendicular to the main slope, bowlers from both ends have to run uphill to reach the pitch, which was green and felt spongy, although it played surprisingly well. Jamie and Dan opened the bowling, both a little wayward at first as they got used to the unusual geography, but quickly settling down into good spells that were reasonably frugal despite some good batting. The square leg umpire made a point of counting how many balls one of the openers had faced since his last scoring shot. The other opener was bowled by Dan. The non-scoring opener then started to score, and was called in by his teammates when he reached 25.

James R and Adi came on after Jamie and Dan had finished. James immediately found a good line just outside off stump and soon figured out the best length to bowl too. Adi was more erratic, especially to start with (Steve made a particularly good stop at slip when Adi did his best Steve Harmison impression) but also bowled some good balls and looked threatening. He was taken off after 2 overs to return from the other end at the death, and Bruce came on. In Bruce’s second over Bathford’s number 3 hit him for six into the trees down the hill; Bruce responded by bowling him with a ball that clipped the off bail, and then followed up by bowling the other set batter a few balls later. This brought the Bathford captain, Alex, to the crease. He decided the time had come to step on the gas and hit three fours and two sixes, mostly off Bruce. Bruce didn’t bowl particularly badly, but the legside boundary was short and downhill, and so when Alex connected the fielders were often irrelevant. A strong finish to the innings propelled Bathford to 140 from their 20 overs.

Jamie and Matt opened the batting, watched by Jamie’s dad, though not yet by Jamie’s second child, who is expected any day now. Matt mentioned to Jamie that Bathford had started slowly before accelerating and that we didn’t need to race out of the blocks. Jamie nodded unconvincingly and hit the first ball emphatically for four down the hill. Bathford opened the bowling with possibly the two youngest of their very young side, and we had passed 40 within 4 overs, with Jamie hitting the bulk of the runs, though even Matt hit a few boundaries. Gradually it became clear that Jamie had passed 25 some time ago, and Dan, who was umpiring for us, loudly announced that he should have retired. Jamie pointed out that no-one had told him he had to retire at 25. Some of the Bathford team asked Alex what he had agreed with Simon at the toss, and although his first reaction was that everyone should retire at 25, he then sheepishly admitted that he had not in fact raised the matter with Simon at all. We pointed out that we don’t usually ask our batters to retire even when they reach 50; several of our team only turn out once every few weeks, and asking them to cut their innings off in its prime might deter them from playing at all. And from a more practical point of view, our batting is liable to collapse and we struggle to score quickly at the best of times, so we need our good players to stay at the crease to be competitive!

Bathford’s change bowlers were slightly older and more experienced, and though Jamie kept scoring at a good pace, hitting anything short to - or over - the short boundary, Matt slowed down and concentrated on rotating the strike. The sun went down and it started getting dark. Jamie’s dad got bored and left. The equation came down to 21 needed off four overs when Matt was bowled by a yorker. Jamie then reached his first ever hundred and, after some deliberation because we were worried he might think about retiring if he knew, was given a standing ovation from the boundary. Though not from his dad, of course, who was by now probably on London Road. Jamie didn’t retire but did decide to try to hit every ball for 6, and was clean bowled. Suddenly Bathford were favourites, and it wasn’t easy for new batters to see the ball in the twilight. Charlie was caught trying to accelerate in the penultimate over, quickly followed by Steve.

Adi hit a four, followed by a 2 from James, before Adi was bowled off the first ball of the final over. Simon came to the crease and took a single, leaving us needing 6 to win from the last three balls. James heroically hit a four before holing out going for glory, but the batters crossed and Duncan took his place at the non-striker’s end for the final ball. We needed two to win. Simon drove it into the covers and ran; the fielder calmly stopped the ball, so Simon also stopped after completing one run, happy that we had tied the match. Duncan, on the other hand, still had his heart set on the win, and kept running, urging Simon to do the same. The fielder remained calm and lobbed the ball to the wicketkeeper; Duncan, seeing that Simon had no intention of coming back for two, frantically backpedalled and just made his ground before the wicket was broken (not that it really mattered). Although it was a shame that we hadn’t managed to back up Jamie’s superb innings and complete the win, the young Bathford side had performed admirably - their fielding had held up very well under pressure and in the dark - and a tie was a fair result. One wag suggested a super over. Jamie called his dad to tell him the news, and then announced that due to the soon-to-arrive Gray the Youngest, this would be his last match of the season. Not a bad way to sign off.