Bathford Vs Venturers, Wednesday August 5th

Bathford 118-5, Venturers 121-3

Venturers fielded first, to the surprise of none, and debutant Alex was invited to field on the cover boundary, with the wicket above his eyeline and the ball always accelerating - such is the consequence of claiming any degree of fielding competence. Ian and Chandrabhan opened the bowling, with Jamie again taking the gloves. Bathford started solidly, with few chances until Chandrabhan had Walker caught at the wicket. Imran bowled a good length and bowled Wilson. At the other end the remaining opener, Cook, favoured back-play when facing Jerome, with the short downhill boundary used to advantage. Jerome persevered and was rewarded with the wicket of Cook, who made 46 (which is more than 25).

As Bathford aimed to push on to a challenging total, Bruce (the Mariano Rivera of cricket) bowled as expected, taking 1-10 from the last two overs at the rugby club end. Alex, new to the team and perhaps led astray by his bowling partner, also bowled well and claimed his maiden wicket (bowled) - he can now look forward to future involvement during ‘the thrash’.

Bathford finished on 118 for 5. Ritvij and Charlie began steadily for Venturers, with tight bowling by the Bathford opening pair offering very few opportunities for boundaries, but singles were taken where available without any alarms. As so often, a change of bowling brought a wicket, with Ritvij being bowled by first change, looking to turn a straight ball into the on side. As the required run rate increased Charlie and Jamie sought to keep up but tight bowling by (the curiously under-bowled Malone), Waller and McNeill prevented Venturers from catching up, with the latter dismissing Charlie near the half-way point of the innings.

If there was all summer in a stroke by Woolley then there was most of autumn in a shot by Jamie, as the continuing drizzle led to several ‘bar of soap’ full tosses, sufficiently many of which were dispatched to the lower field that the Venturers began to close on the target. Farooq similarly batted well and took advantage of the chances to score; although the Bathford captain returned to the attack, the batsmen were now set and the needed runs were made without too much difficulty – Jamie finishing on 46 not out and Farooq 33 not out. The eventual eight-wicket margin perhaps misrepresented the efforts of Bathford, who looked to be likely winners for much of the game and arguably did have the worst of the fielding conditions.