Saturday’s team combined a little of everything: experience, in the shape of Ray, Paul, Monty and Martin; new blood, represented by Gary Hukins and Andree Papillon; youth in the form of Alex Haysler; authority, brought by Sunday Captain Pat Barrett and his lieutenant Richard Nash; and continuity, as Oliver – the latest representative of the Haysler dynasty – made his debut.

Shoreham fielded first, and Gary and Andree bowled extremely economically. When Gary was rested after 4 overs and Andree after 5, the scoring rate was still below 3 an over, though no wickets had gone down. The busiest fielder had been Oliver who was picking up a lot of traffic at fine leg as the batsmen nudged and nurdled in the effort to make any progress.

The first change of bowling brought the spin twins into play: Ray at one end and Paul at the other, and still the scoring rate was kept low. Paul was bowled through and finished with 1 for 29 from his nine overs. Endless summer afternoons were probably invented to accommodate that long, lazy, looping delivery that gives you time to nip back to the changing room to get your hat between the time it leaves the bowler’s hand and arrives at the batsman’s end. The batsman, with far too much time to think, can reach no firm conclusion about a course of action and settles for pushing the ball back. When Cudham’s number two chanced his arm he found Richard’s waiting hands and the score was 74 for 1.

Meanwhile, at the other end, things began to slip. First, the Ageing Hack failed to find the required off-stump accuracy and conceded 7 an over before being replaced. Cudham’s new batsman was anxious to inject some urgency to proceedings. The scoring rate accelerated, and the returning Ray at one end, and Alex at the other failed to stem the flow.

Gary came back into the attack and Richard helped him to his first wicket, with a splendid running catch on the square leg boundary. Soon after, Gary also accounted for Cudham’s number 3.

With 10 overs still to go a total of around 180 looked realistic, but Cudham’s later batsmen, particularly Vencat, began batting aggressively. Their progress was only punctuated by what others were kind enough to call the ‘champagne moment’ of the day. One instant the Ageing Hack was firmly planted on the ground, the next he was soaring – as if gravity had been suspended – to snatch the ball from the air and take our fourth and final wicket, from Andre’s bowling.

Cudham finally set an imposing target of 207.

Briefly, it looked as though we might make light work of this total as Paul took fourteen from the first over. He and Ray were still scoring at the required rate before 13 proved Ray’s unlucky number. That was in the seventh over. After that, the scoring rate began to drop away in the face of tighter bowling.

Coming in at number three, Monty compiled a 65 not out that proved the backbone of our innings, but, at the other end, first Paul was bowled by a rank long hop that didn’t get up to the required height, and then Gary, Martin and Richard all failed to get going.

In the 24th over Alex joined Monty and the pair brought some stability back to the innings. After 29 overs the score was125 for 5 and the required rate had climbed to almost exactly 8. Alex in particular began to play some excellent strokes and the score stood at 153 when he was caught off Vencat, who was Cudham’s most effective bowler, finishing with 3 for 16 from his nine overs.

As the unsuspecting Hack made his way to the middle the required rate was still 8 with 7 overs to go. Vencat had one more over, which yielded only two runs, and then Monty and the Hack set about the bowling in a fashion that in effort probably made up for what it lacked in style. Monty in particular was determined to extract the maximum from every ball and forced the miserable Hack into a series of lung-bursting twos and threes (that should have been singles), which tested the stitching of St. Thomas’ finest to the limit.

At the start of the final over 14 were required, but despite the batsmen’s very best efforts only 4 were scored from the first 5 balls. This left us two short of our third batting point with one ball to go. The field stayed out, so that when the Hack made contact with the final ball he realised, with a sinking heart, that this would mean another mad scramble for two. Both batsmen made their ground and so Shoreham at least had a consolation prize after a hugely enjoyable and very competitive afternoon’s cricket.

Wyn

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Posted on Tuesday, 12th May, 2009 in 2nds Match Reports.