There are essentially two ways of responding to the kind of weather conditions that prevailed on Saturday: there is the going down the pub, sitting there talking about how you wish you were playing, and racking up your five points way (which we’ll call the First Eleven Method), and then there’s the gritty, British, ‘Well we’re all here so we’d better make the best of it’ approach – and that’s the Second Eleven way. And we do it with style. It was really impressive how many of the eleven had brought their own spectacle and/or ball drying flannels to the game, and – if I’m not mistaken – one or two of them might actually have been monogrammed.

Having watched the rain for an hour, we took to the field in a light drizzle. Leigh raced away, with their infant prodigy, Kevin Watts, scoring a brisk 52. He took a particular liking to our own six-foot, infant prodigy, Alex Masson, who was temporarily withdrawn from the attack. The experience of Ray at one end and Nick Walker at the other then calmed things down, though Leigh continued to accumulate runs steadily, without loss. The key to breaking the opening partnership was the return of veteran (surely vetinary – ed) (I know what I mean – Hack) Graham Peck, who turned over his creaking shoulder and tempted the infant Kevin into a lofted drive. Down on the long-on boundary, an unconcerned Derek was wandering around in the gloom. Alerted to the approach of the small, round object, vaguely discernable against the grey sky, Derek made a remarkable catch, which was the highlight of a magnificent fielding display on his part. Naturally, he later injured himself and may not be seen again for a few weeks.

The next best fielding was probably that of Leigh’s square leg umpire. A sharp sweep, which he couldn’t see (because of a grounded Wyn, who was left clasping at thin air) caught him a painful blow on the shin, and so he saved a certain boundary.

Wyn was granted a marathon four over spell and, courtesy of a very sharp stumping by Martin, took the second wicket to fall. Several other close stumping appeals were denied – as they were at the other end.

Entering the final overs the pressure was on, and it was about now that Ray lost his ring. 

Alex Masson was reintroduced to the attack and his pace beat two of Leigh’s senior batsmen, who each saw their off-stump removed. Alex Haysler’s two overs from the other end were less productive, for Shoreham at least.

Leigh finished with a very respectable 30-over total of 186, setting us a target of just above 6 an over, but -with a top four of Mick Johnson, Ray, Nick Walker and Martin – we felt that this might not be beyond us. Unfortunately it was one of those afternoons when a catalogue of accidents and close things all went against us. Ray thought too late about having the sight screen adjusted when the bowler switched from over to round the wicket, Mick was caught on the very boundary off a no-ball that wasn’t called, and Nick feathered a ball into the keeper’s gloves.

Martin kept the flame burning, supported by a battling 10 from Hopalong Derek, a brief 2 from Alex Masson, and a stylish 11 from the ever-improving Alex Haysler. With a jug looking a nailed-on certainty, Martin steered an innocuous ball onto his stumps ‘by accident’, thereby saving himself a tenner and all but ending any faint hopes that we had of winning. The next objective was therefore to get at least one batting point. Wyn joined Chris when the score was on 102 and the better part of eight overs still remaining. They immediately developed an almost telepathic understanding, taking every run on offer with calls such as ‘I don’t know what you’re doing up here mate. You should be down the other end’. A lively partnership was broken in the penultimate over, with Chris swinging over a straight one. Graham joined Wyn and this pair were there at the end, with the score on 145.

Instead of the traditional march to the pavilion, both sides then formed a search line and combed the ground for Ray’s ring, which was restored to him.

In order to teach young Kevin and his Dad a lesson, we locked them in the pavilion when we set off for the George. There, the beer and the wine led some senior members of the squad into the kind of excess that we can only hope the Shoreham Gazette does not have photographs of.

An apology

Because your correspondent was away, there was no report of the Second’s game against Outwood. In that match, goaded by the lack of column inches devoted to his battling duck the previous week, Nick Pearce played a sparkling innings. But I wasn’t going to say much about that either in the hope that he would be spurred to even greater heights on his next appearance.

- Wyn

Posted on Saturday, 29th May, 2010 in 2nds Match Reports.