The night seems eternal. The sun is asleep, hidden behind a thick blanket of cloud and air thick with the threat of rain and misery. The hunter turns it’s gaze from the chilled, submerged heavens to focus on it’s prey. Its instincts are well honed. It has seen this battle many times before. With practised ease it surveys the landscape. Hidden there, white against a white frosted background lies the rest of the pack. A whistle, a low rumbling growl and a wave of the hunters paw and the pack shifts into their new positions. There will be no escape this time. The hunter makes its move. The arctic air reaches deep into its throat and emerges steam. The approach is slow at first, gathering balance, before moving into a charge. The prey raises it’s head and shuffles. To look into the eye of the hunter is to look into depths of eternal suffering, the darkness of the clouds reflected in those empty pits of despair. Suddenly, there is a grunt of effort. A flash of red. A unified scream of passionate celebration from the pack. The bail is dislodged. The batsman trudges back to the pavillion, grateful for the warmth it will provide in this desolate hour, on this desolate green.
- Excerpt from Cricket : A Splendid Joyous Day in the English Summertime
Some days, even the most avid of cricketers decides that the best course of action is to leave the kit bag in the spare room, turn the heating on and settle down to a day of pretending the outside world doesn’t exist. With a light drizzle persisting, the forecast predicting that even the mercury wasn’t going to get out of bed and the groundsman unable to shuffle the penguins off the square….not many people were that keen to stand outside all day. Despite conditions, KSCC were on a high from a cracker of a start to the season and were still keen to get a game in. With the captains accepting that we would have to play with water in the air, Huntspill won the toss and sent KSCC in to bat. The wicket was still looking pretty good. The top surface was slightly damp from the drizzle but the new roller has ensured that the Kilmington wicket is probably hard enough to withstand a direct nuclear strike these days.
Hansen and Williams strode to the wicket, while the remainder of the team huddled in the pavilion and started identifying items that might be used to build a fire. Considering that, most weeks, El Kapitan is more than happy to cut anything more off-side than the square leg umpire, it was with great surprise that he chose to try and pull a short ball well wide of off stump from the first ball of the second over. The miscue was duly caught and he wandered back to the pavilion to contemplate such an instant reversal of fortune. Ray and Ant then set about moving into cruise control, moving at just over 4 runs an over and looking like they had a pretty good handle on what was a fairly bouncy pitch for our square. The problem with cruise control is that you still have to hold onto the steering wheel or you may end up in a hedge that wasn’t in your original travel plans. Ant, Ray and The Professor all conspired to hand their wickets over while looking reasonably comfortable. However, as proven last year, there are still plenty of runs in the Kilmington lineup all the way down. New boy Guy Vere-Nicoll took the game to the opposition with his innovative PlantFoot-Whack technique, but he also found himself back in the hutch before his time, along with the wily Jason Lapham. It was down to Sammy G and the ringer with the brightest hat in modern cricket, Jamie Hope, to begin the rearguard action. Jamie was then joined by Freddie Barton who established an important partnership taking Kilmington to a competitive total. Jamie worked the gap at cover to perfection and Freddie looked typically busy and creative. However, the last 3 wickets fell quickly and the previously impressive KSCC batting unit had been dismissed for 140, well inside 40 overs, by a fairly average Huntspill bowling unit.
No one died at tea of food poisoning or frost bite, so everyone was able to resume for the second innings. Huntspill were also keen to stay huddled in the pavilion and it is not surprising. I couldn’t find enough layers of clothing in my cupboard to make we warm enough to stand at first slip. Tommy B’s first spell was economical, quick, threatening…and wicketless. Tom was simply too good for the opposition batsmen who played and missed time and again but managed to get bat on anything straight. Meanwhile, The Professor was rejuvenated and agreed to bowl up the hill after being bold-faced bribed with the new ball. After getting clattered for 4, he replied as per his captains instructions and sealed the first wicket of the day, clean bowled. The opening bowlers were keeping a clamp on things but the Skipper decided to make a change and brought himself on for another cameo spell (it’s hard to injure yourself when you only bat for a couple of deliveries). There was instant success, followed by a great stumping by Rayzzo (the second off Hansen for the year, which may mean Your Brave Leader™ may have to officially hand in his fast bowlers license). Another fell and KSCC were back in the game against a weakened Huntspill outfit. Anter took a wee bit of tap, but the introduction of the spinners saw the screws applied. Typically, just as The Destroyer was about to be deployed a light rain began to fall, slicking up the ball. This was no challenge for the Master though…nor his Apprentice! Spencer and Freddie bowled great spells, both showing guile and accuracy. Runs were hard to come by and wickets were coming fairly regularly. Jon Rowe took a great one handed catch to dismiss the worst Indian cricketer in the game today, Ray took another snick standing up to the stumps to get rid of the oppositions top scorer, and, when Ant also took a sharp close in chance, the game was on. Freddie bowled no 10 past his pads and suddenly, the game was a thriller. Huntspill were hanging on and the game moved into the last over, to be bowled by the stifling Tommy B. One over, one wicket, 4 runs. The Huntspill number 7 sized up the situation and realised that the only way to go was all guns blazing. It was gutsy, and in the end proved the right choice. He struck a pair of 2’s that saw his team home with 2 balls to spare in what had turned into a fantastic game of cricket.
Batting:
J Hope 26
R Rose 23
F Barton 17
G Vere-Niccoll 17
A Williams 15
Bowling o m r w
C Hansen 5 1 15 3
F Barton 11 3 38 3
S Churchill 9 1 29 2
J Rowe 6 1 17 1
T Barton 11.4 4 17 0
It was disappointing to lose to a team that we looked stronger than, but the game turned into a ripper and everyone seemed quite happy afterwards. The effort in the second innings was great. Spencer bowled as well as he has for quite a while, Freddie B bowled an impressively mature long spell all the way to the end and Tommy B deserved to get far more in the wicket column (17 off nearly 12 overs when also bowling at the death..4 came off the last over…was simply outstanding).
We let ourselves down in the batting department and we will be looking to get back to winning ways this weekend against North Curry.
Until then!
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