I can vividly remember a time, oh so long ago now, that will live with me forever as an era never to be revisited. It was the summer of 1940* and I can clearly remember standing there in an open field, the sun beating down on my browning skin for the fifth straight day and the eager warmth of the morning sun energising me to make another dash to see if I could clear the stream, having already had several failed attempts. Just as I prepared myself, feeling that my threadbare socks were just about dry enough, a thrilling sound drew my eyes towards the heavens. High above me, two glinting fighters wheeled and sliced through the amazingly bright blue summers sky, a colour so rich it defied to be contained in those 4 banal letters. I knew that within those graceful beasts of war two young men, not much more than the boy I was myself, were straining every sinew to gain an advantage on the other. It was a battle fought between the two sides countless times before, though not often with the same protagonists. For these two, in that tiny moment, the eventual outcome was uncertain and could mean the difference between eventual victory or a lifetime lived within seconds, wrestling with unresponsive controls to stop a terminal dive.
And yet here I stood, a few counties away but still in the south of my beloved England**, in what seemed a different world. The easy turns of fast jets arcing their way back to Yeovilton took place against a drab grey sky that hung low and suffocated the very life from the day, lending a monochrome wash to proceedings that was more Pathe News reel than the vivid colours and excitement of that summer. Eventually, my eyes drew down to Earth and I began the long walk from the pavilion, down the grassy hill and into our own field of battle. My partner and I, grizzled veterans both, bore little resemblance to the young fighting men that had taken to the skies. However, standing there, in a quick glance to the door of the weathered pavilion or to those that awaited us on the freshly mowed cricket square, were a new generation of young men ready to fight their cause and lock horns with their willing opponents. Unaware of the consequences, caring not for what the future might hold, ignorant of the burdens of the past, desperate for victory in that moment, on that day.
Local legend says that the meetings of local rivals Kilmington and Stourton CC and Wincanton CC are of such voracity that they draw in the very heavens themselves. To be fair though, the clouds and rain are usually already there waiting for us when we arrive. At least this time, the Wincanton wicket was still firm and looked like it would take a fair amount of moisture. As the KSCC openers prepared to walk out to the wicket they were duly rewarded with a short shower. However, it wasn’t much and play began on a dry wicket.
Your Brave Leader and Ballistic Tomlinson made a solid start to the innings, seeing off the opening bowlers and finding the odd boundary to keep the scoreboard ticking over. The introduction of spin slowed things slightly but the situation was still comfortable when the skipper played one loose drive too many and popped a simple chance to cover to end the opening partnership on 63. That act triggered a horrible 6 over period for the KSCC machine. Ballistic missed his favourite pull shot and was bowled, suggesting it might not have been there to pull despite his compact stature. The Anternator was out caught off the bat/pad in a situation that demanded replay, hotspot, internet radio and just about any other technology we could throw at it to figure out exactly what happened. Biffer Burles limited himself to one mighty Biff before finding his stumps distributed and to be the 4th wicket to fall with less than 10 runs separating them. Sammy G has proved himself to be a master batsman in the making this year with his solid and composed stroke play and he joined a scratchy looking Professor to try and resurrect the innings. When The Professor tamely tapped an easy catch to waiting Wincanton hands, KSCC had descended from a comfortable 63/0 to 97/5, tempting local pundits to suggest that the decision to borrow the Sri Lankan test teams Official Winter Training Programme may have been a mistake. So it was left to the brave young men of The General Kilmington Area Squadron to fight a brave battle to save the day for KSCC. Sammy G’s sumptuous stroke play was matched by the energy and excitement of the Livewire Benny Show. The two of them resurrected the innings through counterattacking play and soon had Wincanton on the back foot. Nearing the end of the innings, Sammy G got more adventurous as both men found runs over midwicket on several occasions. Livewire was unlucky to hole out in the last over in the chase for maximum batting points, but an amazing recovery had been made. The partnership had been completed with a total of 96 runs to it's name. Somehow, KSCC had thundered to 197/6 after looking like 150 might be a stretch. In doing so, the young pair had broken the back of the Wincanton fight.
Just before the end of the first innings, the cricket ball had been sent over the fence and into the river, supposedly never to be seen again. At the break, the Wincanton Forensic Diving Team headed into the river area and fetched it back. The result, with only one ball being used for the match, was that the thing that the bowlers held at the start of the innings looked like some imitation cricket ball made in Korea using locally caught squid. Tommy B somehow still managed to beat the bat with it, but the gamble to open with the spin of The Golden Boy was quickly abandoned. El Capitan tried to struggle through an end while the ball dried, but Tommy B continued to threaten and struck twice to get the defence started. Rabbit obviously liked the cut of El Capitans gib as he played a carbon copy loose drive and offered an easy catch. Then Tommy B was too quick for Tom Hatcher and blew through his stumps, cracking the top of the stump while he was at it like a cannonball through a mast on the high seas. He nearly had a 3rd as Brimble edged to slip but Snooky defied the odds to drop a simple catch that went straight at, but not into, his normally safe hands. Livewire took the ball once it had dried a bit and made it work from the start, bowling with a good line, length and pace. He rattled the stumps and KSCC looked to go on the attack. The Strangler also saw immediate success as he replaced Tommy B, but Brimble and Mitchell looked to settle in and form a counter attack of their own. The Destroyer was twirling from one end but all of the destruction happened at the other. After a Wincanton had compiled a partnership that looked to break the match wide open, Snooky finally found his way through to claim 3 wickets in 2 overs and tear the game back. Snooky usually looks a little lost in the wicket column at the best of times but this year he has been claiming most of his wickets bowled, with all four of his wickets registered as bowled on this day. Still, the Wincanton resistance was not broken and, in fact, they could have finished it all in one ball. There is a tree in play at Winci and club veteran Tony Coombes effortlessly lofted Snooky high and into the tree...where the ball stayed. After much confusion, the ball was declared a 6 but history shows that in times past, the batsman may have run indefinitely given that the ball was not technically lost (as we could see it) and was still in play. The partnership of Coombes and Dan Hatcher looked like ot could take the game away before the return of Tom Barton brought an end to proceedings. He had both men bowled, split by a needless run out, to close out the game and secure another win for KSCC, leaving them secure in second place of SCL Division 2.
Batting:
S Gillatt 79*
B Chant 41
C Hansen 36
M Tomlinson 20
Bowling: o m r w
T Barton 10 1 23 4
S Snook 12 2 51 4
B Chant 6 2 19 1
*Note that a side effect of reading this blog is that you may experience some temporal and spatial displacement of childhood memories.
**Just in case the UK Border Agency are reading.
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