The great teams in world sport are those that innovate. Pushing the boundaries of the norm in their chosen sport, this may take the form of a genuinely new approach to a certain task, borrowing methods from other sports, capturing alien technology from remote space stations or the successful implementation of wondrous and ancient rituals (we have the Mayans to thank for the ritual goat sacrifice visited upon the soils of the Middlezoy CC in 2010 and hopefully the ECB will come their senses and reimburse the costs of shipping the goat from Central America as part of our youth training programme). Most often than not in village cricket, the innovation is about spotting and embracing trends in world cricket that can be best applied to the local game inside the modest budget and aspirations (and effort based inclination) of the participants. The reign of Your Brave Leader (TM) at KSCC has brought with it success and prosperity on the back of grasping one of the most popular trends to take first class cricket by storm. By embracing spot-betting and the more traditional art of match fixing, KSCC have been able to visit upon its players such riches as once were only the dreams of men of equal or lesser financial means (exact figures yet to be processed). To see Tommy Barton overstep on the third delivery of his 4th over, or to see The Destroyer bowl 4 leggies, 1 offie and one ball that could have been either, or to jump up in anticipation of the captain running himself out when a big score looked in the bag, or the amazing feat of Snooky promising to bowl the opener between bat and pad with an off cutter with the last ball of his 12 over spell....these are events of calculated artistic beauty and reflect the highest achievement in game craft today. However, a team cannot rest on its laurels as it is only a matter of time before the league catches up and you must strive for that next big thing. Anyone have any ideas? I’m all out.
In defiance of recent years, the Saturday of the Glastonbury/Wimbledon weekend (normally cursed with drenching rain) had fine-ish weather, though it was preceded by a week of rain. The view from the top of the hill at Castle Cary was stunning with Glastonbury Tor in the distance and a decent days cricket looked in store. Once again the captain extended his amazing winning streak at the coin toss and elected to bowl first with the hope of firing out the Castle Cary outfit early.
The initial battle between bat and ball was gladiatorial. Tommy B was thundering down the hill with alarming pace which tied down one end. The Strangler crawled up the hill from the other, nearly on hands and knees, unveiling a beguiling mix of away swingers and off cutters that sealed up the other. For the first 12 overs the Castle Cary openers were struggling to keep the runs above the overs on the scoreboard. Though they upped the rate ever so slightly, they were still only on 21 at the end of Tom’s first 7 over spell and in the very next over, Snooky found a way through with a cutter to send the first opener back. A short spell from The Professor indicated that a bung finger isn’t the most fun to bowl with and he was soon replaced by The Destroyer so that all of old Camelot might tremble beneath the power of his mighty appeals. While all this was going on, an increasingly bedraggled and stumbling Strangler continued to potter up the hill to good effect and it was in his 12th and final over that the next wicket fell, the other opener finally smashing a ball to short backward point where El Capitan had been patiently waiting all afternoon for one. Snooky tottered to first slip having put in a monumental performance and we can be reasonably sure he will now look at the hill he trundles up at KSCC with delight after losing 3 sherpas and a helicopter rescue team on the steep slopes of Castle Cary. Someone had to follow the show, and the captain decided to lead by example and take up the mantle. The dangerous looking D Wood top edged a pull from his second over that sailed high over the wicket keeper and looked to be falling safe halfway back to the boundary, but as the clock stood still and physics took a quick toilet break, Biffer Burles came charging in from stage right to take a spectacular sliding low catch. It was one of several big energetic efforts from the big man on the day which proves that Friday night at the Twenty20 with plenty of cider is the way to go for fielding drills from here on in. The Destroyer finally twirled his way into the wickets column, again thanks to the buckets of Biffer Burles, and things were looking very positive indeed with the wickets falling and the total score failing to spark with the home side 84/4 from 30 overs. However, the friendly giant of Castle Cary, A Henley, had other ideas. He took to the KSCC spin twins with relish, The Golden Boy Freddie Barton having replaced El Capitan who was already broken after a massive 3 over spell up the hill. After Freddie disappeared for 28 in 3 overs, it was time for El Capitan to try again while it was also time to finally bring Tommy B belatedly back into the attack. Tommy ripped through the supporting player to open up the tail, but Henley continued to swing hard at anything he could reach, which was anything within the boundary ropes pretty much. Luckily, he missed one and was bowled for an innings defining 62 that had put KSCC on the back foot. Unfortunately for him, the tail did not wag and instead offered 3 friendly batsman’s assists to Your Brave Leader (TM). Each man stepped back to take a swing and failed to make contact as 3 men were clean bowled in the 5 balls of the 44th over. In the end, it was a sub-par total of 166, but more than they could have hoped to have got halfway through the innings.
After tea, battle resumed with full bellies and willow in hand. After a circumspect start, KSCC looked to dominate the Castle Cary bowling attack from the 5th over. Your Brave Leader (TM) looked to drive anything in his half of the pitch and Ballistic Tomlinson showed that a small unit with a powerful pull is a very dangerous prospect indeed, not to mention a great tag line for a line of custom West Coast Tractors. Things were looking easy at 64/0 before Hansen fell in the 15th over, returning the favour to the opposition by playing down the wrong line with a drive and having the woodwork reworked. Still, there was plenty of batting to come, signalled by a typically towering 6 from The Anternator and another devastating pull shot for 4 from Ballistic. However, there was a serious stumble to come. Ant chipped a lazy ball to point before Mark and then Sammy G fell to lbw decisions of varying quality. The left armed spinner who only had a stock ball, but was turning it perfectly, completely tied down the KSCC batting unit. The Professor fell cheaply from the other end to unveil a string of right handers to face the spinner. Biffer Burles looked to be backing up his effort in the field with a solid contribution with the bat, controlling the game with 1s and 2s punctuated by his bread and butter 6’s. However, he lost an organised looking Oli Horner cheaply and then himself prodded a soft catch back to the spinner with work still to do. His departure saw Castle Cary lifted from the resignation of defeat to the hope of victory, despite KSCC confidence in their lower order. The Fabulous Barton Brothers immediately kicked into gear, putting pressure on the field and running like giant mutated hares. However, The Golden Boy departed before they could really get going and was immediately joined back in the hutch by Spencer who self destructed and found himself run out for nought. Snooky and Tom stood gallant at the end, with dreams of victory still in the air...Tom striking a beautiful lofted drive four to show that there were still runs to be had....but it proved too much, Tom holing out to leave KSCC 13 runs short of the expected victory at 154 all out.
It was another disappointing batting effort, but the game was once again played in tremendous spirits and more than a few cold beverages were shared after the game as the sun crawled its way out from under the clouds.
With the shock of defeat came the shock of other results around the league come Sunday morning. In a weekend of monumental upsets all of the underdogs mauled the top sides and so things remained as they were at the top. It was a definite shot across the bows that we may not be the only ones in cahoots with the Indian bookmakers and will, hopefully, spur us on to look to make the changes our side requires to continue to be a success (like changing the rules or rescheduling matches to take place at 1am without telling the opposition).
Bowling: o m r w
C Hansen 6.5 2 24 5
S Snook 12 3 26 2
T Barton 10 3 25 1
S Churchill 9 0 42 1
Batting:
C Hansen 41
D Burles 27
M Tomlinson 26
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