There couldn’t have been a more fitting setting for the first match of 2021 - The clouds were grey, rain in the air and the Downing college wicket was damp and spongey. The cold temperatures had us rummaging through our bags for extra layers and Ant contemplating batting in his gilet. Cob the inside man chose to play for the Jags over his own company but seemed to know shockingly little about his other midweek team.
We won the toss and opted to bat first with club veterans Parrish and Fardell kicking us off. Mark got his excuses in early but wasted no time at the crease dispatching multiple early boundaries. Clearly keen to put an end to the Dom Sibley comparisons of last summer, defense was not on his mind this evening. Sadly this was eventually his undoing getting bowled whilst impersonating Happy Gilmore for a quickfire 19.
Parrish benefited from some loose bowling and made his way to 27 retired in good time. Meanwhile Threadgold had arrived at the crease and seemed set on never leaving it. We don’t count balls faced at The Jags which very much played to his favour this time round. It was a slow but solid innings and a good partnership with debutant James Barker at the other end. However close inspection of the scorebook shows Dan was actually retired prematurely by the scorers on 24 runs - An accident? That’s for you to decide.
At the other end James laid a solid foundation with Dan before kicking things into gear with 3 fours in close succession bringing him to a well-earned 25. With only a couple of overs left Cozzy joined Ant at the crease but neither could quite find their timing. Ant was bowled for 4 doing a Fardell impression from earlier leaving Tyler about 9 balls to do some damage. And that is exactly what he did, biffing his way to 9 not out on his debut. Jags finished with 151 on the board and 3 retirees - A very competitive total.
With the batting done we headed out into the arctic, drizzle in the air and longing for the pub. Will opened things up (or Phil as he is known in the book) along with Liam. Phil had the batsmen in trouble early skying one into the wind that was probably well in the reach of about 6 players. A confident shout from Tyler sadly ended up with the ball on the ground though - We had only told him to drop catches off Liam so this was naturally disappointing... but in his defense he might have got them mixed up.
Both openers bowled out with Phil taking 1 for 22 and Liam 1 for 21 - Both of them clean bowling their respective batsmen. The youthful Tyler and Joss took the reins from the old men both bowling tidyly in their first overs. Tyler went on to take 3 for 19 including two great catches from James. One grab was particularly impressive, clinging on whilst getting rugby tackled by the skipper. With my meek and timid call lost in the wind and my eyes glued to ball I didn’t see myself smash into our new recruit, earning myself a spike to the knee.
Ant and James closed things out with the ball with the game never in doubt. Ant earned a last over wicket from a good catch from Cozzy leaving him with 1 for 15 from his 4 and we left the field with a 25 run win. We quickly scarpered to the Red Bull where we were joined by club legends Mann and Lunn for post-game celebrations.
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