Jags 169-4 (Fardell 31*, Barker 30*, Phillips 26*, Coslett 22*, Coe 1-28), beat Leys School 164-3 (Hill 34*, Coe 33*, Shipp 31*, Barton 30*, Benett 2-27) by 5 runs
MOTM - James Barker
The opening game of the Jags season was a rip roarer. Playing, as we were, against one of our absolute favourite opponents, in the sunny and leafy environs of Latham Road, we put on a high scoring game of joyous fun, followed by some very solid pub attendance from both sides.
The Leys School is one of the oldest, and most prestigious of the "New Schools" founded in 1875, it has, understandably produced some of the finest people, including the current King of Bahrain and a man who Captained England in Test Cricket 15 times, Freddie Brown. It's an old school, with a reputation to boot...
Jags opened the batting with the well tested partnership of Parrish and Barker. Barker has grown into an opening role, with a glorious repertoire of shots, defence, and good footwork. The opening bowling was an absolute Forrest Gump of curiosity, with some absolutely brilliant balls immediately followed by utter filth. Barker and Parrish started at something of a clip, with Barker elegantly teasing one to the legside boundary that I recall, and Parrish (wearing his Ascot helmet) biffing his way to the offside on at least two occasions. Several overs passed without drama; the scoring pace was excellent.
Parrish fell sadly, Liam giving as umpire an LBW from Davison. Liam is a very fair umpire, and it looked very out as Matt was back in his crease and across to a full ball, so no complaints. Fardell waddled out to join Barker. Barker continued to test the field with some upwards shots, but always in control. Fardell did some gentle jogging, but didn't face any balls, or he hit dots when required to get Barker back on strike.
Barker quickly retired, not a serious chance offered to the bowling team and runs scored at pace as well. Threadhold joined the fray, and hit a few nifty shots to the legside, and most importantly encouraged the corpulent Fardell to run a bit more. Sadly his efforts proved in vain, as he ran himself out pushing a tight single, with the wicket keeper (part time, I am told), doing an absolutely brilliant job to throw down the stumps first time.
Tobias joined the fray with Fardell and quickly hit an absolute peach of a 6, picking up the slow ball early and launching it over the short square leg boundary. After some good running and a few tasty strokes he was out bowled to Coe, full, angling in, and a touch of swing. Tobias, as ever, was trying to smash it over cow.
Debutant Horner joined the ranks, and like all of the incoming batsmen, quickly outscored Fardell. After some nice blows and a little running, he edged one to 3rd ish slip.
Fardell was briefly joined by Coslett. Having realised that, this late in the game, 4 runs is not enough, I had a swing and retired, in a not chanceless, innings.
This brought Coslett and Phillips together, and oh my was this good. Both ran fast, Coslett targeted the short boundary with two lofted drives, and Phillips hit the same spot with a less regal talent. It is no understatement to say that it was lovely to watch these gentlemen both in full flow, hitting, running, hustling, and smashing their way to getting us to 169.
It's a big total.
Leys opened the batting with a chap called Paddy. A few years ago against us, he surpassed 25 off 6 balls, and looked absolutely not bothered about the entire thing. This year he had Liam and Tyler, bowling like tyros, to keep him under moderate control - although he hit an absolute peach straight through the offside at one point to remind us that, at weekends, he played in the 1st team.
There was another opening batsman called Clark, and whilst he looked the part, Tyler did for him, tempting a shot outside off and Fardell snagged an easy catch at backward point. Tyler and Brett were bowling beautifully, both, with Tyler getting his lines right, and Brett being unfortunate not to get a wicket. One in particular, how it missed the stumps, goodness knows.
A special word here for our skipper and Will "Longstanton till I Die" Kingsmill. Both carrying quite pronounced injuries, both still here and both put a lot of effective effort in whilst fielding. I mean, if anything is "the Jags", it's broken men still being there and doing their thing. Tobias merits a mention here for good fieldwork as well.
Tyler carried on apace, and his snarl and aggression did for Paddy, who fished outside off and nicked off. It was a great opening spell from both. Phillips helping behing the stumps.
The next 4 Leys batsmen retired. One of them looked secure, the grounsman no less, the other 3 all looked like they would nick off at any point, but somehow kept scoring. Horner bowled some good stuff, but also more debtable stuff. Coslett reprised his role of previous seasons, but the staff room at the Leys clearly took a liking to him, and made sure he knew it. One left handed six in particular was quite the sight.
They just kept scoring. Having posted a quite imposing total of 169, the Jags were staring defeat in the face.
Then Barker stepped up and decided he was a medium pace bowler and not a spin bowler. Threadgold at the other end varied his length somewhat, Barker bowled a fella, and somehow we got home. Some of the Threadgold bowling at the end was really quite terrible, though.
It was super dark at the end. We had a lot of fun. Lots of people came to the pub. All of this is a win in my book!
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