Jags Stapled

Jags 111-All Out (Matt 21, Mark 19, Hamid 3-23) lost to Stapleford Phoenix 112-6 (Minter 55*, Tyler 3-19) by 4 wickets

Man of the Match -Tyler Bennett

I'm a little behind on writing this match report, and we lost, so I'm going to employ less floric prose than normal and keep this pretty short, as it still smarts we lost this one.

A nice evening at Queens, and another league fixture. Some decent pre match banter with new opposition promised a gentlemanly match, and thus it proved. 

Matt won the toss and we batted, of course, with Matt and Barker opening. Early bowling looked tasty, and Barker struggled for a few before popping a catch high to short mid on trying to press on. Parrish looked a touch sketchy to start with, but found a few 4's with Fardell. I played and missed a bit before tickling one to the boundary for an all run 4 - which elicited cheers from the assembled throng. Scoring was a touch slow so Parrish decided to take one on and edged behind.

Fardell joined by Dan found a couple of nice 4's including a clip behind square before pitching it up to covers close in, an absolute mare of a shot to be honest just as I'd got my eye in. Dan and Phillips hung around briefly before Phillips bumped it high to the mid on fielder. No partnerships and some unwise shots to gift the opposition the initiative. The bowling was decent, to be fair.

Dan and Horner joined each other for a while, Horner hitting a lovely 4 to cow, before comically giving his wicket away. The slow non turning bowler gave it some air. Big air.

 The ball just below the apex of its delivery

James went back, forward, sideways, and did a little jig for good measure. He then committed to moving forward to defend it like a test cricketer, playing the bat really really straight just inside the line of the ball, and the ball gently moved past the bat and hit the bails. It was absolute dross all round. The gods of cricket shook their heads.

Cozzie joined Dan for a bit, hit a lovely 4 and was then caught and bowled topping it straight up. Dan was joined briefly by Liam before he decided to swing wildly across a good ball and saw his middle stump removed. He returned the pavilion and said, "I thought it was a bad ball". It wasn't, Dan.

Tyler briefly joined proceedings and hit a lovely 4 behind backwards square. The wicket keeper was hit in the face at one point, which was kind of the high point of our innings (he was ok, don't worry readers). Tyler fell caught and Liam and Savage saw out the remaining balls to get us to an utterly undefendable total of 111. Liam finished the shambles by trying to reverse push the last ball of the innings for 4 and was bowled.

Pretty much everyone had given away their wickets and no partnerships had been formed and we hadn't scored enough runs to defend. Whoopsie.

Despite the low total, Jags took to the field in enthusiastic spirits. Matt stood up to everything behind the stumps and energy was good in the field. Scoring was hard, with Liam and Tyler bowling great spells from both ends. Liam extracted the first with an unplayable ball that swung in. Tyler, not to be outdone, bowled the other with a wunderball that clattered the furniture.

The number 3 was the best batsman, and if we'd got him out, we would have had a chance. He pelted it to point where Fardell missed a tough low chance. He walloped it to covers where Tyler missed a very hard chance too. Liam Brett then hit him on the pads dead in front of middle half way up and did the lovely Stuart Broad celeb-appeal thing, so certain was he of the result. The umpire said something to the effect of, "It probably would have hit the wicket, the impact was almost completely in line, but it pitched outside off, so I think I'm going to give it not out" - giving everyone confidence that; he was going to do a thoroughly fair job of umpiring; and was absolutely not going to avoid giving their best batsman out no matter what the circumstances. No sirree bob. 

Roughly how it looked. I'm going to ask Queen's to invest in DRS

James Horner extracted one with a caught chance to Phillips. Ben Savage bowled exquisitely, being rewarded with a bowled off stump chance from a glorious action. He almost had the number 3 caught by Coslett, but the chance was shelled in the deep. There was time for the number 3 to clip one to Barker at mid off, possibly the easiest of the 4 catches, but nowhere near as bad as the hilarious LBW. So he'd had 5 lives on his way to 50.

Barker bowled well and Tyler extracted 2 late on, one caught by James and one by Liam. Tyler muttered a lot at the end, and was angry, but his 5 runs, directing one at the wicket keeper and 3 wickets earn him a MOTM gong. Hopefully that cheers him up.

We ran it close, despite the low total and fielded pretty well apart from the catches. Great glovework from the skipper and our heads didn't drop till the end. I'm not going to blame it all on the LBW as we should have held our catches, and they seemed like a nice bunch of chaps, but it was a bad decision even at the low low level at which we play, made all the more hilarious by the explanation. Ah well.

Pub attendance was good from both sides - I didn't get there in time for pizza though - so this whole evening can get in the bin as far as I'm concerned.

Jags Do It Doggystyle

Jags 109/2 (Ant 31*, Fardell 29, Dan 24*) beat NCI Allsorts XI 108/9 (Dobson 36, Ramesh 16, Savage 7-3, Barker 15-2, Yaxley 22-2) by 8 Wickets

MOTM - Ben Savage

We returned to familiar environs of Queens this week for our 2nd league fixture against the NCI midweek team chasing a second successive league win. A lot of the core team were present, supplemented by the addition of Messrs Ben Savage and Morgan Yaxley from sister club Histon. All the regulars had their shiny new Jags kit on proud display.

It was a glorious evening and we are in the prime time for long light evenings, so looked forward to the game. Captain fantastic lost the toss and the NCI team decided to bat, always a wise choice in evening cricket. Fardell picked out a genuine Reader from his bag (more anon) and proceedings began with Bennett and Brett bowling in tandem. The early bowling was pretty tasty and one opener struggled to get it away. The other managed a few shots, and there were the customary extras which in the early stages propelled the scoring more than the runs. The chirp was as high as the sun, with Ant welcomed back to the fold, slouching at slip and looking for all the world like he was just waiting for his next match on Tinder so he had a reason to get his phone out of his pocket. 

The ball however, it must be said, may not actually have been a genuine Readers as after 3 or so overs, it looked like this.

megacheapcricketstuffs.tv is not getting any repeat business from me

This made it easy at this point of the evening for team members to have a simple topic to sledge, banter or chat about - since the whole conversational tone in the field was, "have you seen the ball", "how bad is the ball", "oh my God it's not even round", "is the ball homemade" etc etc. For the less original and quick witted members of the team, it was like mana from heaven; free chat. The first wicket came when Brett found his lines well, and after tying the batsman down a bit, tempted him into an offside aerial drive which despite the "ping" it made off the bat, headed straight for the grateful hands of Mr Threadgold - helping Liam secure a wicket maiden. Tyler was bowling some tight lines, and for the most part was being treated respectfully by the batsmen as a result, with the result being scoring was very slow.

The new NCI batsman was of a certain distinguished vintage, shall we say, and had a high lift and exaggerated technique more reminiscent of weekend cricket from the 80's than 20/20 thrashes in the evenings. Scoring was still slow, NCI struggling to overcome a good bowling start from the Jags. As the dot balls piled up the pressure showed, with the non-striker seeing the ball tickled behind the batsman, and calling and running for a suicidal single. He was duly sent back with no chance of making it. The Jags had enough time to miss the batsman's stumps and relay it through two team members before Tyler removed the bails at the bowler's end.

NCI got their first partnership together around this point, and Kingsmill came into the attack replacing Tyler. Will is not quite 100% fit again so bowled some more modest paced stuff. His height and accuracy provide enough variation to be threatening, but in truth he is at his best when he has the express pace and viciousness that we all know he is capable of. Scoring ticked along a bit better in this partnership, although not at a rapid pace, just better, with the odd loose ball dispatched and more extras. Liam's figures had been mega up to this point 3-1-1-5 runs, but the tricky 4th over blotted his copybook somewhat, when 4 dots were followed by two aggressive 4's.

Ben Savage a youth debutant came into the attack, and the fielding all round was good. Nice glovework from Mr Parrish, good boundary riding from T, and a few decent infield stops from Fardell, Phillips and Will helped to keep things quite tight. Savage was very tight here, and eventually the other opener decided he needed to make a change, and charged him, the ball passed the blade, and Parrish neatly took and swiped the bails off in one seamless movement. The umpire didn't even signal, the batsman knew he was out, tucked his bat under this arm like a Sunday newspaper and off he went.

At this point we had a minor pitch invasion from an overexcited pooch, who had a collar, but no lead or owners anywhere to be seen. This lovely looking little chap really took a shining to one of our resident Dog lovers, James Barker, and just trotted around playfully after him in the field, sensing some doggy treats in his pockets, or maybe he was just curious what the odd smell was. Who knows, if only dogs could talk. We actually played on at this point, as it was clear the pooch was going nowhere and when James fielded a ball and threw it back to Parrish, the Dog saw his cue and raced after it, putting more effort into getting that ball than most of our fielding team combined. Eventually he departed, when his actual owners appeared from behind a hedge. 

Savage was bowing some, well, savage lines, and his economy was ace. He got his next wicket in the third over, a genuine weekend wicket to the left hander, a nice ball on a length, good shape and it kissed the edge and Parrish standing up made no mistake with the gloves. A word on Parrish, who essentially stood up and close to most of the overs, despite the variety in pace. He's confident in his skills is that man, and rightly so.

Barker came in for Kingsmill and his first couple of balls were big loose wides - possibly not aided by the absolute state of the ball at this point or his recent encounter with Lassie. He found his line eventually, bowling the new batsman with a peach that popped up and moved to disturb the off stump. NCI had not managed to string a partnership together for some time, and were at about 77 runs from 15 overs, well below par. Savage continued and was rewarded with a 3rd wicket, the ball being a little fuller, tempting the drive and there was Mr Threadgold again to snaffle a good catch at mid off. His figures for the game were 4-0-3-7 - which made the man of the match a simple statistical pick.

On his dog day afternoon, Barking mad James was not to be outdone, and continued his bowling in fine form, pushing one just a tiny bit closer to the other batsman, who then clipped in the air to mid on. Here Mr Phillips was waiting, and he adopted the face crusher technique to ensure he caught it, putting his hands backwards over his eyes, certain to suffer severe injury should he fail to hold the catch. 

There was also time for a streaky edge that went through Ant at slip at this point, he's a hard man to hide in the field sometimes.

Yaxley came in to bowl a couple at the death and one NCI batsman decided to try and take him on, mindful of the situation (i.e. they don't have enough runs to defend and they're quickly running out of balls to hit). Two good balls were hit for 4 and 6 respectively, before the skipper tweaked the field and the batsman clipped one to short square, where Fardell held on just above the turf. The last few overs saw some continued slow scoring, although the odd boundary, and the last ball of the innings saw Mr Parrish complete a great shift, stumping a batsman: to finish with one edge caught, two stumpings and involvement in a run out. 108/9 felt hard to defend.

Given the total, Parrish shifted the order around slightly, allowing Fardell to open again. Early scoring came quickly for Matt, less so for Fardell, but I did get a gifted 4 in the first over. Parrish unusually fell second over, having clipped a few he charged the opener and somehow managed to wallop his bat against his leg, causing a large gap to appear between bat and pad, and that was that for him as the ball snuck through and dislodged the bails. Ant wandered out, a touch out of form lately, looking to use the low pressure game situation to get back into the swing of things after weeks of Footgolf galore. 

Scoring was slow, possibly not aided by the match situation, but also some very good bowling from NCI and good defensive field placements to make it difficult to pinch runs. Ant played out 8 dots in a row at one point, and faced 15 balls for his first 5 runs. Very 20/20. One bowler tied both Fardell and Ant down, finishing on splendid figures of 3 overs, 9 runs, but no wicket. He would have made the difference on another night. We slowly clipped along, Ant was reluctant to run 2's and no amount of cajoling would get it to happen, particularly after his recent net based side strain, but we were still scoring enough to not be in real danger. NCI did well in the field, trying to keep the contest alive and the bowling was tight.

Both eventually managed to up the rate slightly, which was all that was needed really with a low total. A streaky edged 4 to the standout NCI bowler helped, and there was boundaries over long on and to deep square that I recall, before Fardell was bowled trying to up the stakes in the 11th over. Dan came out to get Ant going, and he did, forcing Ant to cover ground and run singles like only Dan can. There were some nice smites down the the ground (quite a lot to cow corner) and we cruised to the total with some aggressive hitting from Dan and Ant, both finishing not out on 31 and 24 respectively and with more than 4 overs to spare.

2 league fixtures, 2 wins. Afterwards a few retired to the Red Bull for the customary refreshments, whilst the opposition stayed at the ground for a bit, drinking cloudy looking homemade hooch from a flagon bottle, which seemed a bit weird and hillbilly for cricket, but each to their own. There was some solid chat on the What's App group from T about his dog as well.

The latest addition to the Jags roster

Jags put new Threads to good Use

Jags (107-4 Alfeldi 25*, Kingsmill 25*, Bennet 13*, Humby 2-20) beat Dobblers 106-7 (Pringle 28, Mitchell 15, Robinson 3-22) by 6 wickets

MOTM - Tyler Bennet

We turned up against old friends, the Dobblers, at Kings and Selwyn College ground tonight. The evening was notable for two things at the outset. 

First up, Captain fantastic had sourced some new club gear, fully branded and sponsored by Brand Recruitment, one of the many entrprenuerial ventures of Jag, and club friend, Mr Steve Mann. His barometer for entrepreneurial success is: it's a business; I own a bit of it; and it hasn't collapsed in a heap yet owing cash money to the tax man. By this criteria, it is currently a storming success of an enterprise, making enough money to partially sponsor an amateur cricket team. We felt all shiny and new, trying on our hats and shirts, named and what not. If you are recruiting or looking to be recruited in marketing, well, that's what they do - I can't tell you if they're actually any good, but click on the link and you might see something on their website that is relevant to you. Steve briefly joined us at the ground to check his new logo had been printed correctly before jetting off to the costa-del-Helsinki.

That's an interesting choice of colour, Steve

The other thing that was notable was the giant square at Kings had two tracks prepared, one at the extreme either end of the square, and neither looked to have been rolled or cut. The outfield was in a similar state. It felt very much like a village cricket pitch, and not one of the fancy villages. More like one of those villages where the village sign has been knocked over; the pub doesn't do hot food; the village shop has metal bars on the doors and windows; and caravans are for sale in the nearby vicinity.

Matt lost the toss, which turned out to mean we all got to the pub a little earlier than expected, and Dobblers chose to bat. Tyler opened at one end with a classic display of mean bowling, using the green top to good effect. A bye was conceded and the number 2 batsman did not fancy it at all, missing a couple before seeing the off peg uprooted by one with some fine lateral movement for what I believe was an opening wicket maiden. In truth, this was one of our only wickets of the night which the bowler actually deserved. More anon.

Barker opened the bowling at the other end, off a good weekend spell of bowling. However he was hit by a curse of the, erm, midweek bowling yips??, and couldn't seem to control the recently sourced and finely tailored Reader's ball, conceding a few extras and making life for the skip behind the stumps very challenging. Tyler continued with threat and verve, combined with economy, and Barker was pulled out of the attack after one over, to allow Ed Robinson to come and have a twirl. Dobbler's skipper, Sam, was in to bat and hit a few nice shots, as did the first opener. 

Ed's bowling was, erm, well let's be honest, it was absolute shit. The length was all over the shop, he couldn't find his line and on another night he would have been murdered. Tonight however, it seemed that bowling badly was somehow an inspired move, as he offered a double bounce freebie to the batsman who promptly spooned it in the air to Dan on the offside. This wicket caused the other batsman to panic, and he pushed one gently inside the circle to the onside shortly thereafter, then pushed the other batsman to run a suicidal single. Mr Kingsmill, with all the time in the world, delivered the ball to the waiting Parrish to gently remove the bails.

The next batsman came in and Ed decided that, well my naff ball worked last time, so let's try that again, bowled it short and wide, and the batsman pitched it gently up in the air for Dan to catch. An eventful over, it must be said. Tyler continued to look threatening and economic, but must have also been utterly confused as to how his really rather good bowling wasn't getting any more wickets, when batsmen were literally throwing wickets away to Ed.

Perhaps sensing the quizzical thoughts in Tyler's head, Ed duly obliged with another short wide half tracker in his next over, and the batsman gently chipped it high to the offside for Kris to catch - an almost carbon copy of one of his other wickets. Around this point Phillips did a thing, stopping a ball at slip with his foot in a way that it almost looped up to the keeper. We can all imaginen what Phillips' celebration would have looked like here, if he had tried to take credit for something he had clearly not intended.

It had, in truth, been an odd series of wickets. 3 practice catches offered from some dross bowling, and a run out which was pure harakiri. Still, they all look the same in the book. Ed then decided to show everyone that he can actually bowl, putting some nice lines and much more consistency together. The result of this actual decent bowling was he got no more wickets this evening. Cricket is a confusing game at times.

Two Dobblers strung a partnership together for a bit, one batsman was wheezing rather a lot and calling for water or a spliff, which seemed an odd pairing. The other batsman looked pretty technically correct, and they started to grind out something like a respectable score. Threadgold was tossed the cherry for a bit, and there was a very notable contribution in the field from Kris, chasing one down on a short boundary and hauling it back. Matt also did his best to hide me in the field, although hiding a Mr Stay Puft lookalike is quite hard in a field, Matt.

I ain't afraid of no ducks...

Threadgold was bowling pretty well in truth, and he was partnered at the other end by Mr Phillips, who was bowling an erratic line. Threadgold eventually winkled out the top scorer, he hit it past the bowler, but Brett was equal to it, diving forward at short mid off to take a good catch just off the turf. Barker replaced Phillips, who went wicketless, and kept the extras coming. 

Barker eventually saw off the more technically correct of the decent batsmen, who was through the shot a little too quickly, and gifted it to Tobias at mid off. The partnership had got Dobblers within touching distance of 100. They had one, how shall we say, non-player, and one bowler/wicket keeper in Askew batting at the death. Askew took a gift from Threadgold, a half tracker, and dispatched it over square, then pinched the strike for the last over, bowled by Liam "Offspin" Brett, and they clawed their way to 106/7. Anything sub 120 is very very hard to defend. Stranger things have happened though.

Given the total and in our eagerness to make sure all Jags get a decent go, Matt opened with Brett and Kingsmill. Brett hit a nice 2 and was then bowled leg stump to a very nice early ball from one opener. Will was then joined by Kris, and both set about flaying the ball all about, Kris hitting a couple of straight 4's and one lovely legside 6 that I recall, and Will hit a very nice offside 4 that I recall. The game was quickly beyond the Dobblers, as Jags were 52/1 from 7. Kris retired and Fardell waddled out - and found scoring difficult. I was facing the same bowling as Will and Kris but I was playing it a touch more, respectfully, perhaps?! Will then bludgeoned a couple of 4's on his way to 25 not out - two he hit to the deep square fielder, the skipper no less, who allowed both to go over the rope. One was eminently catchable, but it wasn't to be and Will got his first 25* for the the Jags in, maybe ever.... not sure, I'll need to consult the annals of Jags history.

Tobias joined Fardell, and in the spirit of proceedings was there for a good time. He hammered a ball back over the bowler's head for 4 and did a great spot in mastering the trick of being left handed, so confusing the life out of the Captain and fielding team. Some decent running and a couple of more legside swipes saw Tobias accelerate to 18 off 12, before one swipe too many saw his off peg pushed back with a good cross body ball.

Phillips strolled out and Fardell and he managed to try and make the game interesting by basically building a short partnership on the solid foundations of: not scoring much; and trying to run each other out. 9 overs, 71 runs scored, and no danger, so why not?!

Fardell was out spooning one to mid off for 12 off 16 balls and Phillips managed to see out 7 consecutive dot balls. Tyler, elevated up the order, joined Phillips. Tyler slashed one over the backward point region and didn't get out for a bit - but Phillips scraped 4 off 11 balls, eventually pulling one to the Dobblers skipper, who finally held onto one - well done Sam. 

Threadgold and Bennet saw us home, with Bennet scoring a couple of 4's and Dan pushing the running. A wicket, some good bowling, sealing the win and his top ever batting score - Tyler was an easy MOTM pick - although Kris and Will both had respectable shouts too.

Afterwards we retired to the Red Bull for pizza and beer, as is tradition - but found the beer garden (on a glorious sunny evening) had been taken over by a pub quiz. One pub quiz round was themed, "Lesser known facts about Royals" and another was (honest to goodness) themed, "9/11 Facts". It felt like the Samaritans switchboard was going to get some calls later that evening. 

I won't be hitting their pub quiz any time soon - although the pizza remains good and it's always nice playing the Dobblers.

Jags in a League of their Own against Cambourne

Jags 172 - 4 (Parrish 56, Phillips 52*, Threadgold 23*, Humphreys 2-18) beat Cambourne Midweek Bombers 94-8 (Zacharia 22, Thompson 18, Alfeldi 3-18) by 78 Runs

Man of the Match - Adam Phillips

Organising midweek cricket involves a combination of: administrative skills; some ability to influence your fellow man to want to play cricket; dealing with finances; insurance; league administration; website managment; writing match reports; finding players out of thin air at the last minute; talking to opposition Captains; and dealing with groundsmen who are prone to cancelling games based on weather forecast, current weather conditions, or just because they don't want to get the mower out. 

On this day, the weather forecast was grim and it rained most of the day, but the groundsman at the CASS centre, after some discussion, was amenable to allowing us to play, and I was confident we could play what would turn out to be our first ever game of actual league competitive cricket, 11 years after we were founded. 

However, when the weather forecast looks even slightly suspect, as the organiser you get a full on boat load of emails, text messages or even phonecalls from team members, fans, opposition captains etc all day, normally whilst you are trying to hold down a semi-respectable job - asking, "is the game on", "surely it has been cancelled", "I'm not going to come just in case it is cancelled" and the like. I've had this for years and years and it still amazes me that people do it - the rules are and have always been - the game is on, until it is cancelled. It is cancelled when I say it is cancelled. Not before. Not by anyone else. If you see sheet lightning in Ely, if the dykes have burst their banks in Wisbech and if a cow swims past your house in Milton - the game is still on until I tell you it is not on.

This week, I had a slightly new variant on this theme. Jag Tyler Bennett told the group that it is not going to stop raining until 6 (start time) and then for good measure he sent me, just me, a video from the window of his house showing it raining in his garden at about 3:30. T - see above, the game is on, until I tell you it is not. I don't care if it is raining in your garden: we're not playing in your garden.

This week we had to contend with our first ever league fixture, in the Business House League Division 2 against Cambourne, and the late loss of Ant. We welcomed Histon friend Kristikan Alfeldi into the fold in his stead - and having a South African accent, we thought he might be good. He could of course be one of the 3 or 4 South Africans in the entire world who is not good at sport, but the odds were ever in our favour. Matt was late so I did the toss and won, hoorah, opting to bat (the only ever sensible decision). The opposition skipper was quite excited at this, declaring on returning to his team - "good toss to lose, chaps, we're bowling" and they actually cheered. What is that all about?! New rules for league, free hits, no retirements for batsmen, and an increased level of seriousness. We also only had 10 players. Thanks Ant.

Parrish and Barker opened the batting. Barker is well known to Cambourne as he turns out for them and I think might live there, so they gave him plenty of good natured ribbing. It had stopped raining when we started, but quickly started drizzling and was soon quite possibly chucking it down. Parrish initially found scoring tricky, with the opening bowler putting in a peach of a first over and rain obscuring his view. Matt found the second bowler more to his liking, and spanked a huge 6 on his way to a rapid fire start for the Jags in this 15-8 format game. Barker kept ticking over, gently, but we had to come off a couple of overs in for rain. We then agreed to go back out despite the rain being essentially the same.

Roughly how it looked at this point

Barker was finding scoring tough, Matt less so, enjoying his not having to retire on 25 he biffed the ball to all corners, lots of back foot gusto and wallops and general fun times were being had. The second bowler was taken to the cleaners, going for 44 off his 3 overs. Sadly he managed to tempt Barker, James closed the face and was caught to short square. Horner joined the Parrish biffing session, and scoring was coming openly and cleanly - with Matt still doing most of it in quite brutish fashion. He eventually fell just past 50, one biff too many going high to deep backward square. Almost as soon as he was out, it decided to stop raining - Parrish had clearly brought the storm with him.

Fardell briefly joined Horner, scored a couple and was bowled playing round a straight one. Phillips then walked out - and having seen Parrish thought, that'll do pig. Seeing the ball from the off, he played out a couple of nice actual genuine defensive shots, and once he had his eye in, was lashing the ball all over the shop. Phillips this season is a man reborn, having been the wrong side of shite for us in previous seasons, but ever present (which is something), he seems to have discovered how to make the wood and the ball connect in quite miraculous fashion this year.

Horner fell caught and Threadgold Jr ambled out to the crease. Phillips and Threadgold were dressed for the dark, damp cold weather we had experienced up to this point, so of course the clouds opened and sunshine magically appeared. Phillips removed his jumper and Threadgold just looked roasting throughout, beads of sweat accumulating in his helmet. Ripe. 

Both ran well, and hit some nice shots, I recall very few dots at this point, and a fair few 2's and boundaries. We also had the fun of a couple of free hits for height based no balls - a novelty for us it must be said and one where we don't entirely know the rules other than - if you're the umpire, swing your arm in the air in a circle and say "Free Hit". The weather meant the pitch was cutting up badly and bowlers were struggling to find their footing a little.

Threadhold Sr playing for Cottenham also kindly misfielded a shot from his son to allow him to get off the mark, which was very nice of him. Cambourne fought hard but could do nothing to arrest the scoring with the Jags getting to a whopping 172 at innings close. If we can't defend that, then we may as well switch to morris dancing.

Our new kit if we lost from this point (Spoiler, we didn't lose)

Brett opened from one end and Bennett from the other. The track was a bit sodden, the sun was helping but bowlers finding their stride was tricky. One Cambourne batsman, none other than Mr Threadgold Sr was getting the rough treatment from both bowlers, and was mainly running for his partner as he survived until the 5th over or so without scoring. Brett was generally quite on the money, but with the odd wide - demonstrating that in league cricket, even the friendly umpires take it all very seriously. He also enticed an edge from a brutishly fast ball that flew through the 1st slip region where Ant would have been stationed if he'd have turned up.

Bennett was bowling nicely, but one opener managed to play some quite immaculate square shots to score some boundaries. Chasing in the field was good, and Will had kindly turned out to play us despite not having finished the full course of physio he needs to bowl yet. 

Scoring was slow, and with a mammoth total, something had to give as the batsmen pushed hard to make runs when boundaries were at a premium. Brett bowled one that was tickled round fine leg, the batsmen eager to get a 2 dared to take on Tyler the Tyro. He swooped in the field, put a pinpoint throw over the top of the stumps and left Parrish with the easiest of tasks to dislodge the bails. It was a quite phenomenal piece of fielding. Cambourne gently accumulated some runs, but were far behind the rate at this point.

The next wicket fell soon and was quite amazing as well. Tyler trotted in to bowl his second over to the standout Cambourne bowler (Humphreys, although most of their bowling was good in fairness). He pressed to the covers and started running for the single, stopped, and Kristijan summoned his inner Jonty Rhodes to throw down the stumps with a direct hit, leaving the batsman well out.

Bennett held one of his 3 overs back in the tank for the death, should it be needed and Kristijan was sent in to show us if Saffers can bowl as well. They can. His first ball was an absolute peach, good length, pitch on off and moving slightly back in to middle, removing the beaten and bruised Mr Threadgold Sr. He then bowled a few lovely balls, before removing another, this time top of off, on off and held the line. Some good fielding here by Tyler, Liam and even Phillips I can recall - although his tiny T-rex hands means he should never be stationed deep in the field.

Phillips' new club shirt Design

Horner came in for a cheeky bowl, and one of the batsmen took a bit of a shine to him, hitting 6's and 4's over the short square leg boundary. It mattered not as the game was long gone at this point really. Horner eventually got his revenge on the biffer, removing him bowled. One Cambourne batsman put up some brief resistance, scoring in a variety of places, before pushing hard at one from Kristijan and the ball plopped up high to Mr Threadgold Jr at mid off.

The umpire said to me at this point that we should bring some spin bowlers on - I simply said we had none - and he pulled a bit of a face. I don't know what to say chap, if we could recruit some bowlers, we would.

This brought the modestly sized Cambourne wicket keeper to the crease, and Phillips and Barker were our change bowling pair. Phillips' first over featured some variation, which clearly unsettled the batsman as he pushed at the fifth one and saw himself caught and bowled. By Phillips. Adam. Phillips. He threw the ball high in the air with a look of delight on his face, convincing no one that he did things like this every single game. 

Barker bowled at the Cambourne keeper, and after getting the better of him, he saw Will take a catch at mid on. This prompted a large shout from the balcony of, "he's only 12 you bastard". Laughs all round. The rest of the innings proceeded with little to note, the game long since lost. The only point to highlight was that Tyler was desperate to return and get a wicket, I think he has an eye on the end of season stats, and he got his wish, bowling to the numbers 9 and 10. The number 10 popped the last ball of the innings ever so high and gently to Liam at backward point, where he shelled an absolute dolly. We all laughed, except Tyler. Liam owes him a beer, when he is old enough to legally be bought one.

Our first league game, a strong win and lots of contributions. Phillips pips the man of the match award for a 50 not out and a wicket, and making us all laugh with his hilarious throwing. I was also most pleased we stayed the course on this one - we could have cancelled owing to weather, but we didn't and it was a good evening in the end, even if we did play in sub-optimal conditions.

The CASS centre has improved in recent years. I remember playing there 10 years ago and it was an utter dirge of a pitch, a nice pavilion, but not fit for cricket at all. It seems to have bedded in nicely now, and we all enjoyed a refreshing beverage on the balcony overlooking the scene of our first league triumph.