Home Comforts

Jags 133-10 (Holmes 29*, Fardell 22, Meldal 21, O Savage 3-10, R McKinna 3-20) lost to Histon CC 137-5 (J Turner 62, O Savage 39*, Holmes 2-11) by 5 wickets

MOTM - Holmes

If the season has to end, this is the right place for it to end. Half or more of the Jags play or played their weekend cricket in Histon, several of them live in Histon, and a number of the opposition team chose to play for Histon rather than us - so it was a field full of friends, and brothers, sometime teammates and spectated by parents and grandparents in the late summer gloom on the second team pitch at Histon. Fitting; a way to recognise that cricket should always be about a bunch of people who dedicate some of their time to the most gentlemanly and friendly of pursuits, with its ludicrous rules, random happenings, and general camaraderie. We also live streamed it this week courtesy of Mr T Purton. 

We were looking forward to the joys of the first team pitch, but it was not to be as they have a big game at the weekend - so we decamped to the second team pitch. We did however get a taste of the first team with the weekend 1sts Skipper John Turner taking charge of proceedings. He had a decidedly youthful looking set of warriors at his disposal, but a talented crop nonetheless.

Someone won the toss, I'll say it was Matt, I was too busy chatting to Christie Senior about chairs, and Matt decided to put himself in with Freddie, and demote Luke Cattle to the lowly lows of batting 3rd. Early bowling from Dale and Ryan was good. Matt snicked a 4 using a French cut and they gently rotated strike. 8 ball overs this week, and Ryan (who had played for us last week) accounted for Captain Churchy with a lovely one that caught the seem flush, gripped and moved in slightly to clatter near the top of off stump.

Scoring was hard early on and the Histon team were very chirpy as a result. Dale and Ryan were a formidable opening bowling partnership, Freddie struggled to score at his 100 plus fluent strike rate norm, and this prompted O Savage, who rarely seems to have much in the way of chat to say something to the effect of, "great strike rate, Freddie". Oh how we laughed. I'd buy him a beer in response to such fine chat, but he's about 12.

Cattle joined Freddie for a bit and I lent him my bat, without mentioning that it is 2lb 14 ounces of pure dense English willow, and Luke, it would appear, is unaccustomed with his local gymnasium. He could barely lift the thing, let along swing it, and Dale got him top edging with a quite vicious bouncer to the keeper quite early on. I think it wasn't my bat that did him; it was the combination of good bowling and Matt deciding he should bat at 3, that took him down.

J Bizzle joined Freddie and Freddie, perhaps rankled by Ollie's sudden ability to engage in actual chat, decided to unfurl a few 4's. Barker hit a 4 and then was quickly out tipping it upwards early on. We had not scored a lot of runs and 3 of our dangermen were out cheaply. The bowling was good, as was the fielding, and the field setting was definitely first team level, with bowlers bowling well to their fields, and no misfields, scoring was hard.

Baines was back! Woohoo. He couldn't stop the rot mind. Not a duck, but he was caught early when O Savage, who was absolutely determined today to do all the things for Histon, had him caught by the keeper. Baker walked in, missed a couple, then was out caught for a duck. Liam and Freddie formed a non-scoring partnership for a bit, and at 6 overs we had scored pretty much fuck all and were 5 wickets down. Freddie then fell bowled to Ollie, the one man Histon army, for a very un-Freddie like strike rate of 72. It was tough going.

I walked out far earlier than I had expected and got a fist bump and a "try not to mess up" from Liam. He scored a few and I tried to just stick around for a bit and stop the dominoes falling. We were then treated to being on the receiving end of F Christie's bowling - which involves a skip, pirouette, turn, cursty, twirl and delivery. I can tell you as a batsman facing it, the delivery takes a looonnnnngggg time to come, so long that I got tired holding my bat up in the ready pose and my brain had started to think about Christmas presents. It was all too much for Liam, he clipped it high to the off side and we were 7 down with Jake joining me with us on 59-7 from 9 8 ball overs, and the prospect of 100, sod that, 80, still fairly distant.

However, we did have a right hand left hand combo of two players who can hit a crap ball behind square, and we also had the Histon skipper decide to rotate his bowling options in the spirit of friendliness that this fixture was intended to be played in. We had some very slow and quite friendly bowling for a bit, and Jake and I understood the assignment, stick around, keep out the good balls (there were not very many of these) and score from the bad balls (there were really quite a lot of these). Most of all though, we ran and rotated the strike, running as many singles and 3's as possible to force the left hand right hand fielding change as often as possible. We were trying to get the young ones tired you see. 

We hit some 4's, me with a back foot punch to the off side cover boundary - yes I did just type that - and one to deep midwicket courtesy of a Seth no balls full toss (thanks Seth!). Jake had his area, and it was deep backward square. The more "men" (boys) they put there, the more he hit it there. It was glorious, unashamedly comedy cricket to try and claw us to a total. Extras helped, and we dragged our way to something resembling a total that, if not defendable, was at least respectable. I fell just before the last over, caught well in deep by Mr Fraser Christie - if he had not made it, then it would have been my second ever 6, and the final over we almost saw it all out, with Holmes getting a top score. There was time for B Savage to hit the ball straight at his brother for a difficult but well held catch, and for Piers to get a golden edging to the keeper having also chosen to pick up my anvil of a bat. He also moaned that it was very heavy, and said he joined team Cattle on this one - my bat had been the source of their problems, not the pitch, bowling, fielding or their poor exercise choices. 133 all out. It was getting dark so we had some hope and Jakey had carried his bat.

I think we can definitively conclude that, no, Pier and Luke do not lift... bro

Brett opened the bowling to F Day, who scored in his area, the late dab/cut to third man, to get Histon off to a high scoring start. Holmes partnered Liam at the other end and inspired by his high scoring batting exploits, he bowled like a hero, getting the other opener cheaply with one that pitched up, was hit high and caught by Freddie. Liam's second over was less expensive, and it had already started to get dark. Matt was behind the stumps getting some practice in for the weekend.

Jake got Felix next over, with another demon that got big on Felix and was defended upwards towards Monsieur Baines who snaffled nicely. We have missed Mr Baines this year, and he had come here to play this one game despite having recently had some (non-serious) bum surgery. 

B Savage replaced Liam, and the two early wickets meant we had first team skipper JT and Lee the keeper in fresh. Lee plays beautifully, by the way, all technically correct and poise, and shape, he played a super deliberate late cut for 4 off Mr B Savage that was absolute butter. If he grows a bit taller and gets himself down the gym (Piers and Luke I'm looking at you, here) then he will one day be hitting them all over the place. JT took his time to get going, steadying the ship I think, and then he took a shine to Baines, pumping it over the top twice in one over. Freddie came in for a bowl, and had a busy over, 4 first ball, taking the wicket of Lee second ball as J Bizzle caught it in the ring, and then bowling McKinna a few balls later. It was gloomy at this point.

This bought Action Man O Savage out to partner the 1st team skipper and, perhaps inspired by his earlier exploits, perhaps thinking he has a shot at snagging a spot in the first team, he played wonderfully in an extended partnership. We gave him a lot of stick and made sure his brother got to bowl at him, but he was having none of it, playing as if cocooned in a bubble of zen - ignoring all outside distractions.

Both men unfurled some strokes, with JT preferring the on side deep boundary and Ollie rotating with punches, and pulls and dabs. Freddie's second over was a victim of some well placed action here and then Baines bowled replacing Ben. He got taken Downtown to Chinatown by JT, conceding 25 runs in 8 balls including 5, 4's, featuring 3 of those being consecutive boundaries. Ouchy.

I did some old-men-can-do-good-stuff fielding at one point, turning a 4 into a two by "sprinting" (jogging) round and slide tackling the ball to a stop - I even got applause from the assembled fans and oldie spectators

JT was into his groove at this point, Barker came to replace Freddie and saw a 4 and 6 harumphed and Histon were well ahead of proceedings now - despite the dark. Matt made the amazing decision in the 14th over to give Cattle a bowl. Now Cattle can do everything, bat, wicket keep and bowl - but putting him on to a well set duo for the first time at the end of the game was, well it was a decision that he made as he is the one who makes decisions. It sort of worked out mind - Luke conceded a lot of runs but also had the skipper caught for 62 from 44 balls by Georgie Baker in the ring.

Fraser came in to partner Ollie for the end of proceedings, he scored a 4, gave some chat of a fashion to the fielders and was generally in full chirp mode. 5 needed from the last over. Brett to bowl. Jags unlikely to win. Matt decided that setting an insane field was the way to go - asking Brett if he could bowl, "that line" then setting up so pretty much everyone was on the offside and we had two cover fielders in Ollie's eyeline. Brett's first ball was short and legside - I'm going to hazard a guess that this was not the line Matt had in mind, and Ollie hoicked it behind square where there were absolutely no fielders whatsoever. It trickled for 4 and the game was done, with Ollie dispatching the winning 4 over the offside with every one up for the single in that late forlorn hope of a gameplan.

Thus the end. We're grateful for Histon making a game of it, and it's a nice place to finish things. Pub attendance at the outstanding Red Lion beer garden was excellent, Jake Holmes acquired himself a new hat (not pink, more of a Jags persuasion) and Luke and Piers both continued to talk about how heavy my bat was. 

How Piers and Luke seem to think I look

I can't give the man of the match to the opposition, because I just don't want to do that - this is a Jags only blog, but Ollie had a game - 3 wickets for 10 runs, 39 not out from 26 balls, caught his brother out as one of his two catches, gave Freddie some proper shade and then backed it up by showing him what a real strike rate looked like in an evening game whilst playing in the dark and hitting the winning runs. What a guy.

No Sport for Old Men

We've had 12 games on and 4 cancelled this season. 7 won, 4 lost (two nail biters) and 1 still to play. The four cancelled we lost two to rain, one we would have lost to rain but I'm going to say it was down to Histon hosting the Lashings, and 1 was cancelled because it clashed with England playing in the World Cup. .

We've had some monster totals, clearing 170 once and 180 three times and we've had our biggest run margin win (116 runs) and game with least runs conceded (47 all out) - the same game rather unsurprisingly.

I'll do a piece on new players later, but we've had a fair few, which is always nice, and the team has trended downwards in age, leaving some of us feeling more like grandads amongst the schoolkids at times.

However, it all started on a dark sort of evening at Cambridge University Press against the firm of the same name. They batted and put on a quite modest total of 104. Purton bowled and batted well just before his season ending injury and then we stuttered in a modest chase, finding ourselves 39-4.

This brought Piers Morgan and I together for a partnership that wouldn't have looked out of place in 2011, although we're both clearing 40 now and can't see things as well as we once could, we can, if the stars align, still do the stuff on occasion.

And thus it was this night, hitting 4's the legside (and only the legside) riding our luck and running between the wickets like two geriatrics with knee problems, we put on a partnership of 66 that got us over the line with 6 wickets in hand.

It felt good to know that it can still happen. I will admit the bowling was friendly at times and the fielding was friendlier still but you've still got to hit the thing.

And that, I'm going to suggest is why the team had such a season. With a start like this, seeing two old men being able to do it, it clearly made everyone else realise they could do it too. So they did. 

None of it would ever have happened but for Piers and I (in more ways than 1), so we can take credit in the reflected glory of all the 50's, big totals and great wicket taking spells. 

Every great journey starts with a single step - in this case one that could have been assisted by a zimmerframe.

Close but no Cigar

Stapleford Phoenix 159/5 (Brar 89, Walpole 24, O Savage 2-29) beat Jags 158/8 (Meldal 55, Barker 30, West 3-19, Walpole 3-28) by 1 run

MOTM - Meldal

This week in a busy last couple of week sprint for the season end saw us against Stapleford Phoenix for the last game in Stapleford. This is our first picturesque village ground this year - Waterbeach I'm afraid you do not count as you are not picturesque, nor are you a place where cricket should be allowed to be played. The ground is flanked by tennis courts, a play area, kids merrily kicked balls in the outfield and there was a road to one side in case you fancied trying to hit a car for the fun of it.

B Savage took the toss, on a phone simulated app no less, and lost so we were obviously put in to bowl. This time of year it will get very dark, so fielding first stacks the odds against you somewhat. It was going to be dark for the batsmen at the death, that was 'fo 'sho'.

Fraser had forgotten his cricket top so borrowed by old school Rod Cousens paid for Shaun Udal sourced traditional Jags version - and I must say it fit him like it used to fit me when I got it 11 years ago. Ageing disgracefully I am.

O Savage and recent recruit Ryan Smith got us doing and the first few overs were quite tidy. The bigger batsman (I'd say, 6ft 4 inches or so) took a shine to Ollie in the next, hitting back to back 4's in a sign of what was to come later. Chirp in the field was solid. B Savage replaced his brother and was tidy, before the insanely tall man decided to tear into Ryan with a 6 4 4 in one over, including a monster one that miraculously missed all the cards and ended up near a horse in the neighbouring field. 

B Sav bowled the other guy with a proper weekend ball. The pitch was generally behaving itself; we've played here on their little artificial strip and ladies and gentlemen it is not fun to play on. Cooper replace Smith (who were held back for the death) and was tidy and economic, if not threatening in his first over. B Savage continued as he had, and Cooper got one bowled in the next over.

Freddie won the awful chat of the day award at this point, riding the off side boundary he shouted, "oh, are we doing 10 from one end and 10 from the other..." - 8 fucking overs in. Good game awareness, Freddie. It's a good thing you can hit ball good. We had some mixed fielding - Parrish was great behind the stumps, and some good efforts close in from Fraser. Two excellent fully committed catching efforts were made to get their big man. One from Barker put his health and safety at risk. Ryan really threw himself into another and almost, almost got there running forward - which is always nightmarishly hard.

The giant, as I am calling him took at Ben Savage a bit with some monster down the ground 6's. Meldal then treated us to his bowling, all chat and excitement vigour - he was bristling, positively overflowing with confidence that his bowling would make the difference and defeat the big man. Until he actually bowled you would have thought he had the game sewn up himself. Then he bowled. Oh dear.

He went for 6 and 4 and 4 other singles in an eventful over that absolutely inspired the opposition to keep going. Cooper kept him company, bowling nicely throughout, proving that 'some' old men can do things. J Bizzle bowled and was taken apart a bit, and O Savage was bowled and the same happened.

Their one batsman was doing all the damage, scoring almost 60% of their runs on his own. It was around this point that we had almost the best, but possible actually the worst thing that has ever happened to me on a cricket field. Barker and I were on key and long on - we almost had an accidental relay catch of the big man. Two balls later the same thing happened, the guy hit it big to long on, Barker was round, but it was going over the rope - he jumped perfectly and with his momentum carrying him over the rope he saw me, shouted "Mark" and pushed the ball back into the field. It would have been our first ever relay catch and I was perfectly positioned - except my brain froze and I just let it hit the floor and rolled it in. No idea why, must be a sign of early on-set dementia and I shall get myself checked out. All these years, all this cricket, all the knowledge of and care for the game and my Martine McCutcheon perfect moment was wasted.

We eventually got the big man. O Savage bowled, he turned it to square and Georgie Baker was there in the impending gloom to claim it around square leg. 89 runs, blooming heck. 

His departure bought an upturn in our fielding, with O Savage bowling another, chirp increasing, and the runfest ceasing. Ryan then bowled an absolutely stellar last over, only going for 4 runs and getting an absolutely certain LBW to get the wicket he deserved. 

Murray had turned up on the sidelines to support and/or give his brother some shade. He also played with the match ball between innings, which went down about as well as you might expect.

Early in the season, 159 would feel a tough but possible chase - late in the dark, it feels like a tall tall ask. Still J Bizzle and Freddie Meldal took to their task with gusto - hitting a 4 each in the first over, and the third. Freddie then really let loose with a mammoth pull over the pavilion for 6, which once again landed near the self same horse in the neighbouring field. He didn't bother fielding it, so I won't add him to the mailing list or offer him game time next year. Barker and Meldal continued in this fashion, trading 6's and 4' with big legside shots, eventually putting on a partnership of 85 for the first wicket. 

Freddie has decided to go with the old school careless abandon baseball cap look, and was in fine fettle. The bowling was solid, with lots at the stumps as I can attest (being the umpire) but all was kept out. Barker was eventually bowled to put this fun and frolics to bed in the 9th over, playing on from a pull/sweep that was under-edged on stumps. Felix joined Freddie for a bit and whilst Felix took some balls to try and get his eye in, Freddie continued racing to a well deserved 50 off 40 odd balls. He fell trying to go big on the offside, caught in the deep.

Parrish joined Felix for a bit and it was single strike rotation for a while, with a run a ball needed. Then the sun dropped beneath the pavilion and it was suddenly really very dark. Felix was bowled by one of the two spinners for Stapleford who both, at the death, bowled really nicely. Walpole and West an absolute dynamic duo they were.

Baker was with Parrish for a bit, then was bowled - he might have played on. Fraser joined Matt for a short while and it was eventful, with Murray chirping abuse/encouragement from the sidelines, he was dropped in the ring at least once, missed a few and was caught offside I think. I joined Matt for a bit, he told me to steady the ship for a late assault, but the run rate was climbing Parrish hit a big 4 and was then bowled by a proper offspin delivery, the pitch outside off, gripped and took the top of off as Matt took a swing.

Cooper and I had the last two overs to try and find 21 runs. We turned the strike, I hit a big 2 that was almost a 4 and decided that as good players go twice, I'd try and again, but was well caught near the cow boundary. 17 needed from the last, it looked unlikely - I say looked, I could hardly see the pitch at this point. Ollie and Paul did well, Paul hit a lovely offside 4, then three consecutive twos leaving us needing 7 from 2 and Paul needing some of Sawyer's oxygen masks. Paul fell running for the testy 2, and with 6 needed last ball, B Savage hit a 4 (which the opposition let through) to leave us 1 run short, but him on a 400 strike rate.

It was a very nice game, despite the light, with some great chat, good bowling at the end and another tight defeat.

The post-script to the game was eventful. My car had been hit by a Freddie 6 and I found the scuff, and went to tell people only to hear a giant crunch as Barker had reversed into P Cooper's lovely little bimmer with  his Ford Fiesta. It was just scratches and bumper damage, but not how you want the day to end. We then went to the Three Horseshoes pub locally, which was rather nice, and messed about pretending to crash into each other in the Car Park. Like grown up adults do after seeing something bad happen.

The parallel parking element of the driving test has changed since I was a kid...

I had the Lemon and Paeroa tale relayed to me - apparently James Barker has discovered that if you do 3/4 lemonade and 1/4 coke - it tastes suspiciously similar to one of New Zealand's national drinks - a soft drink with, if the legend is to be believed, the most sugar per ml of any soft drink on earth. Worse than Irn Bru, worse than Mountain Dew.

The opposition were there, and we discussed how very sad we were to miss out on promotion... So Div 2 it is for both these teams next season. Gutted.

Tamil Take Jags in Thriller

Cambridge Tamil Sangam 138-10 (Raja 43, Raj 22, Brett 2-14, F Christie 2-14, Kavanagh 2-22, J Stinson 1-51) beat Jags 134/8 (M Christie 33*, O Savage 33, Barker 27, KK 3-19, Jeeva 2-12) by 4 runs

MOTM - F Christie/Brett/O Savage - I refuse to choose

Something went wrong with the scorecard - so it looks like Joe had the worst set of overs that ever happened in T20 - when in fact it was just really quite bad. I think he got dumped with some of Holmes' figures, in what was an eventful bowling spell for both men.

This was a nice game, against a competitive but friendly bunch united by a connection to Sri Lanka. Barker took the skippering duties and was told that the perfect result would be a tight defeat to put any lingering fears of promotion or winning the league to bed. He seems to be quite good at making things that I say happen based on this single data point, so I have made a note to be quite specific in future when I want to win or say get a 50.

We lost the toss and were put in to field. Stinson had kindly brought his mate Owen from the RAF to help us get to XI (he hadn't played in 14 odd years), and we had a debutant again (must be a season record this year for people on debut) in Ryan Smith.

Brett was very strong at the start, and tied the opener down using his 8 ball overs well. He got him bowled cleanly with a deliberate, beautiful, off cutter, taking middle and off with supreme control. Ryan started at the other end, he was quite taken aback at being offered the opportunity to open the bowling. He had also brought some revision with him - during summer time no less - to while away his time between playing spells. Diligent chap. His first over was fast and accurate, one wide aside, and he ended up taking a batsman caught by J Barker, I think to mid on. It was a very economic first couple of overs with limited scoring. Brett kept the pressure up with runs hard to come by, pushing the batsmen to a tricky single. O Savage in his IPL Cambs County kit again this week, swooped underarm and took the batsman with a great direct hit. The scoring was low and three wickets were done quickly.

We had set a very odd, almost weekend like field at this point, with two slips and two gullies- ish, and yet the only 4's off the bat came in this region, with a young man scoring two 4's through 3rd slip and Jeeva scoring through 1 1/2 slip. Muzzah behind the stumps could do nothing. The chat in the slip cordon such as it was, was being lead by Benjamin Kavanagh - absolutely determined to win the chat of the day award I offer each week.

Barker as a Boy

Brett took the next wicket, bowling Jeeva with the exact same Off Cutter to top of off with less of middle this time. He was sublime, in full control of bowling today, and the oppo were 4 down with scant runs on the board. 

Fraser twirled into the attack and was for the second time this week in total control of his Swan Lake routine, getting a healthy family combo wicket, taking the edge which nestled nicely in Muzzah's gloves with their granddad watching on, I suspect somewhat approvingly. If the slips had been in the game it would have gone for 4. Fraser got the next one two balls later, chipped up to Joe Stinson who took a comfortable-ish sort of catch. Kav continued chirping - and they were 5 down for 30 odd runs. This was certainly a week where pizza looked likely, given the probability of an early finish was high at this point.

Jake Holmes partnered Fraser for a short spell that was very the definition of eventful. You know things have gone awry with his bowling when Jake is muttering under his breath to himself - and so it was. Repeatedly. Two awful wides, were followed up by 4 wide 4. He stormed off, back to his fielding spot angrier than a man who has walked into a pub to be told it has run out of beer.

Fraser's second over couldn't quite match his first, but was still solid. Jake got slightly less awful, still bad mind. At 40 odd for 6 the skipper made an incredible game changing decision. He gave Kav a bowl. He sort of bowls, I want to say off spin, and he varies his length a lot, I wouldn't say deliberately. His action looks professional from the side, but the way the balls get treated suggests the batsmen quite like to face it. Despite some early tap, he got a wicket, chipped up for Holmes to catch in the ring. Stinson partnered Kav, and his first over saw 3 4's and a 6. Barker had a plan to concede runs and it was coming together nicely.

Kav dismissed the set batsman, with Ollie taking the catch - scoring had rapidly increased and it was looking like a competitive game might break out. Stinson bowled some variety, and got another one caught to leave them 9 down, with Owen Abbott taking it high in the slip region. Scoring had accompanied wickets, so Tamil were looking more competitive. Kav really found his bowling range in his third over, which was close to a maiden.

Holmes took the last over and boy was it a doozy. It was so eventful that the scorers gave it to Joe to spare Holmes' blushes. 6, 6 (both long off), two no balls, another 6 a wide and then with the last ball of the game he bowled the batsman to finish things off. Thanks for coming, Jakey!

Barker and O Savage opened the batting for us. The opening bowled was rapid for them, using a grunt at the point of delivery to give it extra oomph .J Bizzle took the decision to take on the other guy, wisely, and hit a 6 and a 4 to the legside. He also clubbed around the other guy at the change, and both openers generally just let the number 1 bowler hit his straps fast and outside off or keep him out when he strayed near the stumps. Barker eventually fell trying to go big again, bowled, for a sprightly start of 27 from 19. Ollie took up from where he left off on Monday, scoring with all the urgency of a grandad in a vintage MG going for a Sunday drive. He was joined by Owen, who pleasingly hit his first ball back for 14 years over the slips and almost for 4. He was bowled shortly thereafter, but a catch, no duck and some banter plus pub attendance meant he had ticked a lot of midweek cricket boxes for a late sub-in.

Fielding was generally quite good at this stage. Stinson joined O Savage and didn't quite find his range, scoring a few before falling LBW to Mr Purton helping out as umpire. Kav came in at 5 - scoring was brisk, but wickets were tumbling too. He took a few to get his eye in, then hit a massive 6 straight down the ground, an almost 4 (3), then went high and was caught for an eventful all action and rapid 10. 

It was my go to stroll out at this point and ask Ollie if he wouldn't mind, you know, hitting the ball and running and stuff. I really struggled against Jeeva, so had to try and take the others on - and ran a few 2's and 3's for Ollie. I clipped a 4 behind square (tick in the box!), scoring was getting good and I finally felt I had my range when I was out to an honest to goodness phenomenal piece of cricket. I really connected with one for a certain 4 down the ground close to long off, but couldn't see the ball careening towards the boundary as expected, since the bowler had caught it one handed in his delivery stride at full stretch. I had to shake his hand, no choice, it was excellent cricketing ability to even think of it, let alone do it in real time.

Muzzah joined Ollie and they both scored in dribs and drabs quite effectively, but it was hard to get boundaries and the required run rate was shifting against us. Savage eventually fell run out - pushing for a tough 2 - and he had somehow managed to accumulate 33 runs, in midweek cricket no less, without hitting a single boundary. Brett was run out soon after coming in - with Muzzah clearly in a hurry. He seemed to be accumulating runs with little effort, with a backward square pull and a late cut 4 the only shots I can recall despite his impressive scoring rate.

Holmes joined Muz for a bit and did his best dance down the wicket thing to tip singles and get the main man on strike. We needed 19 off the last 8 ball over, and got 15, partially as the previously competent fielding turned into a bit of a shambles, with overthrows and misthrows and someone jumping over the ball allowing Jake and Muz to work full time on their cardio. They did defend their total, but one boundary may have made the difference and it was fun and comedy to watch them almost screw the pooch from the sidelines.

I prefer winning of course, but when games are this tight, it's great fun. Hands were shook, smiles all round and we had a rare old time tonight. It was darker than Monday and you can feel the sun fading fast.

Chat of the day aware comfortably goes to Christie Senior, who tapped Kav on the shoulder and said, "it's a good thing they got you to bowl, otherwise the other side wouldn't have had a chance and this would have been boring" or words to that effect. Great debut from Ryan, many thanks to Owen and a good game from this nice team was had.

Pub attendance was solid, the last time I'll likely be at the Red Bull in Newnham now until next cricket season. This was our last game at Queens as well, and the groundsman has done an admirable job in a difficult summer of keeping it playable.

A small postscript. Jake boiled my blood, much to his own merriment, in the pub by saying he was done with cricket, but happy to carry on doing "this sort of thing". I was livid. Midweek cricket is cricket Jake - you bloody heathen. The batsmen just showed you that by taking you to the bloody cleaners.

Jake! This. Is. Cricket!

Two games left and this whole shooting match ends again, until next summer.

Healthy Friendly Win for the Jags

IPH 144-7 (X 26*, Y25*, B Savage 3-18, B Sawyer 1-11, F Christie 1-18) lost to Jags 145-5 (Barker 28*, O Savage 26*, Fardell 17) by 3 wickets

MOTM -  Barker/B Savage

The scorecard for this is a bit of a mess as the whole team are called "Unsure" so this report is the absolute best I can do without having any names for anyone other than our chaps. 

We were at Queens against the Institute for Public Health (IPH), although I'm not sure how many actually work for them - they are well funded and very organised so I'm happy to play them in a friendly.

We had a lot of last minute jiggery pokery getting to a side here. Parrish had a dog related mishap (the dog is well, I am told), Mailes had a child related mishap (his son is doing well), and Butler had a back related mishap. I'm guessing the latter injured his back whilst travelling on a train that was either late or cancelled or maybe even miniature, who knows. This meant late late callups for Ant, Felix and O Savage. The latter two spent the entire day playing for Cambridgeshire County under 16's, and won in a thriller by O Savage taking the last wicket, so you'd think they were cricketed out. You'd be wrong. They are young.

We elected this week to choose Sawyer as the Captain we wanted but didn't deserve, and he took to it with all the cheery happiness you might expect. He lost the toss, boo, and we were put in to bowl. We opened with B Savage and Liam (who went down as Brett Lee in the book!). Savage was tight and racy to start with, Brett took a short run up and gently worked his way into it, having spent some time playing golf recently.

The rest of this match report will, in the absence of a decent book or Play Cricket scorecard have to revolve entirely around the bits I can recall in a not particularly clean order.

Savage almost got a hat-trick in his little spell, having bowled extremely well, one caught by Brett Lee, one bowled off his pads, and the next one was under edged into Cattle's gloves but dropped, a tough tough chance, that unfortunately meant no hat-trick. The teenage sensation who played for IPH batted used this life to good effect, and was key in their being in contention in this game at all to be honest.

This IPH batter took to P Cooper like a pig to a muddy pond and hit some lovely shots on his way to a rapid 26*. Cooper didn't quite find his lines, but the batsman was sensational. The wicket was pretty solid again this week, groundsman doing his job.

Fraser came in twirling and erudite managed to get a stumped from Luke, very nice it was too rapid glove work, and a nice pleasing, "yeah" as it came.

Paul Cooper bowled one with a fine piece of captaincy related wicket action. A batsman clearly favoured the legside behind square, so Sawyer made a subtle shift of the field, this was noted and the batsman had to try and advance down the wicket to hit the next ball - Cooper saw this, changed his line and bowled him leg stump.

We did some bad fielding resulting in my telling the boys that this is serious midweek cricket, so they shouldn't feel they can play as badly as the current Histon sides. I then promptly fell over the next ball I tried to field, which probably enhanced the comedic value here.

I then bowled(!), hiding the ball behind my back and releasing it early and hoping it went the right sort of way. My figures aren't great, but some balls landed, I was hard to score off, and I helped effect a run out from their keen opening bat, with Fraser doing some sterling work behind square.

Sawyer then bowled and had an eventful bowling spell. Their batsmen set off for two, and one of them had just walked in and not faced a ball. He was run out going for an insane 2. We felt bad and it was a friendly, so we let him stay in to avoid the diamond duck. Sawyer was otherwise pretty solid. Sawyer bowled a ball that I was 100% sure was a no ball for height, the batsman clubbed it to Barker in the deep and we didn't celebrate. The square leg umpire was not involved as he was lying on the grass drinking a beer and chewing some snuff (hi Seb!), so we just agreed it was a no ball. It turns out to be another of the laws of cricket I do not understand as I was the only one on my team who thought it was a no ball. Sorry skip....

Sawyer got a wicket, clipped behind to Ant at point, a nice solid catch. Felix bowled some medium pace seam (!) and was surprisingly ok. This brought their young tyro back to the crease.

Luke said the returning batsman would again under edge it, and he did first ball. And again it was dropped. Luke was otherwise immaculate behind the stumps and wore several on his body for the good of the team. After some particularly good wicket keeping I tried saying Luke put the Cat in Cattle. It made me laugh, but not anyone else. Sometimes that is enough. Mostly in my case.

Savage returned and got the final wicket caught by Felix, who did his absolute best circus act at mid off catching and dropping it at least 4 times before snaffling it.

144-7 - we leaked a few runs at the end, but that did give us a total to go for.

Sawyer on his way to the game after hearing he was Captain

Barker and O Savage opened and Barker was absolutely on it from the off. He hit 18 from his first 6 balls, and retired on 28 from 13. He hit a reverse pull, two massive sweeps, and was just a maniac from the off. He clearly was annoyed he hadn't bowled! 

Ollie was also there, batting, much more, erm, sedately.

Barker retiring bough Ant to the crease. He had no kit and looked a little rusty and fell bowled leg stump trying to force the pace a bit. This brought Cattle out - without a bat as he had to take Ant's (which was actually Sawyer's) and he hit some masterful shots, a six deep in his crease, all timing to long off and a back foot punch to the offside that deserves to be framed and put on the wall in his downstairs loo.

Ollie was still there. I think he hit a single, and his running was more like ambling than running. Ever single he run it looked a bit like he was running in treacle.

Cattle fell to a crazy good grab, a thick meaty edged to backward point ish was taken masterfully, easily the catch of the night and he departed for 16.

Felix joined Ollie for a bit as the Cambridgeshire Cricket Under 16's resumed their antics from earlier in the day. Ollied finally decided to hit some shots and Felix did too. I should mention they were wearing all blue kit - so looked like those IPL fellas where none of the rest of us did.

Felix fell for 12 honestly noting he had edged to the keeper and he walked. I came out at 6 and Ollie then really hit a few, including a lovely pull to the leg side. I struggled a bit early on against legspin that actually turned, but eventually found a bit of range and hit some 4's and 2's on my way to 17.

Ollie retired on 26, Cooper joined me for a bit, it was very dark at this point and the IPH wonderkid was bowling, and guess what, he can bowl and bat. This seems unfair!

He almost got Paul, then he did get me with a plumbety plumb pudding of an LBW. I had taken the first two balls of his over for 4 and 2, so he was possibly angry. Cooper fell bowled I think to the same fella, and we had Captain Happy and Fraser Twirly Arms to finish things off.

In truth it was dark, tight and at 131-5 off 18 15 runs seemed a bit far away. However some good running, strike rotation and hilarity meant we got there. I recall Sawyer being LBW, but not given (thanks Seb!), he was out his crease, and because of the LBW drama, the wicket keeper literally forgot to stump him.

He duly used his life by monstering the biggest 6 anyone has ever seen at this ground, it landed somewhere near the car park (containing an Aston Martin no less) and was genuinely ridiculous and got us pretty much there. A fine ending partnership to seal the deal.

I need to mention Seb again, non playing, he lay down at square leg as umpire with beers and snuff for about 20/30 overs of the whole game just languidly enjoying proceedings. His only contribution was otherwise to fairly give me out.

Pub attendance was ace, Sawyer was chirpy and despite the availability challenges it was a nice evening in the end. 

Young'uns and and Old'uns

One of the many many nice things about the Jags - cricket, pizza, beers, attempts at chat - is the way it aligns young and old. We always have some under 18's with some guys in the 40's, and we all get along and have a laugh. I think of it as a way for the old to feel young and the young to get an insight into adult life, and probably realise that just because we're old, doesn't mean we have it all figured out or have any good chat or ability at sport and we're just as immature as when we were their age.

How old I currently feel...

It also allows some hilarity to occur. In the pub after our last game I was chatting to Joe and Felix and mentioned that one of the funny things about being older than they is that I have all these cultural reference points that mean absolutely nothing to them. The films, TV shows, albums and books of my youth are often completely unknown to those in their teens and twenties. 

I gave an example - X Files - easily a top 5 show from my youth. We all watched. Everyone had a crush on Scully. We all wanted to grow up join the FBI and find aliens. Anyone over 35. Joe and Felix looked bemused when I said, "X Files, we all watched it". Felix said, "what's that" and Joe said, "sounds like a crap sequel to Love Island". I could have died laughing then and there, whilst eating a lemon and chicken pizza, and been a happy man.

The kids are alright.

Killer Queens - Dynamite with a Laser Beam

Jags 181/5 (Cattle 51, Barker 44, Mailes 22, Nair 23-2) beat Cambourne Bombers 142/7 (Ashman 31, Nair 32, Mailes 18-2, Holmes 22-2, Brett 33-2) by 39 runs.

MOTM - Cattle/Barker/Mailes - I just couldn't choose.

Games against Cambourne we've had a lot of fun, but also tended to lose, in tight good natured affairs. The game last year we kept dropping the club captain (Hi, Freddie Meldal!) and he top scored and we lost. Catches win you something or other I've been told. This year I went at it with recruitment, and had in theory elicited the support of Mr Histon Overseas, Darren Butler. As an organiser when you get texts on the afternoon of the game, your heart sinks. And so it was this week. 

Butler texted me to say he couldn't make it owing to train issues between the unspecified location he was at and the place he was supposed to be. I checked Trainline, and I couldn't find a cancellation in the whole of the UK of any train, full size, miniature or otherwise. I debated calling National Rail, but opted against being on hold for an hour just to then ask, "are there any train problems anywhere in the UK"? Kav also cancelled owing to his culinary exploits, this week was a pizza place he wanted to try which is apparently rather good. We literally play at Queens most week down the road from a pub that specialises in pizza, but whatever Trevor.

I managed to recruit Joe Swinton and Felix joined us so we would have to play with 10, or would we.... Barker turned up not in the XI just to say hi, then saw we were short so jumped in his car and safely and carefully drove home to get his kit and join the action against Cambourne. 

Cattle and Mailes opened again and it was absolutely carnage from the off. Cattle hit 3 4's in the first over and generally looked again like a man who knows which end of the bat to hold. Not to be outdone, Mailes hit 3 4's from the first over he faced and both continued at a clip, with the trademark offside punch he does so well, and the hitting it late but with brutish power. Cattle hit a 4 then a 6 and the six was a bit of a, what did I just see. Straight bat, perfect timing, straight back over the bowler's head for 6 with all the fielders just watching it sail onwards and upwards.

Queen - We are the Champions (maybe)

Mailes fell edging behind for a rapid 22 off 18. Tilda Swinton joined the fray and played a late cut 4 first ball to show Cattle that he also knows which parts of the bat do what. Cattle perished just after getting to a ridiculous 50 off 21 balls, bowled to one that kept a little low. 

A word for the pitch this week, which was really quite good. I don't know how the groundsman does it in this weather, but he had served up a blinder this week, carry and pace and nice bounce. Gorgeous. A word as well for Holmes, Parrish, Brett and Threadgold who are playing golf for a few days after this game, so chose not to put too much effort in tonight. Dan brought his son, Charlie, to spectate. Lovely little boy he is; future Jag I hope.

Felix joined Joe for a bit and hit some gorgeous little shots. A punchy 4 to the on side sticks in the mind. 90-2 from 10 and again, big total in the offing. We had some pictures shared from the Savage clan, down in the big smoke with some of the pro cricketing to watch.

Tilda fell trying to force the pace and was bowled. Barker then strolled out, imperiously and set straight about his task with vim and vigour, taking a like to Gadsby and got his trademark slog sweep more than once. He and Felix put on a nice partnership, and Felix was unlucky to fall bowled to a quicker one that moved in through the air and then gripped the seam and moved in some more. Barker kept at it - scoring all round and engaging in some banter with his Cambourne brethren before falling bowled for 44 off 29. I went out for a bit with Piers, and faced some really odd bowling - offspin in theory but mostly just all over the place. Piers cut one Chinese style for 4 and we got to the end of the innings clearing 180 again, which was nice. 

It had been a slow evening, so pizza was in peril. Cattle mentioned he fancied keeping, so he did.

Brett got us going at one end, and was hit for a couple of nice looking 4's. Holmes then had a funny start (much better than last week). Left arm over the wicket to a right hander so the batsman insisted on the sight screen being moved. This took 2-3 minutes. Then he was clean bowled first ball....The other opener fell to Brett, caught nicely by Mailes.

Jake and Brett carried on - Brett getting hammered a bit in one over, before saving a ball for the end. Matt was really protecting his golfing weekend at this point, putting himself nice and deep, and not chasing anything too hard. Jake was bowling like a secret weapon, super hard to score from. 

Barker got the next, again caught by Mailes - who was everywhere tonight and but for the Cattle 50 and the Barker effort would have been an absolute shoo in for solo man of the match. A word for Cattle behind the stumps as well who was smooth and deliberate in every movement. Jakey got the next with an absolutely mega weekend quality ball, bowled top of top of middle with verve and movement and some panache. Hats off Sherlock.

I had been exhorting people to win the chat of the day award, but people were too focused on the crickety things. Durrani of Cambourne strolled out and he used to have a Gopro TikTok channel thing where he streamed him facing balls. He has stopped all that stuff. This prompted his batting partner to put up the best chat of the night with a comment that, "without his GoPro, his centre of balance is off, so if he falls over, that's why". Should have bought that man a pint. 

Mailes bowled nice and got Mr Durrani caught and bowled. Swinton was in slips to protect a groin injury and not be in the game too much, but somehow ever other ball seemed to come his way. Fraser got his full complement of overs, and was again bowling well, but it is also somewhere between cricket and interpretive dance. One batsman liked him a bit, but it was just late in the game swinging. Mailes got the next with the ball chipped up to me at mid off, nice and easy little catch that. I also slid around in the field, as I love pretending to be Jonty Rhodes.

Brett got the last, bowled with a beauty and the game long since lost. There was some Sherlock Holmes chat, which didn't quite land - and Barker bowled well at the death.

Pub attendance was good, we ordered badly and ended up with 9 pizza - but finished them all. Mr Ollie Hind - he of the 3 children under 3 - even joined for a beer and a pizza, which was nice.

 

In place of our first ever overseas player we still had Fraser, our foreign exchange student from France. 

Debutants Down Ditton

Jags 182/4 (Wilson 51*, Parrish 50*, Harding 18-1) beat Fen Ditton 119/5 (Gardner 25, Sethu 28, F Christie 5-1) by 63 Runs

MOTM - Wilson

Last week we had our first ever game cancelled owing to player availability. I must confess this left me down in the dumps a bit - it was almost entirely down to the England Kickball and people wanting to see if we could win da ting, but 17 seasons was a long streak to never have to have called off a game for anything other than weather. I think the lads and the wider network sensed my disappointment as there was a good solid push for availability this week and the chaps came through in fine style, with a big total, two debuts, nice weather and Fen Ditton as opposition doing a nice generally nice job.

I was glad we were at Queens, notwithstanding that it has not played that true this year owing to the heatwaves we've had. I both like and don't like playing at Fen Ditton. I don't like the ground as it slopes downhill at an alarming rate that is more akin to a decent red run in ski season, it has a random cemetary in one corner, and every single corner of the ground seems to be a place you can lose a ball if it crossed the boundary. However it is next to the Plough in Fen Ditton which is a beautiful pub in which to imbibe a riverside pint. 

We lost the toss and were generously put into by the Fen Ditton midweek skipper perhaps sensing that we had some runs in us.

Fen Ditton - Spooky

Cattle and Mailes started really well with Cattle spanking an early 4 and Mailes into his stride with some very punch offside action quite early on. The pace was rapido to start on the scoring front and this new opening partnership had a blast. Mailes got to 18 off 12 balls before he got Savaged - Ben giving him out LBW. Mailes was low, not bat involved, he was deep in his crease, and from my position of square leg umpire, it looked plumber than pudding - but Mailes looked annoyed anyway at being giving out by Mr Trigger Finger.

Cattle was joined by the other new boy J Wilson, and he quickly oozed class. These two kept up some rapid pace with a whipped 4 behind square, a late cut 4 and Cattle hit an actual honest to goodness cover drive for 3. He fell caught and bowled through one a little quickly that probably stuck in the pitch as they all do at the moment. 

Mr "Pinch Hitter" Baker was in at 4 and hammered two 4's from the first two balls he faced, both to long on, looking in a rush to his 16. Mr Wilson, I'm fairly sure looked him up and down and said, "ah, this is the sort of cricket we're playing" and started to realise it was fun time at the Queens College Corral. 

He then unfurled a whipped backward square 6, a straight as an arrow 4, and absolutely positively looked like the gunniest batsman in his family on his way to 51* from 31 balls. He also hit a 4 that was surely a 6 on pretty much every ground in the land. Except this one. And it was in the air for, let's say 10 or 15 seconds before it fell to earth. 

Baker fell chipping it back to the bowler bringing Parrish out. He's had his steroid injections to fix his troublesome hand, and boy did it show. With no helmet, and taking advantage of the right arm around bowler to basically stand like a baseball player as LBW was out the picture, he took at it. He even hit the worst 6 you will ever see - cross batted, straight back over the bowler's head, but only just, and flat all the way to the boundary. He's been down the gym I reckon. Mr Wilson finished with 4 consecutive 4's and then decided to retire, allowing Fraser to jog out for a bit.

Sawyer and Holmes very kindly turned up before the first innings was over. Thanks gents. 

I also need to mention that their keeper was wearing running shorts and the fielding was a little on the generous side. Parrish continued to do the business, although he did run Fraser out late in the game then himself chose to retire on 50. Savage was still umpiring and caught some shade for texting the WhatsApp group whilst umpiring.

The last few balls were therefore left to Sawyer and myself. We found some runs where runs perhaps should not exist. I managed to run a single, I was really quite proud of this, hitting it straight back to the bowler, who turned round and threw the ball away from the stumps allowing us to sneak on through despite the ball not having left the the square. 182-4. Big numbers again.

Brett and Holmes got us going with Mailes behind the stumps for the funsies. Holmes started bowling like a man who had never played cricket before, and finishing bowling like a man who in fact does know how to play cricket. I will also suggest that Matt's chat of the day here was quite apt. After his first over went for 13 runs, Matt said, "Maybe you could put away the tactical bouncer and deploy the tactical yorker next over". Holmes had a look like a man who was not amused. Brett started good and stayed good, Holmes just got back to normal after an opening over that was curious.

Brett castled one opener with one that did some things. Baller things. Mailes was usefully adept behind the stumps and was clearly enjoying himself doing it. Holmes went wicketless, but his last two overs were as clean as you will see in this form of middling cricket. Wilson bowled, and Cattle did after telling everyone he was more of a wicket keeper. Wilson caught and bowled one I think, the Play Cricket scorebook is a bit ambiguous on most points here as it didn't recognise Wilson or Cattle and my timing in writing this is slightly off and I've slightly forgotten. Cattle I'm pretty sure caught and bowled one too. Again, hard to read. They did goodly stuff though. Both of them.

Benjamin Savage his his thing from his favourite end, very tidy and hard to score from, but bowling later in the game than is customary. He eventually bowled one with his rage ball, the one where he has not somehow got wickets for a few balls when he clearly deserved them, so he gets angry and picks on the weakest batsman and almost knocked him over.

Sawyer bowled and erm it was a lot. I think he bowls legspin, but it was mostly what-da-heck-is-dat. Good balls and absolutely head height garbage. 

At this point Matt heard the latest nickname for Sawyer, "Baby Guinness" for the first time and couldn't stop laughing. The chat is here every week buddy, just keep turning up.

Fraser then came into to finish things with, as Sawyer said it, the skip-eagle-trigger-shuffle-bowling action. It was very effective, and he saw one caught by Sawyer taking a tough high one at mid/long off sort of spot.

It was a little one sided but fun - when you put that many on the board it's hard to know where to go as the second side. You need at least one of your openers to go all Chris Gayle on it.

Pub attendance was amazing, we made pizza just in time and both new boys realised early doors that pub attendance is important - so we hope they wish to come back again.

Dobblered

Jags 175/7 - (Parrish 77, Brett 23*, Barker 20, Aman 28-2) beat Dobblers 125-7 (Hema 55, MacGregor 33*, B Savage 7-3) by 50 runs

MOTM - Parrish (with an honorable mention to Ben Savage)

We've had a fair few lovely games with Dobblers over the years, most notably when Sam was the organiser. They're a proper pub team, with their opening batsman taking this particularly seriously by having two pints before the game (and still hitting some runs), and their assembled fans smoking rollies and drinking warm beers on a picnic table whilst watching. This week was Queens and owing to a late medical drama, we were ten as Holmes couldn't make it. Frantic texts and calls to all corners didn't help, so 10 it was. What a 10 mind.

Matt won the toss and batted and he opened with Barker. Both got us going at quite a lick, with James whipping a nice legside 4 and a lovely over the top one as well that I can recall. The pitch was spongey and slow, like it had been watered way too much quite recently. Barker eventually perished as a direct result of this, hitting through a ball way too early and it went high into the offside ring.

I think maybe this is more my game in my advancing years

I joined Matt for a bit and continue to look as scratchy as a cat with blunt claws. I got a couple of dangerous singles, a terrible 2 that should have been caught and then hit my one and only genuine cricket shot of the last few games, a straight defensive covering off stump that somehow I edged through to the keeper with a feather touch. A genuine first for me being caught by a keeper off an edge. At this point I think I need to just stop the old brain thinking and start doing some hitting.

Threadgold joined Matt in an old school Jags partnership, and there was some top quality running between the wickets, Matt into his stride and then looking in great nick despite his recent medical maladies. The ability of these gents to turn 1's into 2's and 2's into 3's is quite a sight to behold. Good running at this stage easily added 10/12 or so to our final score.

Seeing Parrish back in full flow is a joy to behold, and one wallop back over the bowler's head for a once bounce 4 was particularly lovely to watch.

I made a comment in the chat at this point that scoring was slow. It wasn't in truth, but scoring off the bat was in some overs - mainly as several balls were so wide you couldn't have hit them with go go gadget arms. Mr Extras had a great week again; always a strong candidate for Jag of the season. Matt took some offence at me suggesting scoring was slow when we convened in the pub - which, for the record, is fair. I have to put words in the chat though otherwise how can our legions of committed followers who hang on my every word...

Dan hit a couple of punchy 4's, and both continued to set feats of athleticism, with their pushing the run rate at pace, causing errors in the field in the process. Dan perished chipping it back to the bowler, and Matt was joined by Piers and around about then he got a well deserved 50. He even let more loose, hitting 3 consecutive 4's, taking on some water, and eventually fell, bowled.

Brett and Piers were then in the middle for a bit, another old school partnership with Jagex player support vibes all over it. Piers was doing his best Fardell impression at times, although he did hit one straight through the bowler that didn't go for 4 for reasons I cannot quite understand. Brett's third ball he hammered it for 6 - straight over the bowler and into the trees. It went so high it hurt the Earth where it landed. 

Brett was keen to take the Sawyer role here - hitting it this way and that away with no defence in sight - on his was to 23 from 9 balls. The pitch continued to be a marvel, and Piers fell last over - hitting it quite hard back at the bowler who made a good catch. If he hadn't have made the catch his nose would have been broken/McSmashed, so sad as I was to see Piers out, I'm glad no serious injuries happened. More tobacco smells filled the air and the assembled Dobblers had got the pork piers out - it was a rare old day.

Cooper did his bit for the team, edging one, and then ran himself out pushing for the second. Brett hit a couple wristy 4's once Ollie gave him the strike and was run out last ball giving up on the 3rd run. 175/7 is another big score.

Half time refreshment, Dobbler's style.

We only had ten so there was a gap in the field, but when you open with two Savages bowling, it scarcely matters. We also had the wonderful sight of Barker behind the stumps with his finest furry brimmed hat on - taking the mantle of best hat of the week from the absent Holmes.

Ben opened with firesome force, left arm over can be a tricky action to face, and he was hitting his straps and bowling some genuine weekend cricketer stuff, only conceding 1 off his first over. At the other end, Ollie was doing a very long run up, but not bowling at quite the pace the run up suggested he was going to deliver, and conceded an early legside wide to one that did quite a lot.

The 5th over, Ben's third, was the Action Jackson of the piece. One of the openers was desperately unlucky to fall to one that hit the ground on a good length around leg, then bounced precisely 2 centimetres from the ground and hit the stumps, poor chap. A couple of balls later there was an all action run out - the batsman tipped it to the legside and pushed for a non-existent run. I picked it up quite casually and then threw it sort of in the direction of the keeper's end, close ish - but not too close, so Barker had to do some work (lazy students!), and he broke the stumps with the man well short of his ground. The batsman was livid for some reason, and threw his bat away in disgust. Ben had two balls to go and the first castled their skipper, decent length, awful awful attempt at a shot, and middle and off stump were discombobulated. The final one was an absolute terror of a ball, the batsman pressed forward and tried a really quite nice looking forward defensive on most of his off stump, but the ball hit a good length on middle, weaved slightly past the bat and kissed the top of off. It wouldn't have looked out of place in an Onyx 1 game.

A Jags team hat trick and Ben on a hat trick himself next ball! This was the over that did the business.

Ollie continued, wicketless and Ben did a fine act of jug avoidance, but his last over was a maiden to leave him with some pretty stonking figures of 4-1-7-3 and just the two wides to blot the copybook. On another day he would have been an easy MOTM contender and certainly merits a mention.

On this day, our favourite Savage was clearly Mr Benjamin Savage.

Ollie got carted about a bit in his last over. We were then treated to Mr French cricket, Fraser Christie, bowling taking over from Ben. It was beautiful to watch from the side, but the batsman also thought it was rather lovely and cashed in on some wayward lengths. Brett, our favourite second change bowler, took over from Ollie. The 2 beer deep batsman was delighted not to have to face any Savages anymore and hit a couple of 4's, one of which I probably could have stopped, but I just sort of stood there and watched it go. I made up for it next ball by running and sliding for the cameras. Fraser continued, and the batsman got to his 50 from some more variable length stuff.

The next wicket to fall as the self same batsman, having played well it must be said, Ollie made an absolutely lovely catch at long on from Liam's bowling. It was one of those where it looked great, but you sort of wonder if it looked great because he made hard work of it by running the wrong way and then the right way and then snaffling it. The sun was low in the sky so I cannot 100% tell.

Cooper did some excellent economic bowling, chirp was solid, and Mr Metronome himself kept joining those dots. The chat started turning to pizza - and would we get to the pub in time to order it, and one of the batsmen clearly heard this and decided to re-check is guard and do some mild gardening between every ball.

Piers did a good Fardell inspired sliding fielding thing on the boundary, Matt set some great fields and was in on the action at long on a few times, and Piers Morgan came to bowl near the death with the game truly unwinnable for Dobblers long long ago at this point. Piers was a bit all over the shop, which was quite funny and at this level often helps get wickets. There was a quite funny exchange where he bowled a wide, Barker showed him the gloves and said, "bowl it at the gloves", and I said, "it's the only way it's getting near them". 

The batsman continued his between balls ritual - he must really fucking hate Pizza, us or both, and Cooper got a run out, with Pier and Barker combining more successfully to get the job done. 

Piers finished us up with an ok over, and got a wicket last ball with a stumping when the batsman danced out of his crease to hit runs in a lost cause.

There was excellent pub attendance and we just made it in time for food (Hoorah!). They do a student special, beer and a pizza for a tenner, but give the students a mini pizza (which I found quite amusing), so those of us who had ordered full size ones ended up sharing it with the ravenous teenagers in our midst. 

There was some excellent chat about Histon players that have left, and a really good conversation about how drink driving is really bad, but used to be regarded as totally fine.

Slam Dunk da Monk

IPH 117/3 (Thed 25*, Pavan 25*, D'Silva 25*, Holmes 2-28) beat Jags 116/6 (Muzzah 58*, Brett 19, Parrish 15) by 7 wickets.

MOTM - Muzzah

The scorebook is an absolute mess and ergo cannot be relied upon for the basics so this is a best efforts abbreviated match report. 

England were playing the Democratic Republic of Congo in a World Cup knockout fixture and availability of the players was therefore somewhat limited. There is something about any nation that has a name like, "Democratic Republic" that suggests to me a chequered past or present, it's got a weird nominative affirmative quality to it, like the country is trying to scream to the world not-at-all-convincingly that it is absolutely definitely democratic and totally legit or something. Having said that, I know not an awful lot of about DR Congo (other than that they played some pretty good kickball against England by all accounts) and that the full name of our nation is the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" which in these times, you could really pick apart just as easily.... 

Anyway enough politics/random stuff that's in my head. This team are called IPH, but I think it's one of the many guises that the Old Monks go under, a team of travelling cricket afficionados who play well wherever they go and seem to have an endless rolodex of good cricketers. Owing to the football we had 8 players scraped together, and were pleased just to get a game on at the the lovely Queens. Matt was back from Chicago and fresh off a steroid injection was ready to skipper and bat again. Hoorah. I ended up opening with Brett mainly as I had some kit on around the start point, and lasted 4 balls - three prodigious away swingers were followed by a straight in swinger that pinned me absolutely plumb LBW. I'm no longer good at cricket, if I ever was, but I've also had the misfortune to face mostly good accurate at the stumps bowling in all the 50 odd balls I've faced this year - and as is often the case with cricket, the gods are for you or against you at any given point, and there is nothing you can do about it. Perhaps that is why this particular group use a religious theme; hoping to curate the favour of the cricket gods.

Holy Rollers?

Brett and Parrish got down to business, it was nice to see the skipper back and bits I recall where a cover drivey type shot and Brett hitting it high repeatedly using a combination of golf and cricket in equal measure. Having plundered 10 from an over, Brett continued to go hard and lofted one to the offside that was snaffled. Parrish kept going, with Dale, who I think was caught and Jake was then bowled, bringing Muzzah to the crease and lowly number 6, mainly as his dad had turned up without his kit so he had to bat lower down. Scoring picked up at this point, a late cut, lovely pull and some classic Parrish biffing got the game going. Parrish eventually fell caught high ish for 15, but it was nice to see him doing the business again in any form. Muzzah had to retire on 29* (to return later), and Dan was out for a bit before being bowled right arm around. 

Speaking of which we had a lot of weird bowling here - left arm round, right arm round, and one guy who bowled left arm round and right arm round in the same over... Oz joined proceedings for a bit with his son, who got 50 and then Oz was bowled. The skipper of the opposition graciously allowed us to have one of more terrible batsmen come back in to give them a total to bat towards and Holmes followed up his 0 with 14. Muzzah cruised to 50, all class and no cabbage, and his 50 celebration coincided with Harry Kane scoring for England.

116/6 was never going to be enough on a spongey wicket against a team almost exclusively comprised of cricketers, and given we would have a very gappy field with 8, there would be runs scored with ease.

We started well with Brett and Dale doing really nice things and the batsmen playing and missing or defending mostly. Dale did his best Morgan Yaxley impression and Muzzah behind the stumps was absolute butter with the gloves, standing up and taking fast stuff easily. Jake did some bowling, there was some chat, Harry Kane scored to defeat an impoverished and war torn African nation in the kickball, and we just enjoyed basically riffing off each other and bantering in the a field on a Wednesday evening. Holmes with his pink hat, Matt chuntering away and ranking my chat between "Phillips" and "actually quite funny" depending what inane chatter I came up with lately. Wickets didn't fall and they took their time against a modest total, but we honestly couldn't care less. 

Oz bowled, and owing to "excessive late spin" according to the umpire, he had a couple of wides given and gave the umpire a few pieces of his mind.

Then Barker arrived and things suddenly livened up. He was dressed in non-cricket attire having umpired or scored at some sort of professional game involved Essex Ladies, but somehow had his spikes to hand, and came on to bowl, getting a wicket first ball LBW. Holmes then got one, chipped high and caught in the ring by Mr Parrish (who honestly made it look like a worldy purely by massively misjudging it), and he got another skied to I think Barker himself - the effervescent Lassie turning up and make the game all fun and exciting all of a sudden. It might have been Parrish, who knows, I'm giving it to Barker for giving us a flourish of a finish.

Parrish finished off the bowling - a true sight to behold, and the umpire did not want to give the extras that his wayward bowling merited as that is a bad way to finish a game. I was briefly warmed up to have a bowl, but the skipper thought better of it - better not take the piss eh chaps.

In the end, they got there, but we didn't care. A makeshift 8/9 had played the full 40 overs, done some cricketing things, and definitively won the banter battle. The sensible finish time meant we retired to the Red Bull, had pizza and beer and Oz told me how he'd used to get drunk in my garden when the previous owners were then the current owners, and there had been a secret back gate that no longer exists. Different times.

Playing Cricket on the Sun

Jags 184/5 (Sawyer 65, Rawlings 36, Day 26, Vemula 21-2) beat Telugu Tac 142/10 (Vemula 54, Shimpi 28, P Cooper 6-20) by 42 Runs.

MOTM - Bloody Hell - P Cooper (Sawyer too I guess).

So this game had a lot - and I'm not entirely sure where I start to be honest. It was back at Queens though which is just such a welcome return to our happy place.

Let's go with the weather. It was insanely hot this week, like record breaking, global warming is clearly winning, we're all melting, type hot. Records, broken, people dying, grounds cracking up like the grand canyon, hot. The groundsman even called me during the day to ask if I wanted to go ahead as it would be North of 30c at 7pm. I have had many a fully organised game called off for rain, but never in my 17 seasons of organising midweek cricket has anyone ever tried to call off a game because the weather was too nice. I said, stuff that, we'll play and do hydration breaks or something. So we did.

How most of the week has felt

A full XI was secured late in the day as Felix had annoyed his parents by playing golf and ignoring their calls, but happened to be playing golf with Mr Rawlings, who stepped in. I had to bring two of the three and all their kit bags and my own in a Kia Sportage, so it was a bit of a tight fit and I couldn't see out of most of the windows. We got there in one piece.

I could see fine, Officer

When I turned up to play Telugu TAC, a team with a Sri Lankan connection, I told their assembled players we all needed to be careful and drink plenty of water and be mindful of the heat as the groundsman was concerned. One of them laughed at me and said, "we'll be fine mate, but you better be careful". Entirely fair, given my Irish heritage.

We welcomed back some most familiar faces in addition to the new boy Rawlings. The man the legend Jake Holmes, fresh from a month in San Diego - I'm told it is because he was hanging out with his better half and not because he was detained by ICE. Also, Mr Benjamin Savage back from the University of wherever-the-f&*k, and he took skippering duties, natural leader that he is. We were grateful to Mr Barker for scoring again. 

Benjy won the toss and elected to bat (Freddie - lesson number 1), and Muzzah and Felix opened us up. Bowling was tight and challenging to start with, but the boys got going anyway, 10 off the first over and shots I recall were a Muzzah offside lofted drive, Felix hitting a genuine late cut 4 and a straight driven 2 that was so pretty you could hang it in the downstairs toilet, and a partnership quickly formed, with them putting on 49 in the first 5 overs. Felix fell LBW to one that was going to hit the stumps (Freddie - lesson number 2) given by Mr Fairness, Ben Savage. Muzzah agreed, and himself continued batting with aplomb joined by new boy Seth Rawlings. A pulled four to square and an on drive that I recall were both very good shots from Mr Christie, before he perished bowled by one where the bounce was a bit deceptive. 

This bought Sawyer to the crease with Rawlings for what turned into a mega partnership of 116 runs. Were there shots, man were there shots - Seth sent one straight back over the bowler's head for 4, and was the earlier scoring of the two, with Sawyer finding his stride with an early clipped four to the on side. Some mega overs happened, with Sawyer favouring the leg side and Seth favouring most of the off side, although Sawyer also managed a whipped 6, a square 6 and an off drive for four that deserves a medal and a street to be named after it. We took a drinks break and Sawyer was at this point 3 pounds lighter than at the start of his innings. At one point he hit a 4, 2, 6, and then next over hit a 6, 4 plus 2 no ball and 6 to rapidly accelerate things and in the process bring up his 5. Rawlings, not to be outdone hit a wonderful late cut for four. Sawyer perished going big on the offside for a brilliant 65, a proper innings and easily the man of the match for the moment. MOTM number 1. He even kindly offered the weaker bowler some post out advice.

This brought me out, I gave Sawyer a hug and briefly talked to Seth. Seth said:

"He's banging it, just shouldering it, so just keep out the zingers and bang the dingers." 

I genuinely have no idea what any of this meant, is it a TikTok thing?! Then I recognised the bowler who has got me twice before, bowled, one a first baller, so I knew what the narrative was supposed to be. He bowled a fast straight that hit top of off first ball, and there I was, golden duck, or GD as we are calling it this week. I console myself with the bat and ball having been in close proximity, if never quite troubling each other.

Nath went out and played well with Seth, before a chancy 2 found Seth short of his ground run out for a well made 36 at a prodigious strike rate. Holmes rolled out to join Nate, and the last over was a lot, 4 wides, some mental running, one dot ball and crucially the last ball of the innings went for an all run 4 courtesy of at least two terrible mis-fields that I can remember - and the wicket keeper, with Holmes 2 meters short and the ball in his gloves next to the stumps, somehow failed to remember what sport he was playing and what his role in that sport was a that precise moment. It was all a bit much.

The bowling, in the most, was actually pretty good, some of it excellent, and one of their fielders was insanely good, rapid in the outfield and with a strong arm. They took quite a lot of time on fielding changes, and honestly made the field quite confusing looking at times. They also had a fielder with mobility issues, and kept moving him to really-quite-likely-to-be-involved fielding positions, which helped push the total up. Cheers fellas.

I haven't checked the club library yet, but I'm fairly sure our previous highest was 183 against S-Tech, so this game brings a new club record for midweek.

It was still bloody hot.

We opened the bowling with Brett, and a theme of the night began to emerge early. He conceded a few runs then bowled one top of middle stumps, fast, but not deviating much. With a humungous total in prospect, batsman 2 had decided to swing for the hills and was bowled, then looked at the wicket as if it had done some demon magic and he'd been undone by the grass or ground. It hadn't, played true all night. Savage took the ball at the other end and bowled the next batsman leg stump, mainly as he took a guard two stumps outside off. He also looked incredulous, like taking that guard to a left arm over the wicket seamer was a sure fire safety first approach, and something voodoo like must have happened to the ball that bowled him. Fella, bad guard, bowled at stumps, you missed it ergo... out.

Brett continued and had our first mildly amusing, but still not cricket, cheat of the evening. A straight drive to Savage on the boundary, he fielded really well to keep it to 2, and tossed it back in. The square leg umpire just said, "well he hit the flag", asked Ben if he did, Ben said no (he's very honest), and the umpire said, "yes he did" and just signalled 4 anyway.... It felt like it was just them trying to find runs from anyone, including their own umpires, to get them close. In short, it felt a bit cheaty. Boo to that. Cheating incident number 1.

Watch out Ben, it's coming straight for you.

The banter in the field was good, Sawyer focussing on the Baby Guinness theme, and Holmes was resplendent wearing his finest inclusive LGBTQI pink hat. The "you hit the flag" theme then dominated the evening's banger. Baker bowled an eventful over, with Muzzah behind the stumps demonstrating his fine ability to take it down the legside when "frequently" required to do so.

Then entered Paul Cooper. We had 2 5-fors in our history prior to this week, after this spell we had one more that also doubled as our first 6-for. He started economic as always, and then got one that ended up in the keeper's gloves (I cannot recall if it was an edge or something else). A dot followed and then Paul bowled one more batsman middle of middle stump, and I think this guy also looked absolutely dumb-founded that he had swung at a straight ball, missed it and then it had somehow hit middle stump halfway up. Cooper then bowled to the next fella, he tickled one to square leg, and I took the kind offer to participate in the game, albeit briefly, by catching it. End of the over, so Paul's first ball of his next over would be a hat trick chance. Baker bowled a slightly tidier less leg side over to keep us waiting for the drama.

Then Paul is on the hat trick. The whole team duly came in, to field short. However, Paul knows how much jugs cost at the Red Bull nowadays, so let the guy hit a 4 off his first ball. Jug avoidance incident number 1.

At this point I remember vaguely Sawyer losing one over his shoulder, and screaming that he'd missed it as it was coming down (when he might still have made it). I had a chat about nicknames with him where he said how about Red Stripe as a new nickname, I turned it down as Red Stripe is not a nice beer, and Sawyer deserves better as he is a nice man. I was quite proud of that. Holmes did some excellent fielding, as did Felix, Savage, Seth and Nate. I tried doing commando rolls when fielding the ball just for the giggles. They were at 73/5 from 9 complete 8 ball overs.

The rate was climbing but they hadn't given up completely. When Nate switched in for Baker, then they had their chance. Nate didn't bowl particularly badly, but Vermula was on it, pulling to square, walloping to cow and he had those bloodshot scary eyes of a man who was locked in like Maverick in Top Gun, or someone who had taken some illicit substances recently.

Holmes took over from Cooper, and was wayward for his first ball, but he found his range and bowled one of their fellas, leg ish side, and this was yet another batsman who looked quite confused that a straight ball bowled at his stumps that he missed, would then hit them. Witchcraft. Nate's next over was exciting, again, pitching him in a one sided battle versus Vermula again, who hit one monster six in particular. Holmes' next over he gave Vermula some wayward bowling and the bat cashed in, racing to his 50. I dropped him mind, a slightly tough chance as I had to run round the unhelpful square leg umpire to try and get it. There was controversial incident here as the set batsman ran 2 in the 13th over and was clearly a long, long way out of his ground, but the same square leg umpire did not give it. At this point they needed 60 from about 20 balls so it was going to make literally no difference, but they didn't give it anyway. I say boo. Cheating incident number 2.

Sav took the second to last over, and with 55 needed from 16 it was all but settled. The batsman who was not Vermula was the man of the flag incident, and accordingly every appeal, shout, comment or otherwise, including an LBW appeal was followed by a comment of "he touched the flag". He was eventually run out pushing hard in a lost cause and had to return to the boundary to find what a flag actually looked like. 

The fielding for this was really quite something; it moved Liam to emotion. Running for 2 the flag guy was maybe 1 meter short of his ground when the ball got to Benjy about two feet from the stumps. He had 1 stump to aim at, but could have trotted in and removed them with ease, but instead he chose to throw the stumps down in a combined act of contempt, disgust and revenge. Jake almost had a heart attack and said, "what are you doing!". Ben seemed pleased with having given into the emotion of the moment. He doesn't like cheating.

Last over duties fell to Mr Cooper and it was a lot. We were tired and hot and wanted pizza, but it was probably too late for pizza and he still wanted to keep us entertained.4 balls of moderate things happened. He then bowled their star batsman (giving a gutsy roar to celebrate), I think it was middle and off. He then got one LBW with the largest appeal I've ever seen from a man in his mid 40's playing midweek cricket. It was definitely out and the umpire was moved; possibly by his team having cheated before. Hat trick chance number 2. Paul bowled a dot of course, but then got the same man with the last ball of the innings LBW, again, big appeal, plum as pudding and the umpire had the good grace to give it leaving Paul with 6 wickets for the first time ever in a Jags match, but also a carefully crafted jug avoidance incident number 2 combined with MOTM number 2.

The vibes this week were absolutely mega, pink hats, flag chat, Sawyer doing Sawyer things all evening long, even the young ones got in on it. Telugu TAC brought a throng of spectators, and were a strong team, nice to play, a little bit of minor cheating, but in the end they finished with good grace. Cooper setting a new club record was a high spot. It was just absolutely everything you want as an organiser. If anyone involved didn't enjoy their evening, then they need serious professional help.

It was late and I had to drive two lads and 4 bags home, and the suspension on my car shall never be the same again, and given the lack of pizzas, it was Sawyer and Savage date night at the pub only - which felt like a shame given the result. On many a night this would have seen all XI fit and present and chatting away.