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.
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