Jags 154-6 (Murray 46, Kav 27, Meldal 27, Oliver 2-20) beat the Leys School 152-6 (Oliver 31, Shipp 29, Baines 2-17) by 4 wickets
MOTM - Baines
This is one of my favourite fixtures of this or any season, no matter what befalls me or the team. They're a lovely bunch, the Latham Road fields and some pints at the Panton afterwards, a personal favourite of mine.
I fell short last year in reporting on matches, so this will be more of a cliff notes of things I remembered from the evening, rather than a full blooded match report.
Leys "won" the toss and opted to bat, and were still scraping together players after the game had started. One turned up on one of those rented scooters whilst vaping - and he turned out to be a nice chap - but his entrance visually screamed, "not a nice chap" to those of certain vintage.
Matt had a brief pre match chat with Tyler about how he needed to keep his temper in check, and Tyler responded, "I've addressed my anger issues". Righty ho, matey.
The pitch was, unusually, a bit of a mess. Toby Purton and Ollie Savage opened the bowling. Ollie got a wicket to mid on (me), I caught it and fractured my finger in the process as confirmed by those lovely people at Addenbrookes. I caught it though, and it probably won't make much difference to my batting.
Tyler managed to turn an easy caught into a six by tipping it over the rope and, admirably, kept his cool to all the abuse he received. When he let a 4 through pretty much next ball, he took some more abuse than then, old Mr Angry was back in play - effing and jeffing and generally shouting abuse.
Parrish had a bowl and got one caught, Baines took it at the second attempt with an outrageously choreographed grab in the ring somewhere. It looked like he had fucked it, but in fact he was just putting his marker down early for his MOTM award.
Fielders were proper casual (we sensed this was one of those friendly sort of games) so runs weren't hard to pick up.
Baines took the ball and bowled one, I think it was good, but I didn't take any notes so let's just all agree it was really good, a ripper no less. Off stump cartwheeling, children coohing, that sort of thing.
The vaper came on and his partner had brought his wife and 4 year old son to watch. They were treated to a partnership with dad doing a nice job of rolling back the years, and the other guy looking mental - hitting a crazy 6 first up. Kav bowled, very generously re-setting the field after the 6 to, "let him have some fun".
Phillips did some very good fielding in the ring - and was rewarded with an over or two. He bowled one, Baines bowled one and Jake Holmes saw off the big hitting scooting vaping man - who is a young teacher at the school so has to address all his colleague as sir, and pretend he is still sitting his GCSEs. Ah, the japes of private school life - no knife crime or teenage pregnancy to be seen here.
I should mention that Tyler caught the last wicket, Baines fielded very well, and the Leys posted a respectable 152.
I should add that Oz Christie kindly offered to score the game - and was wearing some sort of polar explorer gear on a bench in the freezing cold as it is early in the season and he is old so gets cold easily.
I opened the batting with Murray Christie - which in and of itself feels like a future pub quiz question - "Who is the worst batsman Ashes winning England Captain Sir Murray Christie has ever opened the batting with...".
Perhaps mindful of his elated status I tried to run him out early, tipping one to backward point and then setting off hardly calling, probably as it wasn't my call. He made it safely home, I would have been about 10 yards short.
He played some lovely shots, a late cut and a tickled 4 to the legside stuck in the mind, as well as a square pull of some class. I managed to get the ball and my bat to occasionally connect with each other, and then ran myself out going back for 2. I turned my back on the ball, called "go 2" when there wasn't a run and could have actually got back, if I didn't have the turning circle of a whale barge or indeed if I had grounded my bat. Murray wisely grounded his bat, watched me not make it back and then apologised when he had no reason to apologise. I really rather enjoyed it all to be honest.
Kav came in and hit some ridiculous shots - the ball sounding like a shotgun off his bat. There were no retirement rules agreed pre game, so after he had hit 27 off 12, Matt decided to call him back in just because.
Poor Jake Holmes then faced the most bizarre 3 ball spell I've seen. The first was a no ball, full toss, murder ball. The second was a genuine bouncer... The third was a full length in-ducker that sent him packing. It was a genuinely curate's egg of a spell from the bowler.
Freddie and Muzzah had a good. Muzz looked fluent and composed, Meldal looked a little more skittish - perhaps by comparison or because the pitch was a bit unreliable. Still, Meldal on an average day was still worth 27 before being caught. The game was out of sight here, O Savage hit some runs before being bowled. Tyler played for a bit, hitting a gorgeous 4 before perishing hitting the ball straight up.
Muzzah was then told, on 47* that Matt had decided this was his last ball for some reason, he tried to manufacture the 4 he needed for 50 and was stumped.
Toby hit an absolutely lovely tickle for 1, late off the pads a beautiful cricket shot. The Baines won it at the death with a 4 to legside, confirming with his wonder catch, two great wickets, and hitting the winning runs that he was the undoubted MOTM for me. I suspect Muzzah will receive a few plaudits in his life.
We finished, hands were shaken and the atmosphere was convivial, and pleasant. Oz handed back the book and moaned about a lack of patio heaters around the edge of the ground and we retired to the Panton for some sweet amber nectar, my "bantz" attempts to get down with the kids and some chat about how ending up at Vinyl in Cambridge is a thing that can happen to people young and old in the wrong circumstances.
It was a throwback game, friendly and good natured, fun and pleasant all in equal measure.
