Crescent and Streat & Westmeston slug it out at the Horsdean dustbowl

Since we play each other so many times in a season, you’d think that we would eventually get bored with each other. Maybe we will eventually, but not while games that look to be heading for an obvious result – like this one – turn into nail-biting finishes (like this one).

It was pleasantly warm and sunny at Horsdean and we found ourselves on a used wicket that was bone dry and looking ominously dusty. If had had been twenty degrees (Celsius) warmer we could have been preparing to play on a raging turner in deepest Bangladesh. As it was, the vagaries of club cricket started early as we got away to a slightly delayed start (with the Crescent batting first), and Stan realised that the reason he had a spare fielder for the opening over was that no-one had been assigned to keep wicket. A quick dash to the pavilion resulted in the correct fielding niceties being observed and we got the match started to discover that the wicket was keeping low except when a delivery landed on the seam or in a dust patch (or worse, both) and the batsmen were left groping at thin air more often than usual.

Batting was challenging and sometimes a lottery. Rob Eastwood (0) was the first to suffer as he fell LBW to one that cut back a little and kept low. Martin Watts (6), promoted to number 3, looked a million dollars with a lovely lofted drive only to be caught when the ball didn’t arrive quite as he expected when he tried to repeat the shot. Scoring runs was a real problem and both Terry Garoghan (2) and Jon Morris (17) were bowled by good deliveries, leaving us on 38-4 in 15 overs. The impossibly youthful (in the context of these teams) partnership of Matt Wood and Jake Brooks were tasked with hanging in to repair the damage which they did well for eight overs (“hanging in” for Jake meant only one 6 and a couple of fours...) before the wicket did for Jake, being bowled for a good 21 which got us moving again (68-5 from 23 overs). Matt (8) fell a couple of overs later, probably to his first injudicious shot as a planned pull was undone by a delivery that kept very low.

Things were looking desperate with a low score and a good hammering beckoning. Dmitry Morgan had other ideas though and was initially supported by cameos from Rich Hall (2) and Kevin Rice (3) who were both found out when playing several shots in a single delivery from Stan (we’ve all been there), and also from Mike Brown (2) who was run out. We were 112-9 with a maximum of 4 overs left when Peter Hudson strode to the crease and rolled back the years in a hugely entertaining unbeaten partnership of 20 runs with Dmitry. Crescent finished on the relative riches of 132-9 with Peter on 12* and Dmitry on 37*, which was a superb effort in the conditions and match situation.

Speaking of riches, despite an extended tea break and plenty of willing volunteers, only 75% of the food was demolished at the first attempt and some of the sandwiches and certainly a couple of the cakes would not have looked out of place in a posh café in downtown Brighton.

Given the low score, the Crescent knew that it was crucial to keep things tight and to grab a couple of critical wickets as early as possible. We needed an experienced and reliable opening bowling partnership and, lo and behold, Messrs Mike Brown and Martin Watts (combined age now into the 120s) were ready and raring to go.

They were superb. To be fair to Streat, we were helped by a terrible run out taking the dangerous Akshat out of the game very early on, but at times Mike and Martin were unplayable, with the ball swinging and nipping off the seam almost as if they had it on a piece of string. They bowled 19 overs between them and came off with the score on 28-3 and the Crescent in a good, but not yet commanding, position. Martin conceded his first boundary in his 8th over and finished with 9-2-12-0 and Mike also conceded only one boundary and ended on 10-5-17-2.

Skipper Jon Morris knew that he had to use his spinners to tempt Streat into indiscretions if he was to win the match from here and so there was a long spell for Kevin Rice, supported by Dmitry and, latterly, Jake Brooks. Kevin bowled beautifully and removed any hope of a win for Streat when he had top-scorer Hooper caught nicely in the deep by Rich Hall for 33. We had a scare when Rich had another catch in the same place, but this one was hit hard and flat and burst through Rich’s hands and hit him full in the throat. Rich was able to finish the game but with a very raspy voice and Jon took him to A&E for a check where Rich was found to have torn a vocal cord and was kept in overnight to be scanned in the morning. I’ll update the report when I have further news.*

With Kevin taking wickets at one end, Dmitry finished his short spell with 5-0-33-0 and Jake Brooks came on to try to blast out the final couple of wickets. A further run-out brought the final man to the crease with 3 overs left and Stan batting at the other end. They held out with all the fielders around the bat, and not without some ‘alarums and excursions' (© William Shakespeare), not least by Jon not quite being able to hang on to a chance from Stan. Jake finished with 4-1-5-0 and Kevin with a well-earned five-for (10-1-33-5).

The game finished in a hard-fought draw with the Crescent bowling and fielding superbly to avoid what could have been a crushing defeat and with Streat hanging on manfully at the end. Sooner or later we will have a boring draw or a one-sided victory in one of these contests, but there’s no sign of that happening as yet.

* Rich was discharged from the Royal Sussex after 24 hours and was told he will heal without treatment. He should be playing again after a couple of weeks with no exercise allowed (no comments please about playing for the Crescent being quite possible with taking exercise....).