BHCCC vs Streat & Westmeston – round 2

BHCCC vs Streat & Westmeston – round 2

It’s déjà vu all over again, all over again..

Let’s be honest, our limited midweek fixture list would look pretty empty if we weren’t such good friends with Streat & Westmeston. With a ‘world series’ of three games a season, if we weren’t well-matched in terms of playing ability and temperament it would be pretty miserable.

The average age of both sides seemed positively youthful compared to the last match, with Crescent’s 661 years being slashed to around 520. Stan won the toss for Streat and invited us to bat first on a new wicket in the middle of the square which was rock-hard after all the rolling inflicted upon it. Skipper Jon Morris opened with Rob Eastwood and both soon learned not to be fooled by the appearance of the surface as – although a little faster and with a bit more bounce – the odd delivery still kept devilishly low. For Streat, opening bowlers Porter and Chris Foulerton in particular bowled pretty straight and economically, with Chris being unlucky to no-ball with a delivery that would have had Rob caught behind. As it was, Jon and Rob went their merry way, watchful at first but as they gained confidence with bats being used for the first time (a new investment for Rob and Jon borrowing Rick’s bat after misplacing his own) the aerial route over mid-on and mid-off became lucrative.

The partnership reached 70 in decent time when Jon edged a loopy catch to slip on 35. The ensuing partnership of Rob with Jake Brooks added a further 14 runs before Rob was bowled for 39 and replaced by Jamie Will. Jake was batting beautifully with sensible defence mixed with flowing drives along the ground and bad deliveries being crashed to the leg-side boundary. Even Jamie’s usual fidgeting aggression couldn’t keep pace and he was soon stumped for 8 in a partnership of 40 (166-4).

Dmitry Morgan came and went (nicely ‘Spiegeled’) for 13 and Nick Hollands joined Jake, who had now passed his 50 and looked like going on to a big score when he picked out Stan in the field when on 59 very watchable runs. Rick Carter joined Nick for the final couple of comedy overs as Nick firstly called for a quick single that would have seen Rick run out by approximately 20 yards had he not refused to even move, and then Rick – never one for ‘going from ball one’ à la IPL – swished and missed for an inelegant 2 not out leaving Nick on 15 not out and the innings declared on 184-5 after 40 overs.

[At this point the author realises that he has managed to take 4 pictures of the scorebook for our innings and none of the Streat innings. My memory for the details of what happened in a game is notoriously poor. I’ll complete the report once I can see the scorebook.

For those waiting for the description of ‘that’ catch, I’ll say that it was a loopy mis-hit heading high over an ageing first slip who essayed a stunning series of manoeuvres, including (according to his teammates) a pirouette, a triple salchow with pike and, most probably, a round turn and two half-hitches. At some point in the process the ball was snaffled and the whole sequence was followed by a collapse that was reminiscent of a duck landing on ice (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilDaS8r_Af0). An invitation to Strictly as the follow-up to John Sergeant cannot be far away]. To be fair to Rick (for it was he), he did take a sharp slip catch from Jamie a little later, causing him to say to Mike Brown 'I've still got it - I just can't usually remember where I left it'.

The Streat batsmen picked up the pace after loosening the shackles and with around 6 an over needed looked to be favourites as long as we didn't take wickets. Once Bill was out, we regained control and the innings closed on around 160-8.

Once again we achieved a decent score but failed to secure the win as dogged batsmen refused to give up their wickets despite our best efforts. Despite that, this was a close and enjoyable game and the series goes into the final match all-square.