Welly-Wangler of the match Award: debutant Ian Bird

The spring sun was shining, providing a tantalising taste of summer just around the corner. The smell of new willow, ripened linseed oil and freshly cut grass was in the air, bringing a wave of optimism to all.
Anyway, enough about Saturday. The sun was not shining on Crick’s cricketers on Sunday afternoon as a murky mizzle-drizzle descended over the rolling Badby hills, and in stark contrast to the previous 24 hours, woolly hats, extra jumpers and hand warmers were on the agenda in the Lions’ first outing of the season against familiar opponents.

Nevertheless, the show went on and Crick found themselves fielding first. The Crick bowlers started well with both Charlie Gibbins and Bobby Brooke finding the right areas of the pitch to keep the score down and cut the Badby top order off at source. Nathan Grant was next on, bowling at a fraction of his normal pace due to the submarine conditions but with no less vigour. Ian Bird impressed with the ball on debut and James Gibbins, Paul Preece and Dave Allen all backed the frontline bowlers up at the end of the innings. In tricky bowling conditions all bowlers bowled tight, with discipline.
Highlights in the field included plenty of dives and plenty of (broken) bodies being put on the line to save precious runs (P+F Grant), as well as some neat skills with the boot, most notably from Marcus Wilson. Catch of the day goes to Charlie Gibbins’ cleavage, which proved far safer than his hands. After 30 overs, Badby amassed a respectable 135 runs.

Crick’s innings started with Rocky, looking in fine touch, being run out as he ended up standing next to Pete at the batsman’s end, but Bobby Brooke stepped in to provide some back and forehands to all part of the boundary, making batting look easy on the slow, low deck, retiring on a breezy 25. Debutant Ian Bird (15) made his bat fly like one, when he was left with just the grip in his hand and his bat halfway to the fine-leg boundary. When he did make contact with the ball, he showed lots of promise. There was not much to shout about in Crick’s middle-to-lower order, although James Gibbins (9) was left cursing just after he had pelted a six way over the boundary rope when gravity prevailed over skill to help the Badby bowler swoop low down to take a brilliant caught and bowled chance.

In a tense finale, skipper Frazer Grant (7) raced downhill for a second run only to find Paul Preece (6*) receiving oxygen at the bottom of it, unable to leave the crease, meaning that Frazer had unfortunately ran himself out. Paul demonstrated bravery beyond the cause when altitude sickness (combined with running far too many twos) meant that the athletic frame of Frazer Grant returned to the crease as a runner (the most like-for-like replacement allowed to come on). Coming out of retirement, Bobby Brooke (33) was the last man out attempting to slog a ball in to Badby woods, and Crick fell 20 runs short of their target.