Scorers (Napton)
Sam Sensecall, Tom Hancock, Rory Tuck
Withering Comments (Napton)
Dave Cooper

Despite the deflating news that Massey Ferguson’s reputedly excellent teas were not available, Napton’s players gathered with their usual cheery spirits. These spirits were only intensified by the overcast conditions and the news, on arrival, that Napton’s players would not be allowed into the changing rooms.
The spectator was good enough to look the other way as Napton’s players prepared themselves.
Sensecall (c) won the toss and elected to bat.

Shillitoe and Cooke opened briskly, dashing between the wickets like dervishes. In the 6th over, Shillitoe faced that most difficult of cricketing challenges: a quantum delivery. The ball was both moving away (according to Shillitoe) and a straight one (Cooper, umpiring), tough to face.
Eadon joined the fray just as the opening bowlers were finding their straps and the run rate slowed for a period. However, Cooke and Eadon dug in for the next one and a half overs before Cooke caught sight of the young Pelter’s eager face on the boundary and decided to give the younger man his chance. Magnanimously, he clubbed a ball high to midwicket.
Pelter (G) took the field and two overs of solid defence ensued.
30-2 after 10 overs.

As play continued, Pelter (G) struck the ball increasingly cleanly. The young batsman made his first runs with a nick behind but followed that with a composed drive. In the next over he made a memorable impression of Tom Curran with a shot between his legs, sadly for no runs.
After a few hard run singles, Eadon decided to open his shoulders and slashed at a ball that sat up. Caught. While your reported felt that Eadon had got off the scoreboard earlier in his innings, the scorebook disagreed.
Sensecall (c) came in to steady the ship just as the opposition spinner began to bamboozle his own wicket-keeper. Napton’s captain was having none of it and, in the next over, thumped two fours down the leg side. As Sensecall (c) continued to express himself – leaning into the ball to glance singles behind and flaying across the line for fours on the leg side – Pelter (G) grew into the game with controlled drives finding the gaps. Pelter (G)’s anticipated hard-running rubbed off on his captain and runs came steadily. The partnership only came to an end after very fine reactions from the wicket-keeper snaffled a nick behind from Pelter (G).
85-4 after 20 overs.

After drinks, a brief flurry of rain saw the scorer’s apprentice, Tuck, sensibly up-end a chair to protect the book. On the pitch, Alsop had joined Sensecall (c) at the wicket and the two older batsmen showed a contrast in styles. Sensecall (c) set about the bowling with increasing vigour while Alsop played himself in with cautious defence and dashed singles. Sensecall was fortunate to keep his wicket after a hoick to mid-off: the fielder having lost his footing on the recently greased surface. Alsop then found his stride and the two batsmen set about the bowling with aplomb. The contrast in styles continued as Sensecall made his boundaries on the on side (mostly midwicket) while Alsop’s boundaries mostly came through long off and extra cover.
A very entertaining partnership was only broken when Sensecall (c), nearing his fifty and only increasing in brio, took a great swing at a chest-height ball and edged it to the opposition wicket-keeper.
Hancock took the field and was happy to play himself in watchfully while Alsop bashed any bad balls away.
135-5 after 30 overs.

In the last quarter of the innings, Hancock and Alsop both played an increasing number of resounding shots off the middle of the bat which went straight to fielders for a single. These were, thankfully, both plentiful and interspersed with boundaries. Notable examples included a bludgeoned one-bounce four over mid-off from Alsop, a low rocket from Hancock that tore across the field and disappeared into the trees and a double-whammy from Hancock when a four over the fielders head saw the man sent back, only for that to be followed by a six that cleared the same fellow. Alsop also made a very pleasing improvised single behind which Sensecall (c) described as a ‘lovely little dink’.
In the final two overs, despite the return of Massey Ferguson’s opening bowlers, the batsmen went after every ball and continued to dash between the wickets until Hancock opened his shoulders and was bowled with only three balls remaining. Pelter (J) stepped on to the wicket and tapped his second ball for a single to let Alsop face the final ball. The bowler, eager to finish strongly, over-bowled to the boundary and Alsop faced the final ball again. This time he dispatched it to the boundary for another one-bounce four.
211-6 after 40 overs.

Joe Alsop 54 runs not out 10 boundaries
Sam Sensecall 49 runs 6 boundaries
Tom Hancock 45 runs 6 boundaries
George Pelter 16 runs 1 boundary
Ed Shillitoe 16 runs 2 boundaries

After a short but convivial tea of packed lunches, most notable for Eadon’s purple pasta, Napton took the field as a bank of thick, grey cloud gathered to the west.
Wicket-keeping posed a dilemma for Sensecall (c) as his regular players in that position (Line and Nyren) were both absent, as were live-wire new keepers O’Brien and Pelter (R). Thankfully, the captain was able to call upon Napton’s most naturally gifted athlete to settle behind the stumps.

Having opened the batting, Shillitoe also opened the bowling with a maiden over. Alsop also contained the batsmen in his first over. The Massey Ferguson openers soon grew in confidence and Eadon came into the attack. The pitch had a slight gradient and these batsmen seemed to prefer bowlers coming up the slope towards them. Disaster then struck as Cooke was injured in the leg while scampering after a glanced shot behind leg. Readers will not be surprised to learn that the redoubtable fellow played out the match, his usual athleticism seemingly unaffected.
59-10 after 10 overs.

Napton’s first change downhill reaped immediate dividends as Pelter (J)’s rapid, low-slung deliveries combined with sharp glovework from Cooke to take one of the openers in his first over. In his second over, Pelter (J) cleanly bowled the other opener, a composed batsman who seemed to be timing the ball well but was unnerved by the extra pace and crept increasingly down the wicket to Pelter (J) before he was bowled.
With the light dimming and a verdant belt of dark, green trees and bushes circling the ground, fielding was sometimes challenging. Napton scampered and backed-up vigorously but a few slips left Eadon chuntering about the efforts of Napton’s top-scoring batsman. Pelter (G)’s efforts in the field were particularly noted by the captain while some players took advantage of the greasy surface to enjoy sliding after the ball. In the 18th over, with the rate slowed but Massey Ferguson’s batsmen seeming to have gained some control of the scoring, the opposition’s fourth batter was caught by Alsop from the bowling of Eadon. Amends had been made and harmony was restored. The very next over, Alsop took another neat catch off Pelter (J) to remove Massey Ferguson’s third man in.
98-4 after 20 overs.

After drinks, Sensecall and Hancock combined with the ball for Napton, Sensecall’s windmilling deliveries heading downhill while Hancock’s flighted balls went up the slope. Despite some clubbed shots from their sixth batsmen, Napton seemed to have the upper hand. This was driven home when Hancock cunningly bowled a slow, straight ball to knock over the wicket of Massey Ferguson’s fifth bat.
With the light failing as leaden clouds hung over the pitch, some players discussed playing the with a pink ball. Soon after, the heavens opened and a steady, mizzling rain fell, whipped close to the horizontal by a steady breeze.
Napton men, of course, played on but the opposition, short on runs and running short of batsmen were not so keen to soldier on in the wet. Sensecall tried to bamboozle the batsmen by sympathising with their plight (“Yeah, my glasses are dripping. I can’t see a thing.”) before ploughing on with the match (“One more over, yeah, then we’ll have a look.”). Ultimately, the Coventry men, unaccustomed as they are to such conditions, insisted on bringing the match to a close at the end of the over.
126-5 after 27 overs.

Wickets:-
Ed Shillitoe 5 overs 1 maiden 0-23
Joe Alsop 2 overs 0-22
JP Eadon 8 overs 2 maidens 1-31
Sam Sensecall 4 overs 0-12
Tom Hancock 3 overs 1-13

Napton win by Duckworth Lewis with Massey Ferguson 13 runs short of the required target.