2007 Season
Hinckley Amateurs vs DCC
Paul writes
Rushing back from sandiacre northbound on the M1 on Sunday lunch having watched Bradley play football I noticed stationary traffic on the M1 southbound. As I was running late for the 2pm start In Hinckley I thought it sensible to let stand in vice captain Ian know he might want to join the m1 at junction 25 to avoid delays and be there for the toss.
Fast forward to 1.55pm, I�m 20 minutes from the ground after a wretched hour long journey��and its Benno on the phone �where are you?� was the first question. He followed it up with �They are a bit agitated (my words) as we are due to start in 5 minutes and there are 3 of us here!�
When I arrived at 215 there were 7 of us, so albeit a little sheepishly I lost the toss, elected not to negotiate � not in a great position to do so and went back to the changing rooms for another count up and to tell the small ensemble we were in the field. 36 overs, maximum of nine. Walking back to the pavilion I told their skip � �We are better than we look!�
Still only 7.
Hang on where�s Crossy?
Cue his entrance with Jamie his passenger � neither owned up to navigator as they had merrily drove down the M1 past junction 22 (recommended exit) and then 21 (M69 option) and gone down to Lutterworth at 20!
A stunning piece of poor navigation.
So we are at 9, its nearly 230 � and Crossy now has got a sock problem, they�re damp� any one got any spare socks? Benno responded with a 6 note 8 second fart that made the smallest changing rooms of the season decidedly uncomfortable.
Their batters are out there and we nearly all changed, just gone 230 (2pm start) and we�re still two down�..hang on ��jonny and gaunty � just the opening bowlers.
Its moments like this that you wish you�d said no the an extra fixture vs Hinckley Amateurs and watched the TV, or read a book or whatever.
Anyway, no problem�Mick and Jamie can do a job�..the Vicar chose to bowl down the hill, leaving Jamie to come up.
Youngish opener went at thirty in the seventh snared in the covers by Richard off the vicar. During this time Andy and jonny arrived and were now at 11. Jamie lasted just the two overs conceding 12 and Jon took over. The new batter had what could only be described as long black socks and proceeded to moose a couple of fours off Mick for four, but that didn�t affect his figures too much with a fairly good 7-2-32-1. Smudgers accuracy delivered 8-2-28-2, including the opener thinly edging to Adey and a lofty chance to deepish Long On which I managed to hang on to over my shoulder. Benno was very amused by my immediate cap removal on sight of the ball going up for some reason.
When Andy took a straight up skier for a tidy caught and bowled�we were looking pretty good, with them 65-4 off 17 in a 36 over match. Quite how they got to 199-8 in their 36 I haven�t quite worked out yet two days on. I do recall this real big guy coming in at number six and clubbing 81 in about 40 balls with jamie�s second spell, as my death bowler, measuring up at 3-0-43-1. Andy bowled well but got picked off at the end of his spell 8-1-43-1, leaving Benno bowling up the hill with much guile as ever, picking up 9-0-43-3.
86 runs of the last ten was a bit of a shock, punctuated with some comic cuts in the field. Stand out moment was one of the worst drops I have ever seen � not in terms of ease, but laugh out loud rubbish attempt. A lofty off drive swirled up in the air off Andy and the Vicar casually but calmy and very much in control moved to his left and positioned himself ready for the ball descending. Straight forward enough.
His actual attempt to bag the ball saw his hands kind of cross over, his elbows bang together and his body kind of contort as he failed to get even a stray digit on the ball, which I think may have hit him on the chest. I lost my composure part way through this attempt and some of the detail fails me.
A much tougher opportunity went Benno�s way only a couple of overs after he had ridiculed by cap evacuation. The ball was smashed straight at him about two foot above his head, as he jumped his cap fell off, either from the jump or the jet stream as the ball fairly rocketed just above him. Mark Snlegrove fielded like a demon in the deep, but both he and Bradley put one down, Jamie failed to chase down a ru in effort and generally it fell below the mark. 200 to win off 36.
Lots of snap on the tea table and a plan from the captain � Mark to open with Ian � holding an end up whilst Ian cuts lose on a very flat track and bags a ton � easy.
The spinner that bowled the third ball of the innings was probably as surprise as we were when Ian inside edged on to leg stump for a big fat zero. Plan (a) well and truly scuppered.
Mark & Adey got us to 49, whe Adey (22) fell to a very well taken boundary catch and when Mark fell for a well constructed 31 in the 15th we were 50-3 and I trudged out not particularly confident of victory or indeed that we would get 3 figures. I joined Richard (20) and put 37 on. Just before he was stumped he hit a couple of meaty blows. He had advised me at the end of an over, in a kind of whispering �Allo Allo� moment, that he was going to take them on!
96 -4 in the 24th and as I waited for Jamie to join me one of their guy was laughing and said �100 in 12 overs � yeah righto���fair point.
But the 42 we put on in the next 5 and a bit overs gave us hope. Jamie reverted to his Caribbean best and smacked some terrific boundaries, including a no feet moving blaze over extra cover for six � top drawer.
As i left for 22, Andy went in, promoted to a lofty 7 in the batting � not because of his very nice knock the week before but more to do with he was working nights and needed to be off. Andy went in during the 30th at 139-5. 60 off 6 required with darkness sweeping in. But there it was again, more nice touches from Andy, a biff here, a glide there �looking good AGAIN.
But sadly Jamie succumbed and excitement immediately wained, a cracking 36, after a flourish during a one over spell from bowler �Herbert� who went for 21, in his brief one over spell. Jamie and Andy had put 29 on for the sixth wicket and as smudger strode out it was 34 in 4, in the dark, quickies back on.
The eight 2�s and one four that Smudger hit, barely missing a scoring opportunity and the nudges from Andy, plus a remarkable 4 all along the ground through midwicket off their main quick was heavenly. A couple of well timed misfields and a wide that went over the boundary set us up well. But it came down to the last over. The two late arrivals got us to 196-6, Bradley was shaking in his boots at the prospect of going in, it was dark, getting very dark and they messed with the field yet again. 2 1 1 Smudger on strike, dot, 2 off 2���..and a glorious hoist over long on sealed it from smudger, who is fast becoming our end of innings finisher.
Credit where its due Andy 18no and Jon 25no did amazingly well, their 34 run partnership was absolutely tremendous. A win with one ball to go.
The carling Extra Cold in the club room tasted very nice as we mused over a the victory. Very rarely would we score 132 in the last 16, to chase down a big score.
A real good team performance with the bat, Ian missed out but then 31,22,20,22,36,18 and 25 from the other batters at just under 6 an over was top stuff.
I�m not sure we�ll go back to Hinckley, but if we do we�ll have to play well to top that finished product.