Royal Cricket

Staines and Laleham 4xi vs HWRCC

HWRCC 163-8 (42.5 overs) Clark 47, Fudge 30, James Doherty (u15) 30

S&L 164-8

S&L win by two wickets

Scorecard here...

Signing up for 4s cricket in a club that has only fielded a league 4xi this year was always going to have its frustrations. The clubs we play (and we of course)  don’t tend to cover their 2^nd tracks – in this difficult season the 4s have already missed 4 games due to adverse weather conditions, had a bye weekend, face another in the coming weeks and no one is playing any cricket next Saturday owing to a bike race closing the county down. So little cricket played… it’s heart breaking to think that the 4s might just have pulled off a stunning promotion this year as they’ve been competitive in every fixture they’ve played.

You’d think, with two cancellations in a row limiting the cricket and this weekend providing the only opportunity for cricket until August 4^th that people would be queuing to play. But cricket at The Wick is often a perverse beast and hero of the hour Adam Selves found himself prospecting for players on Friday night at an U15s game as we had (by some estimates) only six fit players available for our game.

In the end his hard work was rewarded with Cameron Bose and James Doherty – two U15 players – signing up on Friday night to make their senior debuts. And they more than held their own. More later. Along with a reluctant Chairman and some of the regulars Selvesy managed to assemble ten players including a just fit again David Fudge to make the trip to Staines and Laleham. And it’s no exaggeration to say that those ten should have beaten a spirited Staines side. But to quote our President “winners are grinners and losers tell stories”. So I’ll tell you a story. But not as a loser.

S&L’s seconds pitch is a bit of a horrorshow. No offence, as Clarky’s kids will often say before delivering a blistering piece of critcism, but from the makeshift changing facilities (a container from a container ship?), the bordering hockey pitch, the unkempt scrub surrounding and the general standard of the outfield, it’s not somewhere you’d want to play every week. Given our last trot out was at Valley End – one of the best 2s grounds we are likely to play on for many a year – this was, as they say, going from the sublime to the ridiculous.

The only excuse you could make for the track we played on was that at least there was a track to play on. The strip that had been cut was far too damp so we played on the previous week’s number which we are guessing had been pretty damp when it was last played on. It was bare at both ends and had absolutely no bounce – although it showed some signs of life later in the day after it had had an afternoon’s sun on it.

Selvesy was not successful at the toss this week and inevitably the Wick were asked to make first use. Rizzo’s difficult trot continued as he skied a ball that stopped on him in the first over. As Clark was to remark kindly later, if Rizzo went to a Run Shop with his AMEX card this season, they wouldn’t sell him any. Clark joined Fudge in the middle in the first over as result. It was tough going but both played aggressively, Fudge the first to deposit opener Cole into the hockey facilities at the Chertsey end. The ball often kept low and occasionally did ridiculous things but when the ball was overpitched it was dispatched and together they quickly put on a fifty partnership. Fudgey fell eventually having been undone by the pitch before James Doherty joined Clarky in the middle.

The oppo, sensing an abashed Colt, brought in the field… only to watch this Colt bash the ball all over the place including him tonking a six through cow off a modestly quick youngster. What an innings from Doherty! To have had such talent at that age… it’s enough to make Wickman weep.

At the other end Clarky almost wept as having hit the ball hard and pushed the field he miscued an off drive which held up in the pitch and holed out at long off to a catch that never looked like being taken until it was taken. He was not amused to hear that the fielders shared his incredulity as he trudged off a couple of runs short of a well deserved 50.

Kirky and Selvesy picked off singles, Kirky playing a number of flowing off drives, Selvesy milking balls off his legs. Splints too manoeuvred it around. Some of the urgency of the earlier bats though had deserted us and the innings became a quest to balance a score of 160 with overs taken. This duly done the skipper pulled the plug with us eight down sparing us the indignity of being bowled out chasing runs on what was a tough deck.

For the oppo, young Nathan Hunt bowled extremely well and deserved more than the late wicket of a bemused Splints. Skipper Gyves used the conditions well and removed both Fudge and Clark for an economical return.

Tea was below average and in keeping with the sense of dilapidation felt earlier. The actual tea that comes in cups had never been boiled. It was so luke warm that any of the fathers in the side would have been happy to serve it to a six week old baby were it simply milk. Which it might as well have been. There were sandwiches, a bit of fruit and some cakes. But this was poor fare indeed. The example of Ickenham’s jam sandwich tea was once again brought up for some perspective along with another game where pizzas and chicken wings had to be ordered. This did add perspective but perspective can’t be eaten and it was agreed that we were eating a 3 out of 10 offering.

When we returned to get on with seeing if we could bowl S&L out The Wick were quietly confident, even if we did have 10 men and the skipper was making vague threats that he’d have to bowl. With Linter, Fudge, Jack Smith, Mao, Cameron B, James D and Selvesy as possibles – and on that track – we had a right to be confident if not overly so having seen S&L bat earlier in the season at our place.

And the early signs were promising. If our fielding had been top notch and catches and run out chances had been accepted (let’s say four went begging early on) we’d have been home by 6pm watching the end of the 2s game.

Sadly cricket is a cruel mistress as we know. No sooner had she tickled us into arousal and had us slavering at the thought of a win, she put her clothes back on, asked to be paid for services rendered to date and phoned our wives to tell them we’d been up to no good.

Selvesy threw the ball to Fudgey and we anticipated fireworks from the quickest bowler on either side. But in his very first delivery stride his supporting foot buckled underneath him and it was clear that he had suffered a very serious injury. The game was suspended for an hour while first an ambulance was called (sad to say it took a long time to come), then it parked on the square and Dave was made as comfortable as possible before being eventually removed to casualty. Milky Bar – who had bowled beautifully to this point – accompanied him and those remaining grappled with the enormity of seeing a team mate’s season ended abruptly and cruelly.

It was decided that the game should be completed if possible. S&L (who behaved impeccably throughout and showed empathy for David’s situation) loaned us a string of players to act as substitutes and we set about trying to win with eight players and severely depleted bowling resources. Despite the odds being now stacked against us, a very brave effort was made to take the game to S&L. And if a couple of chances had stuck we might have won. But it was not to be.

Selvesy strode into the breach and almost won the game single handedly. Spotting that the pitch was difficult to time the ball on he bowled nice little swinging deliveries, always aiming at the stumps, and in what seemed like no time had broken through and proceeded then to take a Michelle. Notable spells from Jack Smith and Cameron Bose, coupled with an unlucky spell from the Chairman, kept us in the game.

But one bat for the oppo, playing well in the conditions, gave S&L the innings they needed to build around. Dropped early, Hitesh Pabari then picked the shots he wanted to play and then hit the ball hard through cow and straighter. Very little got past his bat whatever was tried and by the time he was out he had scored a brisk 63 and only a handful of runs were required. We generously donated 26 runs in extras to help him and opener Mann (also dropped early in his innings) to get S&L within sight and they stumbled over the line some time after 8.15 with The Wick only 2 balls from an improbable victory.

MOM Selvesy. In a sobering week for availability he deserves it simply for assembling enough players to complete the fixture. But to then not just marshal the team in desperate circumstances but also to very nearly bowl us to victory with 6-45… outstanding stuff.