Worlingworth, 16th August 2008

There's no avoiding it, I have to confess it now.

I was present at the inaugural Mandarins versus Worlingworth fixture, on this pleasant Saturday afternoon; but the fact is, I don't remember much about it. That's no reflection on the merit of the fixture or the quality of the cricket, which was presumably as good as any.

Fact of the matter is, I had dropped myself from this team so that I could play cards until nearly 5am, and drink rather a lot of Tony's excellent wine. And so, when I turned up at the ground, as usual, and walked into the away-team's dressing-room, I realised that I was, in fact, merely a guest there. Being “twelfthy”, mascot, tour manager or whatever does not make you part of the side. After this small penny dropped, I never really got “into” the match, and went for a net.

Still, even a casual glance at the scorebook shows its dominant theme, which was the towering batting performances of Chris Healey, who made 104. He was ably supported by David Lowen (27) and Jamie Brockbank (11). The other batsmen had little time to make an impact; thus Gus was run out by Chris Baker (though I expect there'll be differing opinions on this) and Tony Hawkhead never got started. Anyway, with input from the ever-reliable E. Xtras, we reached a “respectable” 181 for 6.

Just as the game resumed after tea, the sun went in. So I went inside to get some more clothes. Unofrtunately a sleepy wasp had lodged itself in the left leg of my trousers, and was pretty cross at being disturbed. The resulting kerfuffle, search for soothing potions and such like is my second excuse for missing the action. But again, the scorebook tells a tale.

The bowling was opened by Olly (10.2–2–36–0) and Liam, whose 4-1-8-0 figures make me wonder why he didn't bowl more. The two Chris's put in another 20 overs between them, taking 2 wickets, but at the cost of 126 runs.

Our nemesis was the Southern hemisphere “pro”, who we'd met the previous day at Framlingham. Once he'd got set, the odds were always in their favour. Of course, we did drop him; at least once, which won't surprise you. And no doubt our general fielding was pretty ropey too, especially Olly's “short barrier” fielding technique (stopping the ball face-on, basically), which looks to me like a serious health-and-safety hazard on anything other than a billiard table outfield.

There were however, only about two overs to go when Worlingworth finished the job. Many thanks to them for hosting us on their new ground, and I'm hopeful that, despite league commitments, we can secure the fixture again next year.