But it's this kind of thing that I'm really here to discuss.
"Defendable, if not Defensible" (Chris Healey)
Last year we batted first at Essex University, scored a few runs whilst losing quick wickets, and went onto lose easily. This year, we batted first at Essex University, scored a few runs whilst losing quick wickets, and ... well.Chris Hoban and Tony Hawkhead opened for Mandarins, and without undue haste put a few runs on the board. But then Chris guided a ball to point, called for a suicidal single, which Tony heeded. He was lucky because the keeper fumbled the return; but Chris, meanwhile, remained rooted to the spot as he watched the drama unfold, and once the groans from the bungled run out had subsided, Essex realised that a new run out was a certainty once the ball had relocated to the other end. It was a near-freak method of running yourself out and not so encouraging an omen for the days to follow.
Tony quickly returned to pavilion himself when a ball that he'd left did an amazing right-turn to clip a stump.
This pitch was more than a little bowler friendly, which is not really an excuse for us to reach 27-4. It took John Porter (13) and Chris Healey (39) to add most of the runs, and with a little help from "Johnny" Extras (second top score: 17), Mandarins reached 117.
As an aside, I should add this contribution from Chris Healey:
i'm sure your reports won't fail to mention the essex quote (was it martin? i don't recall) about "we have our two most arrogant batsmen at the crease now" - referring to trott and prior i think, although naturally interpreted as yourself and ollie.
Yes, that sounds like Martin to me!
Speaking honestly, this total was not that defendable, and certainly not defensible, even on this pitch. Except that with Martin Hurst bowling at the pavilion end, wickets began to fall at an amazing rate. The wicket was very dry and dusty, and doing quite remarkable things when Martin had the ball in his hands. The sheer quantity of bounce and turn made batting for Essex every bit as difficult as we had made it seem. More than one batsman stared agog when their wicket had been lost, unable to quite believe what had happened. No one can remember when two catches were last taken at short leg (that's Chris Healey again).Martin's 10-4-26-5 were supported by Chris's 7-2-17-3 and Chris Hoban's 9-1-26-2, whilst Ollie and I contributed a further 13 overs for 29. With 13 extras, Essex's innings completed on 104, giving Mandarins a win by 13.
Incidentally, Andy McKeon pointed out that Constable painted a picture from the site near where our match was played; it is here.
Framlingham College
The centre-piece of each year's Tour, if not the whole season, is our game against the Bob Morris XI.After an uncertain weather start, the game enjoyed excellent weather conditions for the most part. We bowled first, and on a perfect white-wicket, given, as ever, to the pleasures of the batting classes, runs accumulated quickly and evenly.
Unusually, both opposition openers "retired hurt", but not before Simon Halliday (78) had taken full advantage of the conditions. Mandarins bowling figures are not really worth repeating, which is not intended as a slight on our efforts (remember, your Tour Manager has deselected himself from this fixture for at least 3 years now). However, I must mention Louis Williams (age: about 1/3 of the average of the rest of us), whose 2-23 accounted for half the team's haul of wickets.
The opposition progressed to 218 - 4.
Why Doesn't Johnny Pay Match Fees?
He's a stalwart of the team: always available, turns up on time and frequently makes a meaningful contribution to our score. Today he was second top score with 18, almost one fifth of our total. Only Damian Paterson scored more, before he fell to an LBW shout that Stephen Dunmore couldn't fail to give.
Losing "Damo" was a pity for the sizeable crowd, because quite apart from the fact that he was actually scoring runs, his 32 had come from 40 balls and included 7 boundaries. Only Louis and Chris McKeon could claim a similar scoring rate (13 from 16 and 10* from 15), whereas others (names witheld for obvious reasons) were somewhat more pained:
- 5 from 29;
- 6 from 25;
- 16 from 46
- 4 from 19.
In recording the above, I am benefiting from the fastidious labours of Jim Thomson, whose scorecard also shows that after 10 overs we had reached a mighty 18 runs, at the cost of 2 wickets.
Of course, our opponents did bowl well and included, so I'm told, a Northamptonshire Academy player.
If we're into "taking positives" out of this performance, it would be that the younger generation (Chris McKeon and Louis) both scored more than their fathers; we were, however, some way short when our innings closed at 116 all out.
Curiously, every Mandarins wicket was taken by an opposition bowler whose name begin with "B"; whilst at Essex all our wicket-taking bowlers started with "H". Whether that means anything I doubt, but Martin, at least, was impressed by it.
Incidentally, one of the scores above is the Australian first innings at the Oval...
Worlingworth
I would like to point out that despite suffering 391 runs of punishment, the £6.99 ball I bought at JJB Sports survived today's game very well. Even better news is the news that Mandarins can take credit for 204 of these.
Openers Tony Hawkhead (41) and Chris Baker (18) fended off the swift but occasionally erratic efforts of a young bowling attack. Tony top scored with 41 today, and has the bruises to show how he has suffered for his art, the sight of which put me off my breakfast the following morning.
Jeremy Jarvis (24), David Williams (34*) and I (run out, I must add, in controversial circumstances for 14) also contributed; whilst David Lowen was unlucky to demolish his own stumps whilst having collateral damage inflicted on his ribs by a fast bouncy delivery.
The observant amongst you will have worked out that these runs in aggregate sum to much fewer than the 204 I mentioned above; indeed, without "Johnny" we would have made a somewhat less impressive 135. That's 69 extras credited to our account (wides: 28), a fact that deserves my first exclamation mark!
The wicket was hard and bouncy, if not terribly fast (thankfully), but it was Rob Eastaway (8-2-21-5) and Jim Thomson (7-0-45-2) who took most of the wickets. JC Gray was bowling fast and accurately for 7-2-26-1 and deserves much more credit than these figures suggest.
But actually, the really stupendous moments of the innings were two amazing catches taken by David Williams at deep long on. The first was high and to David's left; he had to run some distance and collect the ball just above the ground whilst still on the move. I do not exaggerate to say that this would receive an ovation on any cricket ground in the world.
The second was closer to him, but if the ball had reached any higher I fear it would have entered Earth orbit. I hardly need point out that both these victims were crucial to the Worlingworth run chase; but despite the regular loss of wickets, they aggressively pursued their run chase till the very end, despite being 9 wickets down by this stage.
Other chances were dropped, I'm afraid to say, including one particular feeble effort on my part. In fact, Jim can quite reasonably claim a five-fer if we include the drops.
In the end, the match was drawn as Worlingworth finished on 187-9.
The new pavilion at the ground continues to grow into a first rate facility for local players, and the welcome we received was particularly warm. We hope to keep on with this fixture next year.
Other Tour Stuff
As usual, the Suffolk Tour is about more than just the cricket. Our Thursday night curry was a good one and the food and beer at the Station on Friday was really excellent.
Poker
Poker wasn't played so much this year, maybe because of the absence of key players (Gus, Marc: we missed you!). The only game I managed to start was delayed when Jonathan Wilmot, returning from a fag break, suddenly asked the remaining players, at 00:30, for our opinions on the effect of ballooning public debt on the general happiness of the population. Amazingly, this debate completely occupied the next two hours, by which time my contact lenses had unpeeled from my eyeballs.
The answer, incidentally, was somewhere between "not as much as you think", and "it depends".
And Finally
I would like to thank all our opposition teams for putting out sides at a time of the year which, as we all know, is a difficult month for fielding cricket teams. And also to Framlingham College, whose facilities are excellent and ideally suited to this occasion.
Thanks also to those who took on captaining duties, and to Tony for looking after the beer and wine once again, as well as finding a source of decent cricket balls in Fram; Tony will be our Tour Manager in 2010, and I'm looking forward to it already.
THE END
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