Hursley Park is that rare thing, a welcoming, friendly big club. A large ground with two pitches and a pavilion for each in quiet rural Winchester, it joyously lacks the arrogance and down-the-nose feel of so many of its peers.
Their IVs were a bit underpowered, as they had half a dozen of the first team missing, so many of their regulars had filtered up, and they suggested we might like to bat first.
This is always a conflicting bit of news when you arrive at a ground, balancing the likelihood of a win with the probability of not much of a game. The vagaries of this league means evenly matched games seem harder to come by so far this season, and the possibility of being on either side of a thrashing seems quite high.
We made 292-3. All the top four made 50, which could be a record for us, certainly highly unusual, and Howard was out for 99, which might have been a tragedy for someone with fewer three figure notches on his belt.
They made 126-9. There was a funny period in the middle when Ross and Howard were on and a few youngsters were batting, when it didn’t feel like we should be trying that hard, so Ross practised his slower ball and Howard brought out his offies, another of the vagaries of this kind of league. If we’d been ruthless we might – only might, of course – have got the 10 wickets somewhat earlier. But a few of the kids batted really well, and the game was played in good spirits and no one did nothing, so the final bowling point seemed a fair sacrifice.
(The number 11 was well out of his ground when Vic threw down the stumps Carey style on the last ball of the match. The umpire had called over, but even if he hadn’t we’d have rescinded that appeal anyway; again, too high a price for the final bowling point, at this or any level.)
Tappers pouched a sublime, one handed, above the head, backwards flying slip catch off me, an extraordinary, reality-shifting, hand-over-the-mouth effort - it’s not every week you discover someone you’ve known for a long time can fly - but the highlight of the day was undoubtedly a wicket maiden from Pards, (which had a similar effect) for which I had the inestimable pleasure of taking the catch. Pards and everyone else thinks it was his first ever league wicket in his 14 or so years of playing for DCC. Henry is convinced he’s had one before, but has so far been unable to supply any supporting evidence. The tension mounts as Henry trawls through old scorebooks by candlelight late into the night.
Written by: Si
Full PlayCricket scorecard here
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