St Mary Bourne, 27 July 2024

 

St Mary Bourne went down last year for some misdemeanour that cost them -50 points. Like both the Easts, Anton and Tytherley, though for different reasons, they have no business in this league.

DCC was always a bowling side. Difficult to get a bowl, there were so many. Not these days. We desperately need bowling.

I got carted round the park, which is always fun. The enduring image of this game was Smithers being fed into a hedge by two guys, stretched out straight, arms and legs extended like a pole, to retrieve another six from a non turning length leg break.

Boy do we need bowlers. St Mary Bourne made 229. Robert bowled beautifully for 4-14. He and Smithers (two excellent bowlers) combined for 5-29 off 16. If we had 2 more of them, conceivably St Mary Bourne are all out for 58 and our rather sad chase of 61 sees us win by 3 runs. Fanciful, I know.

But we need bowlers – that isn’t. Know any?

Full PlayCricket scorecard here

Oakmount, 13 July 2024

 

Last few weeks cricket has been hard to love. But I had a big whine last week so this week maybe I’ll just do a match report.

Oakmount were pretty much level with us in the league before this game. We seem pretty similar sides on paper. I’d say we probably are in reality, and on another day we’d have a good even game with them. This was not that day.

We batted first and poorly, most of us getting out in disappointing ways, largely, though not entirely, through lack of patience and application. They had two good openers, but after that very ordinary fare, but by that time the damage was largely done.

The partnership of the day was the final one. Supported by Vic, Ryan showed some flair, wielding the new ‘Wombat’ with freedom, to take the innings to its conclusion, caught on the boundary off the last ball attempting to get us to 3 figures.

Defending 96 is rarely easy, and their big swinging 3 and 4 had license to go nuts, which they duly did. We got an early wicket, but the second wicket had already made 60, and they took some punishing overs off us which put the result beyond doubt in short order.

I don’t wanna jinx it but next game we travel to Redlynch who have yet to win, so perhaps we’ll catch a break there. We could do with one.

Written by Si

Full PlayCricket scorecard here

Sparsholt III, 6 July 2024

I love cricket. I mean I really love it. It’s a big part of my happiness. It centres me, washes away the bullshit. I need it. In the winter I miss it. In the spring I look forward to it. It defines my summer.

But every now and then, it tests my faith in it.

This was a testing game. 

It takes a lot for me to not enjoy a game of cricket. Mostly, there’s something joyful. Even last week, when we were soundly thrashed by a vastly superior side, we fielded fiercely, Court and Ryan took stunning catches, Rob and Howard bowled brilliantly. Outclassed, we gave a decent account of ourselves.

This week was awful.

Because of football, we started at 11. Many games were off. It rained heavily all Friday, and Joel had covered the wicket. Without covers, this game was not happening. When they rolled off, the strip looked green. Clouds and drizzle scudded by. A bowling day, surely? Surely.

Anyone who’s ever played at Damerham knows it is characteristically low and slow, even in great weather. What are the chances of it being a road having been covered for a day and a half of heavy rain? I mean, almost none, right? Well it gave the best impression of a road Damerham could possibly manage. Hard, flat, lifeless. (No shade on Joel – quite the opposite; what a fantastic effort from him. Extraordinary wicket, under any circumstances.) 

It was crazy windy. So windy that you couldn’t hear anyone more than 10 yards downwind. Bowling into wind like that is nasty. Setting a field when you can’t hear anyone is shouting at yourself.

I can’t quite put my finger on what made it such a hateful day. The Wind? The early start? The drizzle? The betrayal of the Damerham Dog? The team with eight youngsters in which 90% (no, 86%, let’s be accurate) of the runs came from the three adults? The Hampshire over 60s captain with the unbeaten ton? The fact that I personally bowled like I had someone else’s arm sewn on? By someone who can’t sew?

They’ve all happened before. Any of them alone I’d just shrug off.

Somehow they combined to contrive the least enjoyable Saturday for many a summer. Hated it. Next week will be better. Can’t fail to be.

Written by Si

Full PlayCricket scorecard here

East Tytherley, 29 June 2024

 

East Tytherley is a very pretty ground. Surrounded by fields and trees, there are none more bucolic. And it was a beautiful day, with unbroken sunshine.

I’m starting positive, you see?

The deck was the kind of road to give the M1 imposter syndrome. No turn, and after a suggestion of variable bounce in the first few overs, no seam. The short boundary was even shorter than our short boundary off the silly strip, a chip for six.

They are a re-formed side, starting again at the bottom of the HCL. They are too good to be at the bottom by at least two divisions, possibly five. Their top order are all very capable. One of them also won the Southern Premiere League bowling trophy for Lymington firsts at least four times last decade. Now tearing through Hampshire North West Six like a questionable curry.

Henry stuck firmly to his lose-every-toss policy, and they batted. Had we batted first, we’d still have lost, but possibly not as heavily. Although, judging by the startling swing their opening bowlers got with a battered 40 over old rag, a new one might have proved even more lethal, though at least we wouldn’t have been tired and demoralised from picking the ball out of fields for 9 an over in the heat. Still, it’s academic.

We didn’t bowl that badly, in the main. They just batted very well. There are some chastening bowling figures. Don’t look too hard at them. Howard had a good game, with 4-fer and another red inker. And we fielded as well as we can, taking every chance offered, Ryan and Courtney holding on to absolute screamers. They bowled very well. Five ducks, and only two of the rest in double figures. We were blown away with half the overs left, comprehensively outplayed by a far better side.

Written by Si

Full PlayCricket scorecard here

Andover IV. 22 June 2024

 

Awaiting

Written by Pards

Fill PlayCricket scorecard here

Michelmersh & Timsbury II, 15 June 2024

This was a game that very nearly didn’t happen, but if we have a better one this year, it’ll be one for the ages. The weather was highly unpredictable, as evidenced by the wide variety of contradictory finger-in-the-air pronouncements from all the numerous apps, websites and radars. The pictures below were taken an hour apart before the game, and it pretty much did that all day.

We all arrived in heavy rain, but we were playing by quarter past one. The outfield is in good order and dried quickly. The covers made the game possible, and the pitch was dry and hard and played remarkably well with decent carry. There were the odd couple that leapt or skidded, probably more courtesy of our friends the rooks than anything else.

Our innings was interrupted a few times by showers, and we were 80-3 at 20 overs, just back on after drinks when the big downpour came and the covers went back on. A 20 minute wait plus an early tea and we were back. We lost another quickly after the extended break, and then had a couple of partnerships that got us into the 160s before wickets fell steadily towards the end, but we got to 183, falling a bit short of the max points 200.

The lost time meant a reduced reply of 34 overs, with a Duckworth Lewis adjusted target of 168.

We bowled well and felt in control from the start, a wicket falling early to a great run out from Rob. They were up with the rate though, and beginning to look comfortable. Two catches went down, but they were very sharp, and we stayed on it and finally got rewards when a clutch fell in succession. In fact, when Howard got 2 in 2 at the start of his second over, we were all excited for the hat trick ball, until the incoming batsman pointed out that the previous wicket already was the hat trick – all 11 of us, including Howard, had failed to notice that he’d got his first with the final ball of his first over. So the feat failed to receive its usual rapturous reception. Undaunted, he continued his excellent rhythm this season and went on to a well deserved five-fer, one of which was a lightning catch from Tommy at his customary short cover.

We squeezed well and the rate crept up. They were 30 adrift with two overs left, when their number 10 produced the shot of the day, fetching Howard’s perfectly good ball from outside off and losing it several gardens over beyond cow corner, then hit two fours from my final over despite the spread field. It blemished the figures a bit, but the target was too far out of reach, and they finished 9 short.

A tremendously fun game with two very evenly matched sides played in excellent spirits without a single cross word, it would have been a great game whoever won it. We are now fifth in the league, behind the four sides at the top who have yet to lose.

Written by Si

Full PlayCricket scorecard here

Hursley Park IV, 8 June 2024

 

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