A 16-pointer!

Probably the toughest week our selectors have ever had! England maybe struggling with positions 2,3 and 5, but on Thursday we were struggling with positions 1-11! Of the 79 players registered to play league cricket for the Cubs, only 16 were available to field 2 teams. Despite extensive use of email, phone, WhatsAp, Facebook, Twitter and all communication channels known to Mankind, we were faced with forfeiting the match and losing 10 pts which would have got us deeper into the relegation battle. Fortunately, 3 Ladies, the manager of The Unicorn and the KP (that’s Kitchen Porter not Kevin Peterson) came to our rescue and we arrived at Orchard Ground with a full side.

Skipper Ben Orchard was given special dispensation to help the 1st X1 in their promotion push, which left vice captain, Stalky George the job of motivating our eclectic heroes. The pre match chat was something along the lines of….. thanks for sacrificing your weekend for the good of the club….don’t worry that you have not played with a hard ball before, Ladies …..if we get a point it will be a miracle……lets go out and enjoy ourselves, eh?

Minster Lovell skipper kindly agreed to allow us to bat first and at 34-0 after 8 overs optimism briefly surfaced and our openers were certainly enjoying themselves! Then Martin M watched as the ball trickled back onto his stumps after executing a perfect forward defensive and was quickly followed by Steve Mackie. Dogged determination from our middle order used up the overs without much effect on the scoreboard and when opener, Nick Rowe finally succumbed to impatience it heralded the entrance of 3 George’s whose total contribution to our meagre score was a paltry zero! Mind you Stalky got the worst LBW decision ever…even their captain apologised on behalf of their umpire and young Tim got a nasty ball on his exposed ankle, reducing us to 10 once we took the field. Catherine Rodnight cracked a 4 and our KP …who apparently thought he had been asked to play golf (!) swung his bat like a 7-iron with great panache but little effect. 78 all out.

After a decent tea (I suspect mostly thanks to the Ladies), Nick Rowe bowled unchanged from the Stewkley end and ripped out their top 4 for 18 runs. Minster Lovell however kept the scoreboard ticking over and it was only when Catherine Rodnight was introduced to the attack, bowling big in-swingers that the oppo began to wobble. Had any one of the 3 chances she created in her first over been taken we might have induced further panic but it wasn’t to be and despite Catherine taking the first wicket by a Lady player in our League history, a fine one-handed attempt at a catch by Kes and Georgia taking a wicket with her first ball, Minster Lovell hobbled over the line.

A great effort from all the team and we managed to glean 6 bowling points which was a lot better than minus 10. Word has it that everyone really enjoyed themselves.

Let’s hope the 63 who were not available, are available to attend the players meeting on 2nd September at the Pavilion at 7.30pm where the future of league cricket at Cublington will be the main item on the agenda.