31st May 2009, Crowmarsh, Home

It’s always good to play a cricket match in sunny weather. It can be hot and frustrating in the field when you’re chasing the ball to every boundary and looking under hedges and in the long grass in the neighbouring field for balls that have been dispatched for 6 by the opposing team. But it’s better to do this glistening with sweat than to be cold and miserable as we often have been at this time of year.

The Derek Shorter Cup match proved to be a very challenging game for Wantage this year. Crowmarsh brought two very good batsmen, R. Harris and J. Turner, who played shot after shot from some pretty strong bowling and managed to slap the ball through every gap in the field. An early wicket, a startling slip catch from Simon Butterfield from Moobs’s bowling to send their Captain, Richard Eltham, back to the pavilion in the 5th over only served to hasten Richard Harris’s arrival at the crease. Chris Strange’s leg made an unusual pinging noise that apparently sounded to him like the bails were being taken off. Unfortunately for him it was more painful than that and he had to retire injured. So there we were for the following 25 overs, chasing the ball down and generally feeling pretty demoralised as Harris and Turner trashed our bowlers’ figures. It didn’t help when your’s truly dropped Turner on 0 for which I received pig’s ear. A very embarrassing drop that should have been easy pickings for an old hand like myself. Some other drops in the field by another player who normally catches everything only helped to increase the feeling of despair. The mood was lightened occasionally by comedy dives from Ryan “Pippy” Martin who was keeping wicket and a great run-out attempt, which we all thought should have been out by Pippy who had a direct hit on the stumps at the bowler’s end from 22 yards.

Eventually Barry “Circus” Martin came on for his final spell of one over and managed to get dispatched nearly to the boundary where new boy Glen Pascoe was waiting to catch the ball and rid us of Harris who scored a brilliant 104 runs. Turner finished on 90 not out and Crowmarsh had set us a near impossible 261 run target to win in our 35 overs with the loss of only 2 wickets.

	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets
J. Mabbett	7	0	56	1
B. Martin	7	0	38	1
A. Peach	4	0	34	0
C. Yates	5	0	41	0
G. Pascoe	5	0	30	0
S. Butterfield	5	0	34	0
C. Mercer	2	0	23	0

Colin “Prince of Darkness” Mercer provided us with a fantastic tea again. Good work PoD, and thanks.

So, PoD and Olly Taylor went out to attempt to climb the mountain ahead of the team. Olly was suffering from severe back pain, but was drugged, strapped and heat padded to numb the pain a little. It didn’t help much as he was soon returning to the changing rooms with 1 run to his name, having been bowled by their skipper, who egotistically opens the batting and the bowling for them. Simon Butterfield came in and defended his wicket well while other players collaped around him. PoD fell for 10, Grant Summersbee had a golden duck, and Moobs went for 2. Circus (21) and Simon (19) got us to 58 before their wickets fell. So there we were 58 for 6, needing another 203 runs to win from the remaining 17 overs. A complete trashing was on the cards, but in an attempt to keep the game alive Crowmarsh brought on some slightly more comfortable bowling and Pippy and I discussed what we needed to do. After a short discussion we decided that the game was lost, but that we were going to try to have some fun and get as close to their score as possible. The first target being to get more than 100 runs, which at the time seemed quite challenging. 100 was reached, 150 a new target as Pippy and I got more comfortable finding gaps and playing some shots. Pippy played a beautiful shot over the top of square leg for six just catching in the top of the tree to the east to stop it being lost in a field full of sheep. Champagne moment! 150 came and went. Pippy and I had both scored more than 50 and a new target of 200 seemed possible. In the last over, deciding to run 2 to reach the target and keep me on strike a direct throw on the stumps ran Pippy out. Sorry mate! Ryan had scored a brilliant 55. Keeping me on strike allowed me to reach my personal best score of 79, so thanks Pippy.

All through the innings, the crowd were superb. Cheering us on and employing many Mexican waves as entertainment to the players. Thanks to them for coming along each week and supporting us. It’s great to play to a crowd.

We finished on 201 for 7, an incredible comeback from 58 for 6, which lightened the mood in our dressing room and meant that there was a jubilant atmosphere as the cup was presented to Crowmarsh at the end of the game. The man of the match was Rich Harris for his superb 104 which would have been more enjoyable to watch from the boundary, not on the team that was on the receiving end. Our man of the match was me, for buying a jug.

A great game, team. Well played. It’s a shame we lost, but maybe we can win back the trophy next year.

C. Mercer	Bowled	10
O. Taylor	Caught	1
S. Butterfield	Caught	19
G. Summersbee	Bowled	0
J. Mabbett	Caught	2
B. Martin	21	21
S. Bramley	Not Out	79
R. Martin	Run Out	55
C. Yates	Not Out	0
G. Pascoe	D.N.B.
A. Peach	D.N.B.