Crossbats vs Yarl - 19 April, 2008
Venue - Moormead
Spring. What a wonderful time of year - The birds chirping, the flowers blossoming, the sun streaming through your windows giving hope of what the summer might bring..........
These are indeed all wonderful notions, but notions the Crossbats cricket team can only imagine as for the second week running, they were greeted with less than appropriate conditions for cricket.
With the sun refusing to make an appearance and the temperatures hovering somewhere between cold and really f*cken cold, Crossbats arrived at Moormead to face old foes Yarl, a talented team of Sri Lankens from North London.
It was no surprise when 1pm came and went and only two of the little Sri lankens had shown up to brave the elements - the following 45 minutes saw another 8 Yarl players arrive in attire more suited to a winter weekend in Chamonix than a cricket match in April.
With Yarl 1 short, big Pinky, who had kindly offered to umpire the match, stood in as their 11th man and it was time on in this 35 over fixture.
Crossbats won the toss and elected to bat first.
After a slow start the previous week, a change was made at the top of the order and it paid dividends from the outset.
Collier and Carter set about the task with confidence and ease, dispatching the bad balls to all parts and constantly turning the strike over with some clever running between the wickets. 50 came up after 10 overs and the pair put on 97 for the first wicket before Carter, after a good innings in his new spot holed out for 42 on the stroke of 20 overs.
Nichol's was given the role of first drop and did not dissapoint. Had the grass been mowed in the outfield, he may well have joined his partner at the other end with a fifty, striking some lovely blows in a Crossbats career best of 36. Collier joined Nichols in the run feast, also playing some wonderful shots resulting in a plethera of mid innings boundaries.
The pair added 93 in just 12 overs, taking the score through to 190 before Nichols was undone by a well directed ball from Ruban with two overs to play.
Collier, having played brilliantly all day, gave his wicket away just six runs short of a century and 11 balls short of a Not Out, but his 94 gauranteed him the Man of the Match and set Crossbats up with a formidable total. The innings was briskly finshed off with a couple of boundaries to Wright and a boundary a piece to Dunbar and Lawrence, leaving the Sri Lankens chasing 209 for victory.
Cold hands clasped hot cups of tea at the break as cakes, sandwiches and various other delights were consumed to fuel Crossbats bowlers in their bid to steer the team to a second victory. The new ball was given to Schalk and he started sharply, keeping the Yarl batsmen on their toes. At the other end, drama was unfolding as Gumbley, after just one delivery, opened up an old war wound suffered at Gallipoli and was losing blood at an alarming rate. Dunbar, fearing that some of his players might become infected with Australian, ordered Gumbley from the field at the conclusion of his over.
The first breakthrough came in spectacular fashion in the 5th over. Having seen the lightning quick reactions of his slip partner Wright only moments earlier, new face Sean Spurdle knew he had a lot to live up to. With Van Vuuren controlling the ball nicely and generating a good deal of pace, it was
a champagne moment when the Yarl batsmen, sighting easy runs through the slip corden, angled the ball in their direction only for it to be plucked from the air,one handed by Spurdle, sending the Crossbats players and the crowd into raptures. If that wasn't good enough, he pouched a second moments later off the bowling of Lawerence, who was astounded that somebody had finally held a catch off his bowling.
The flood gates opened and wickets began falling regularly. Lawrence, bowling his seven straight through claimed 3 scalps with good deliveries, supported by Reeve's safe hands in the outfield, in a impressive performance. Van Vuuren was retired after bowling 5 tidy overs, finishing with 1/14.
Leading wicket taker Reeve relished his chance with the ball, adding to his tally in his first over, claiming the wicket of opening batsman Jude with a deceptive ball that beat the batsmen and sent the bails flying.
A safe catch by Dunbar saw the back of Ruban and gave Reeve his second wicket and his third was to follow shortly after when big Pinky was dismissed with a well directed delivery.
Dunbar, like any good captain, bought himself on for a cameo and the chance of a cheap wicket. The first opportunity came when the batsmen cut the ball in the point/gully direction, where for some unknown reason, Gumbley had snuck back onto the field. A regulation catch was grassed when Gumbley, in a tangle of various jumpers, got confused and couldn't work out if he should drop the jumpers or the ball - he decided on the latter. The second opportunity however had a different result, when the batsmen tickled one into the gloves of Collier at keeper and assured Dunbar of his goal and Yarl were all but gone.
Gumbley was afforded 5 additional overs and kept the batsmen at bay and though not claiming a wicket, finished with tight figures.A last wicket stand threatened to keep the Crossbats in the field for the full 35, but this was not to be as Reeve finally knocked over the tail ender, claiming his fourth to finish with top figures of 4/16 off 7 overs and leave Yarl 119 short of the target.
Great batting, great bowling and great feilding assured Crossbats their second victory of the season and they will be full of confidence heading into next weeks match against the Nashers back at home in Bushey Park.