12th June 2010, Hampton Wick

Game 8: Crossbats CC 2nd XI v. Catford and Cyphers CC 3rd XI

“Age Before Beauty”

With a late change in opponents for Crossbats from the hapless Vultures CC to the youthful C&C CC, it was another day of glorious sunshine that greeted the 2 teams to Bushy Park.  If any sense of complacency was setting in as the schoolbus dropped off what looked like a group of 14 year olds with their teacher, it soon evaporated as play began.

Crossbats batted first, with Nicholls and Wright opening.  The early overs were a tight affair, with Nicholls combining his usual array of leaves and edges with the occasional authenticish shot, and Wright showing a bit of intent with a nice leg drive for 4 early/late in his innings.  The bowling was of a good standard, with a pacey youngster coming down the hill, and the teacher/captain mixing up gentle away swingers with occasional yorkers and legbreaks.  It was this mix that did for Wright, chipping an easy catch to mid-on for a disappointing 10.

Next in was Captain Collier, keen to right the wrongs of last week.  There were initial signs of recovery, before the depression set in once more and a double-dip began to look inevitable.  Nicholls continued to score here and there (but mostly just to third man), before being confused by a cunning delivery on the leg side, which he looped up to square leg for a typically chancy 30.  Not helping his concentration was an ongoing demonstration of what can only be described as a continuation of the Teenage Summer of Free Love in the far corner of the field. 

No. 4 batsman Carter got into his octogenarian stride immediately.  Picking up where he left off last week, the leg-side boundary again became a hive of activity.  At the other end, things again were unravelling, and Collier was eventually out caught for 17 difficult runs.  This brought the returning hero Lawrence to the wicket.  Creaking at most, if not all points of his body, his stated intention was to follow his hypertrophied heart and slog.  Unfortunately, a succession of well-coached and accurate bowlers had other ideas, and scoring continued to be difficult.  After one classical swipe off his degenerative hip for 4, and an alarming attempt to waltz down the wicket (only for the stumping to be missed despite the batsman turning and accelerating like the QE II), Lawrence could not maintain the rate and perished to a classical crossbatted slog off a legspinning 13 year old, caught at mid-on for 8.  With Ross joining his fellow elder statesman Carter, their combined ages probably almost equalled that of the entire C&C side.  They certainly totalled more than the Crossbats runs, which was an unhealthy 95 with only about 7 overs to play.  What followed was a lesson for the youngsters.  With Ross unfurling his full repertoire of strokeplay for possibly the first time ever, and Carter scampering like a hare that hadn’t had its Horlicks the night before, runs began to flow.  Helped by another very generous missed stumping, and 2 drops at square leg, Carter strode on and deservedly top-scored with an undefeated 37.  At the other end, Ross went down fighting, teaching the kids a thing or two about how to build a platform very quickly before departing for a gallant 21.  With Fitch flogging his way to 5, the innings closed on 148 for 5, a good total on a quick and bouncy wicket that offered something for batsman and bowler alike.

The C&C innings began solidly with a mixture of experience and youth.  Van Vurrrrrrrrrrrrren bowled well from the top end, occasionally unfurling a new delivery which he calls the “straight one”.  True to this standard of cricket however, it was the old favourite “long-hop” which reaped dividends.  Quite how though remains something of a mystery.  Van Vurrrrrrrrrrrren delivered the ball as planned, short and wide, the batsman fell into the trap of leathering it like a tracer bullet through the covers, and at some point in the proceedings Fitch not only jumped, dived and stretched, but also managed to catch the thing.  Rising like a man who had slept for a week, Fitch was engulfed by his jubilant and stunned teammates, not least Van Vurrrrrrrrrrrrren, who has been setting this trap for years without success.

At the other end, Thompson bowled well but without reward, finishing with 0-11 from an abbreviated 4 over spell.  Replacing him was the wily old Reeve, twirling away with a mixture of off-breaks, quicker deliveries, arm-balls and full-tosses (in reverse order).  He got an early reward when when one of C&C’s older batsman took a swipe and deposited the ball straight into the hands of a gleeful Wright stood at deep midwicket.  While Van Vurrrrrrrrrrrren completed a useful spell of 7 overs, taking 1 for 23, Spiro came on to replace him with his slow-medium pacers.  After an erratic first over, when the hard work put in at the gym developing his upper body strength seemed to have been wasted, Spiro settled into a nice line outside off-stump.  Getting plenty of wobble, he enticed not one, but two batsman to loft the ball to an impressively energetic Carter at mid-wicket, who took both catches with rare aplomb for a man looking straight into the sun with failing eyesite.  The Pinball Wizard would have been proud.  Spiro finished with figures of 2 for 36.

Reeve meanwhile taught a boy a third of his age a lesson.  Having been slogged on more than one occasion by this young upstart, Reeve could not be restrained and charged into his delivery before the lad was ready.  Stepping away after the ball was bowled, claiming that he wasn’t ready, sent Reeve’s blood pressure into the upper echelons of hypertension.  With Collier chirping away behind the stumps, the youngster was clearly rattled.  Reeve fired in his quicker straight ball, the colt swung and missed and the stumps they did clatter, Reeve finishing with 2 for 29.

At about 90 for 5, this marked a turning point in the contest.  With only the teacher and a succession of young youngsters to come, runs became harder to come by as Crossbats cleverly gave away singles to keep the young ones on strike.  Never one to miss an opportunity, Collier gave the gloves to Van Vurrrrrrrrrrrren and brought himself on to bowl.  With Fitch bowling a rarely seen length from the other end, these 2 old drinking partners cleaned up what was left of the C&C innings.  Collier finished with 2 for 6, and Fitch an impressive 3 for 10, Crossbats winning by about 20 runs.

This was a hard fought win for the Crossbats, and a lot of credit must go to the skilful youngsters from Catford and Cyphers.  No doubt if these same teams were to meet again in a couple of years time, the result would likely be very different, but hopefully in some small way today’s match gave the boys a lesson that they were unlikely to get from anyone who actually knows how to play the game properly, and that can only be a good thing. 

So from a team that is definitely on the up and with a bright future ahead, to one in terminal decline.  Crossbats struggle will go on next week, against opponents as yet unidentified.  The losing streak has been halted, and the sun it did shine, so while all may not be right in the world, there is reason for joy and who knows, there may even be a few good days left in the old dogs yet.

Author: Clive Nicholls