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'Graveney snatch
defeat from the jaws of victory at Woldingham'
By Jez Skidmore
Graveney 171 - 9 (from 40 overs)
Woldingham 173 - 9 (with 7 balls remaining)
Graveney Win by 64 runs
A thrilling game at
Woldingham was marred by an uncharacteristic rant from star bowler Kirk
Clarke as the players left the pitch at the end of the game. KC was
understandably dismayed at how Graveney had grabbed defeat from the jaws
of victory (although it was unclear exactly what he was shouting about),
but it was an unnecessary show of petulance, particularly as the match
was played in such a good spirit. The incident could well have cost the
bowler several man-of-the-match votes as Jez Skidmore and Tim Bunn
explained, respectively, that he needed to accept that not everyone
could bowl as well as him and the match was indeed a friendly and not
the World Cup Final.
However, it was all hugs
and kisses in the bar afterwards as it is impossible to feel angry with
KC for any period of time. He is an immensely likeable fellow and a key
fixture in the team, but just needs to keep a lid on his emotions. In
truth, everyone was disappointed that we had somehow allowed the game to
slip out of our hands. With the opposition nine wickets down and still
around 40 runs short of the target, many Graveney players assumed we had
won the game. But captain Annan had different ideas and smashed an
unbeaten 53 to win in the penultimate over. Ironically, he did to
Graveney exactly what KC did to Brockham the previous week.
In a 40-over game, Jez
opted to umpire as usual and, enjoying the sunshine, eventually stayed
out wearing the coat for most of the innings – something he won’t be
able to do when the captain eventually puts him up the batting order. In
the changing room beforehand, opening batsman Rob Davies had suggested
Jez was rhyming slang for a merchant banker, which is a curious tactic
when you’re about to look for help if the ball hits your pads.
Graveney started brightly
with Paul Fanning again getting the team off to a flying start, scoring
the bulk of the runs in an opening partnership of 72 with Rob.
After such an excellent
opening 10 overs, it was disappointing that Graveney could only reach
171 for 9, but this was a testament to Woldingham’s bowlers. Initially
they few down a few pies and Malcolm Marshall-lookalike Phil Foster had
a particularly wayward first over that was punished by our boys, but
apart from that they all, including Foster, bowled an excellent line and
length and returned good figures.
Paul eased his way to yet
another half century and seemed destined for his first ton of the season
before holing out to cover for 67. Rob had gone in similar fashion for
20, but by then the openers had done their jobs. Barry Gray came in at
number three, but could not repeat last week’s heroics and missed a
straight ball on 5. Captain Nick Goodburn again played a solid innings
and quietly accumulated 32 runs before being bowled. But by then, we had
already lost Raghu Kankate for 15. Raghu had taken a mighty swing at his
first ball and missed, then hit a couple of fine boundaries, before
swinging again and this time losing his stumps.
“It’s alright, we’ve got
plenty of batsmen left,” he said to the skipper as he departed. “Yes,
but they’re not all like you, we could have done with you playing a bit
more sensibly than that,” came the response. Mark Rance sportingly
walked after hitting one behind for 5 and Howard Hamilton, who can’t buy
a run at the moment, took a customary huge swing at a delivery and was
bowled for 0. “Try a straight bat,” advised the skipper. KC tried to
carry on where he left off from his remarkable innings of last week, but
was caught at third man for 3.
Jez could have, and
possibly was, out first ball when a leg side ball went into the keeper’s
hands. However, he genuinely didn’t know whether he had touched it and
the umpire gave him the benefit of the doubt. “Anyway, you should never
walk,” was the advice from the opening batsman over tea. He was out soon
afterwards, for 3, trying to heave a straight ball that he would usually
have blocked out. But there were only a couple of balls to go and big
Tim was waiting in the wings to have a swing. Dave Moody, with six not
out, got his bat on some difficult deliveries and Tim managed 1 not out
before the innings was closed.
A pleasant tea was
considerably improved (for me at least) with the news that Wolves were
winning at Preston and Blackpool were winning at Birmingham.
After tea, KC bowled
superbly in two sessions – something that would add to his frustration
when the game was lost. The openers, and later their middle order,
simply couldn’t cope with KC and the score chugged along so slowly that
it seemed inconceivable that Woldingham would reach their target. The
fiery Barbadian eventually returned figures of 8-2-12-3, with all his
victims bowled. However, KC disputed the numbers, claiming he had “at
least 5 or 6 maidens”. Hmmm.
Raghu, again in two
spells, returned an excellent 8-2-26-1, with his victim also bowled, and
he was unlucky not to have had more wickets.
Tim Bunn, battling hard
for this year’s bowler of the year award (I’ve not entered this year as
it’s embarrassing to win it three times in four years), had a tidy spell
of 8-0-36-2 with one clean bowled and another caught by Raghu when Tim
proved once more the old adage that bad balls take wickets!
In the field, Graveney
occasionally looked sharp, with the possible exception of the
normally-reliable Rob. After sarcastically praising some fielding from
Jez with a cheeky ‘have you been practising?’ he embarrassingly let a
ball through his legs to the boundary for 4. Then Nick and Rob, clearly
having watched too much television, attempted a spot of ‘boundary
fielding for the cameras’. Nick chased down a shot, flicked it back to
Rob, who promptly slipped on his backside when attempting to throw the
ball in.
Mark proved you should
never run on a miss field by initially fumbling the ball at mid wicket
before throwing in at Dave Moody, who swiftly took the bails off for a
run out. Indeed, Dave had an excellent day behind the wicket, preventing
many leg side deliveries going for four. Howard, however, had a mixed
day, catching one off Jez’s bowling and then comically dropping the ball
behind him while attempting to throw at the stumps.
Meanwhile, in the
picturesque ground, the owner of a large house at the square leg
boundary was spending the afternoon cutting his hedge. According to the
opposition, he shows his disapproval of our finest sport by refusing to
throw back the ball when it lands in his garden, begging the question
‘why on earth buy a house next to a cricket pitch?” However, the team
were unaware that another man was also trimming hedges nearby until he
let out a resounding scream; Doctor Kankate looked anxious but was not
called into action.
As the game accelerated
towards an exciting climax, Jez took some punishment as Annan hit a few
big sixes, and finished with 7-0-48-1, although Dave put down a harsh
chance off his bowling that would have wrapped the game up. However,
this is not a criticism of the keeper who, as stated earlier, put in an
excellent all-round performance. Barry, with 7.5-1-43-1, also took some
punishment and Annan, who by the end looked unstoppable, finished the
game with an impressive six over square leg off the veteran’s bowling.
Afterwards, the banter in
the bar carried on late into the evening with all agreeing what an
excellent game it had been. Barry chastised Annan’s pretty girlfriend
for going out with him and Jez chastised her after learning her family
were from Wolverhampton but, inexplicably, did not follow the gold and
black army. Extraordinary.
In the car on the way
home, discussions on all aspects of the game continued between Jez,
Barry, Rob and Nick. Heated debates followed on the issues of match
reports and club awards, two topics on which I have very strong opinions
but will not use this report to express them as that may well be viewed
as an abuse of my position!
And so on to the last game
of the season, where KC (25 wickets) and Tim (24 wickets) will be vying
for the ‘bowler of the season’ award. Some say that KC has easily been
our stand out bowler, while others say you can’t argue with the stats
and if Tim has a good last day (as Jez did last season), he will deserve
the award. Tim himself says that he will be offering KC some work
decorating for him next Saturday!
Remember, boys, it’s a
team game and let’s make sure we pull together to win our last game.
Man of the match:
BPaul
Fanning. Excellent Opener's knock.
Champagne moment:
Rob
Davies/Nick Goodburn. Comical boundary fielding.
Moments of Disgrace:
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1. Howard and KC not
getting to the ground until 1 hour after the allotted start time.
2. Howard’s pathetic
attempts to excuse their lateness, which were proven by Rob’s dad to be
a pure lie!
3. KC’s out of character
temper tantrum at the end of the match. |
