Village 1st XI beat the opposition and the rain

The venue and hosts for Mill Hill Village 1st XI's eighth outing in the Herts league was Baldock Town, 2nd XI. On a day forecast for sunshine and heavy showers, against a side struggling in the Division, it was always more likely that a win would be denied by the weather, rather than the opposition. However, a combination of winning a handy toss and some good positive cricket, enabled the Village to force a victory in the limited time available.

Dave Overton, wishing to control the game and the conditions as far as possible, had no hesitation inserting the hosts. All the Baldock batsmen found the bowling and the swinging conditions difficult to handle. Despite some starts, none of them were able to get on top of the bowling. The top score in the innings was just 16, with only 4 batsmen manging to reach double figures. With just 63 runs scored off the bat, the innings closed on a total of 76 from 32.4 tidy overs.

Needless to say all the bowling figures looked good, with the wickets shared between Dave Overton (4-20), Majid Asif (3-15), James Cook (1-18) and George Downes (1-4). The other wicket was a run out following a sharp bit of fielding from Felix Charles, which somewhat made up for a couple of dropped catches from the once safe pair of hands. In general the rest of the fielding and catching was of a decent standard.

So far so good then, as the 1st innnings was played out in dry and often sunny conditions. An attempt to turn straight round was thwarted, as the rain started to fall and it was soon coming down very heavily. An early tea was taken.

The rain left as swiftly as it had arrived but the playing conditions had deteriorated significantly. The pitch was very damp underfoot and the follow through from one end was particularly problematic. It was now a matter of patience to allow some drying time and some persuasion by the visitors to get started as soon as possible. Every minute that ticked by increased the likelyhood of another shower and an abandonment.

After over an hour waiting around, the 2nd innings finally got underway and it became a race against time to chase down the low total before the next heavy shower. Some of the oppostion bowlers and fielders were unhappy with the conditions but to their credit the opposition skipper and experienced opening bowler were happy to get on with it. Felix Charles and Majid Asif got the reply off to a brisk start before Felix was run out going for a second having slipped on the turn. Phil Smith came to the crease and he and Majid continued to move the score along with positive stroke making.

Showers continued to threaten, rain was falling and on a couple of occasions the umpires and fielding side were close to heading for the dressing room. It is very unlikely that the match would have resumed with the conditions underfoot and the pitch cutting up badly. The batsman refused to move and talked the umpires into staying out. Each time the showers passed by and the rain stopped in the nick of time. Once again credit goes to the opposition skipper who could easily have taken his team off the park.

Smudger (27*) and Majid (28) took the total close to victory before Majid holed out in the deep, leaving Marcus Cara to come in and hit the winning runs off the fifth ball of just the 13th over. Another 30 points, made even sweeter by the fact that many other teams in the Division would have failed to get a game in. Away again next week at Sandridge.