Captain Flavell lets the opposition off the hook and makes the game ‘interesting’

This weeks game had us driving up the A10 for our first visit to St Margaretsbury. With four changes from the previous week, our usual laid back approach to turning up for the game was in evidence, with Darshan (+ Naz) having to drive his missile at a sedate 50 on the M25 and even less on the A10. Dan Butcher had been unable to find Stef’s house and Stef’s dog had eaten his mobile – an excuse worthy of Bart Simpson.

We won the toss and decided to field with 7 players at the ground. As a captain it’s easier to set a field with 7 players and Jon Bird and Crocker opened the bowling with a loose ring of fielders against the embryonic opening bat pair of Matt Bendin and Steve Gilmore. We had 9 players at the end of the first over and the full complement at the end of the second. Much to Jon’s glee the wicket, which was still drying after the previous day’s heavy rain, proved to have tennis ball bounce and Jon was soon peppering the openers with some hostile short pitched stuff which we never have a chance to do at home. Crocker got the first breakthrough with a short ball wide of the off stump providing Steve Pullen with a regulation catch to remove Gilmore. The equally young no 3, Stan Mason was unable to resist the pull shot and somehow managed to avoid our fielders and was also dropped off Birdy by Dan Butcher at square leg (an absolute dolly according to the home team match report) before edging one off change bowler Darshan Raval to Naz at first slip. At the other end Naz Asif had replaced Jon and got the wicket of opposition captain Mark Bailey with another catch behind the stumps for Steve, one over after an absolute plum LBW was turned down by the young umpire – perhaps a case of being too scared to give the captain out? Darshan at the other end was in the process of making a mess of the young middle order and the innings slumped from 51-2 in the 21st over to 77-8 in the 32nd, with Darshan taking 5 for 14.

Mindful of Darshans illness, which meant he had to field in the slips to avoid running around in the field, something he had also managed to avoid the week before at square leg, Captain Flavell immediately withdrew him from the attack to be replaced by Stefan ‘Bart’ Gannon, making his debut in the 2’s bowling left arm round the wicket. Stef bowled a lovely line and length and removed no 9 Sam Glossop with a beauty which clipped the top of off stump and with the opposition battening down the hatches produced remarkable figures of 7 overs, 6 maidens, 1 wicket for 1 run! Colt Andrew Godfrey, making his senior debut, replaced Naz and bowled well but never quite got to terms with the left hand-right hand combination of batsmen to return figures of 6 overs for 30 runs. Andrew was replaced by another ill bowler Sanket Shah, with 5 overs to go as the home team looked to boost their score at the end of the innings. Sanket struggled to find his length and was dispatched out of the ground on a couple of occasions to return probably his worst ever figures of 2 overs, 22 runs though not helped by two drops, one tipped over the bar by Dan Butcher standing under a tree and the other spilled by Stefan running backwards at midwicket. Naz finished off the innings by bowling Sam Whyman with the first ball and Cameron Bailey with the last ball to end the St Margaretsbury innings on 130 all out from 47 overs. The team strode into tea muttering that ‘this would never have happened in Downeseys day’.

After last week’s batting feats, openers George Lee and Lee Crocker strode out to the wicket. Young opening bowler Sam Whyman welcomed George with a snorter of a first ball which would have dented the Graham Gooch Mk 1 helmet had George not got his glove to his nose, much to the amusement of myself at square leg umpire and the non-batting Villagers on the sidelines. George was out in the third over, hitting a short wide ball to almost the only fielder on the off side at cover (8-1). Crocker was batting in his usual aggressive manner but did pause to borrow the helmet from the departing George. Jon Bird looked solid in defence and resolute in the face of a taste of his own medicine, letting the ball hit him with a wry grin at the aggressive young bowler before being unluckily bowled off his pads by the other opener Mark Willis (25-2). When Crocker (21) was caught from a mistimed pull at midwicket to make it 32-3, I must admit that I was feeling a little queasy with the result far from being in the bag.

With the young opener reaching his limit of 6 overs and being replaced by the less threatening Bailey, Dan Butcher steadied the ship with some gritty Northern defence whilst Naz opened his account with a towering 6 over long on. With everything going relatively smoothly at 79-3 Dan mishit a short wide ball back to the bowler for a regulation catch which he proceeded to drop. Dan had done the right thing in running but had forgotten to scream ‘RUN’ to Naz who was watching proceedings with interest. With both batsmen at the non-striking end, Dan failed to make his ground and was run out for a useful 14 (79-4). Darshan, promoted up the order as his illness meant he had to bat at 5 or 6 (scientists are working around the clock researching this mystery disease), batted very sensibly at one end, whilst Naz biffed the ball around holing out at long on for a valuable 45 (104-5). The out of sorts Sanket was adjudged LBW to the returning opener Sam Whyman for 1 (105-6), to bring the somewhat nervous Dave Flavell to the crease. Flavell (17*) and Raval (13*) steered the ship home without much further drama apart from an interesting bye ran by Darshan who would have been run out by yards had there been a direct hit.

For an entertaining alternative view of the game see the St Margaretsbury match report on http://stmcc.org.uk/Reports.php

Conclusions Years of being captained by Chalky Cara must have left an impression on captain Flavell, who well and truly let the opposition off the hook at 77-8 to let them get to a defendable 130. With a lively pitch which we are completely unused to, some good hostile opening bowling and the sometimes erratic contributions of our middle order, the match could easily have gone the other way at 32-3. Dan Butcher, Naz Asif and Darshan all contributed to the batting recovery to give us a vital win and some invaluable practice at batting under pressure. Darshan (5 for 14), Naz (3 for 15) and Stefan (1 for 1) also bowled well, with Jon Bird getting no reward for his hostile contribution to the bowling attack.

A lesson has been learnt and there will be no repeat of such generosity. It’s a good job Nut wasn’t playing as he would have spontaneously combusted!

Mill Hill Village IIs 30 points, St Margaretbury IIIs 10 points.

Next week, Chipperfield Clarendon IIIs away.