Rorke’s Drift meets The Alamo - village tailenders hold out at the death for a battling draw

With heavy showers falling the game was delayed until 2pm, losing 14 overs in total. We were lucky to be playing at Flitwick’s main ground which has covers and Super Soppers (whatever they are?). I managed to skilfully lose the toss and the Flitwick skipper chose to bat as usual. With Darshan having hurt his shoulder leaning out of the car window on Friday (WTF?), Naz and Crocker opened the bowling. Naz quickly removed Summerfield with a simple caught and bowled (7/1). Flitwick skipper Sean Nicklin was batting in his usual aggressive manner but was lucky not to be caught behind off an inside edge, which was to prove a costly drop. Nicklin and Ian Pitkin rapidly pushed the score on to 50 until Sanket deceived Pitkin with a beautifully flighted ball to which he went forward then back and was bowled off his pads (50/2). Nicklin and Bygraves continued the rapid progress and the score raced past 100. Bygraves finally fell on 27 caught and bowled by Flavell (107/3), swiftly followed by Thurstance caught off the off spin of Matt Hawkes (108/4). Matt then claimed the vital wicket of Nicklin (69), well caught at deep cow by the ever-reliable hands of Lee Crocker (125/5). Again one brought two as Rashid played a dirty slog across the line and was bowled by Flavell (125/6), leaving two new batsmen at the crease. Fenney and Ramsey rebuilt the innings largely with aggressive running practically every time they hit the ball. After surviving one close run out attempt, Fenney (23) was run out by Matt Hawkes from point 167/7. Ramsey (17) followed almost immediately, caught by Crocker off Naz (169/8) (4) as did Kennard (4), caught at mid off by Dave Knight off Flavell (174/9) and the innings was wrapped up on 175 with another run out (perpetrator unknown).

A target of 176 from 43 overs on a rapid, drying outfield seemed achievable at this point. Unfortunately , George Lee (0) was swiftly back in the hutch, bowled playing inside the ball by Ramsey (3/1), followed by Naz (0), also bowled by Ramsey (8/2). Zaf Basit, batting at 4 in an attempt to recuperate from keeping wicket,together with Crocker then put the Village back on track with a solid partnership of 58, finally ended when Crocker (35) was caught at point chasing a poor, wide ball from Edwins (66/3). Matt Hawkes strode purposefully to the crease and batted aggressively, scoring 16 runs from a 19 run partnership before Zaf gloved one from leg spinner Thurstance to first slip (85/4). Matt then fell strolling down the wicket and being stumped by Bygraves (89/5). With several batsmen left, 86 runs to win from 19 overs didn’t seem too daunting. Unfortunately, Jonny Gahan (0) was unluckily run out by a deflection onto the stumps by bowler Thurstance without facing a ball (89/6) and Dave Knight was then stumped in the same over (93/7). Once again two new batsmen, Sanket Shah and Dave Flavell were at the crease, and we decided to try to bat 10 overs without getting out. One ball later that strategy was in tatters with Sanket (0) bowled through the gate first ball by Edwins (93/8).

At this point, the equation was 83 to win from 17 overs with 2 wickets remaining, i.e. 5 an over. Not impossible, just very unlikely. Lozza and Legs decided to repeat the not getting out strategy, with somewhat more success than the previous effort. Loz blocked or left pretty much everything whilst Legs took advantage of any loose ball to push the score along. Apart from vocal legspinner Thurstance, who became more frustrated with every appeal turned down, a wicket seemed unlikely until Flavell (22) pushed innocuously at a leg side ball, only to get a leading edge and give short midwicket Edwins an easy catch (120/9 from 36 overs). Darshan came in as last man with 7 overs left to survive and together with Loz defended stubbornly for the last 7 overs, only giving one chance when a short ball was lobbed up in front of silly mid off. The innings finished on 124 for 9 with Flitwick frustrated and the Village elated at denying promotion rivals the victory. Several commiserative beers were had with the opposition on what turned out to be a lovely summers evening, a complete contrast to the earlier weather which had almost forced the cancellation of the game.

Conclusions ‘Cometh the hour, cometh the man’. I can’t think of a better person to come in at 10 when you don’t want to lose a game than Lawrence Bird. Well versed in the art of the leave, the forward defensive and especially the use of the front pad, Lozza saved his bat for another day and produced a defiant innings , scoring only 4 runs from 17 overs, ably supported by Dave Flavell and Darshan Raval. We were clearly well beaten in every other aspect of the game, but it was very satisfying to deny Flitwick the 15 points they would have gained for the win. We stuck at bowling and fielding very well to restrict Flitwick to 175 after being 107/2, though they could have been 7/2 had a sharp chance been held. Naz (2 for 42 from 14.4 overs) and Legs (3 for 36 from 13 overs) were the pick of the bowlers. Where we underperformed was batting. Four batsmen got ducks, Jonny being the unluckiest, and that is a tough position to come back from. Still, it’s early in the season and I expect that both teams will be in the mix for promotion at the business end.

For the Flitwick side of the story, follow the link on:
http://flitwickcc.play-cricket.com/view_results_details?id=11910575

Flitwick III 15 points, Mill Hill Village II 10 points