It was a slim showing at the Bell
for the pre-match warm up with the Keelings & Mackwoods being joined by a
lone Clifton. Simply extraordinary event
of note took place there; not only did I walk to the bar and was immediately
asked if I’d like to be served, but, while being served, was approached by a 2nd
member of the Bell’s staff to be asked if I would like to be served!! I
wondered idly if I was indeed in the correct venue and if that this was not the
reason for the lack of Rascals at the place? The sense of ‘Twilight Zone’ continued on
arrival at the ground at 2.20. The pavilion
was unlocked, the strip prepared, boundary markers in place and benches &
chairs out, patiently waiting for posteriors.
If that was not enough there was only 1 piece of broken machinery on the
field of play. Surely this day was going
to offer up something out of the ordinary?
The strip looked very fine indeed
and was our first not on a hand-me-down from Mayfield for some time, it was a
thing of beauty to behold and Rosco and his team should be proud of their
work. Nielo was elected captain and duly
sauntered out to the square with Nigel to lose the toss, but then be asked to
field (our original choice), things were already heading in the right direction. Lund opened the bowling in fine form, coming
in off an extended run up, demonstrating his full commitment to the cause. With PK at the other end they bowled out
their allotted overs managing to reasonably contain the onslaught of Collier
youth, never quite letting them get away from us. So after 14 overs they were
on about 75 runs for the loss of two Colliers. The opening pair were replaced
by Kit and Clifton. Kit bowled quite superbly
taking 4 wickets for 13 runs off his 7 overs with a couple of caught and bowled
for good measure. The bowling analysis in
the score book states he got a Michelle, but, try as I might, I have not been
able to uncover the 5th in the top section. Other wickets came from, Zak (2), and Clifton
and Grigson 1 each. Our captain was in
great voice marshalling the troops with many shouts of ‘Back your bowler’ and ‘Great
wheels’, bon mots picked up (and best
left there) while playing for Mayfield the day before. Suffice it to say that when we despatched
their last batsmen and returned to the pavilion 3 overs short of the allotted
35 with the Impediments restricted to 160 we were, you can understand, rather
concerned that we might have overplayed our hand and be in danger of ruining
the perfect season we had so far of unblemished ‘beatens’.
Serious though these concerns
were, they were quickly forgotten in the face of a delicious and bounteous tea,
courtesy of Mrs K. The Bowies had
suggested that we only make half a tea(?*!#?!?!)
earlier in the week, but these offers were obviously eschewed as it would be a
serious dereliction of duty on the part of the home team not provide sustenance
for all present.
After tea, Los dos Paulo’s, took
the field and things started brightly enough, aided no doubt because those
fiendishly cunning, scheming little Imps had decided to reverse their bowling
order and opened with a James Bowie and Collier senior. All was moving along is a reasonable fashion
until Rosco wised up to the fact that we really might have a chance of screwing
the season up with a win, charged down the wicket to Collier, managed an epic
air shot and was so far out of his crease that even his own son had to give him
out from square leg.
PK was joined by Geoff Knight and
even though PK tried his hardest to throw his wicket, the runs kept coming and
the dreaded victory loomed on the horizon.
Finally though they bowled on the wicket and PK was able to let one
through. Mr Knight clearly had not got
the memo though as he doggedly stayed in (mainly at the non-facing end)
notching up the highest score of the Rascal’s innings. Luckily the rest of the middle order had read
the battle plans in advance and the next 5 batsmen played a spirited game to
amass only 14 runs for loss of all their wickets, phew, we could breathe
again. In fact, and they can hardly be
blamed, there was concern that we might have taken it too far and that the cricket
authorities might issue lengthy bans to the entire team in some horrendous spot
betting scandal. From an unlikely source,
rescue came in the form of 2 Keelings and a Lund. Zak put in a lovely cameo of 18 rapid runs
and then Jasper (2 not out in the end) supported Lund to 2nd highest
score of the innings. Me thinks that the Impediments suffered from
a momentary panic that an unlikely recovery was at hand. As it was, like those men of Harlech, we
march squarely on toward the glory that is a beaten season.
Quick tidy up and then most repaired
to the Bull (hate the new re-branding by the way) for the time honoured passing
of the bat. Bowie looked very happy to
take back possession of the trophy after 4 long years in the wilderness. For the record the Rascals retain a lead of 7-6
in the series.
I do have one last piece of news
that is rather worrying; late last night the PWCC auditors were called in after
a gaping hole in the tea accounts was found.
We are as yet unclear where this hole appeared from, but early checks
show that all the Rascals money due has been accounted for and the team of
crack accountants working on this are confident of tracking town the reason for
the shortfall. More on this as news
comes in…..
