Telling Tails: Ravens vs East Garston

And we're off... 2024 is under way after what has felt like a long and wet winter. That bright yellow ball in the sky, which we haven't seen since bank holiday weekend in August appeared once more, and just in time to dry the outfield to allow play to commence.

A huge thank you to East Garston who put a great, friendly and upbeat team together at short notice and who came to Ramsbury in great spirits. We look forward to a return leg, hopefully this season. You were great opponents who gave us a very balanced game, getting all 22 players involved.

This game was a game of 'firsts'.

From a personal perspective it was a dream come true to lead Ramsbury onto the field in my first game as captain... one I'll remember for many reasons, but not least because I hit my first ever 6. I also won my first coin toss and elected to bat.

To ensure everyone gets involved, we retired at 25 and the batting order was randomly generated. This put two regular openers in Nick and Alex down at 10 and 11, probably for the first time ever... but both still had time to grab a few runs.

We all think that a Golden Duck is the worst thing that can happen to you, but a Diamond Duck (first ball of a game) is undoubtably worse... but worse still is a Royale Duck, getting out on the first ball of the season. Sadly Sean realised the importance of indoor nets when it was too late as he walked back having suffered a Royale start. No doubt it will be raised again at the awards dinner.

Jamie entered the field and left again 2 overs later as he struck 26* off 7 balls in absolute style. And Pete (25*), Rich (27*) and Syam (31*) all made great contributions to our total. Nick and Alex would likely have done the same if they'd had more overs. Some brilliant, aggressive running and awareness ensured we reached the 22 over mark on 184/5. I believe our highest T20 score to date. A great total to defend. (For those unaware, the game was lengthened to 22 overs to allow all players to bowl on the visiting team).

With the light fading, we got underway again, with some wonderful support on the sidelines. For an evening game it was especially great to see so many faces come down to watch, thanks to everyone for coming along, including many of our Screaming Eagles, doing some very encouraging screaming from the sidelines! Loved it. And a shout out to Dave for umpiring the whole game, legendary.

Warwick and Syam opened things up and kept us on a good bar, especially against their gun batsman who was hitting boundaries for fun. Pete's dropped catch on the boundary was the first of the season... a tough one in the low light and it would have seen the end of East Garston's biggest threat, but not to be, I have no doubt it will be the first and last drop by Pete these year. The highlight of the opening over though was Alex, who fielded brilliantly with his feet to stop a certain boundary only to then take a 1-handed-over-the-head-backwards-diving-screamer to send the visitors 1 down.

Sean then suffered again, this time from being 2 inches too short as a blinder glanced his finger tips... at full stretch and maximum jump it would have been a blinding catch, but not to be.

As Sean arrived at the popping crease, he dished up some catching practise to the rest of us. Somehow Nick dropped an outside glancing edge, Rich backtracked a mile to tipple-tale over backwards and nearly break is neck (whilst being unable to hold onto the ball) and I ran backwards instead of forwards to miss another opportunity.

Then we got our eye in and catches kept sticking and wickets began to fall. Rich took 3 wickets in his 3 overs, Sean finally had the moment of brilliance he'd been searching for with a wonderful run out (the pre-game throw-ins to Nick making a huge difference there) and further brilliant fielding keep their run chase down.

Then the final over... I decided to make it interesting. They needed about 18. They grabbed a single, then they ran and I did something very very unwise and grabbed an easy run out on the second ball. This brought back the gun batsman. Four balls left, needing around 16.

Four wides later, I landed a straight one on the strip, it disappeared for 6. So well struck, I immediately called for the spare ball, only for the original, now SOAKED first ball to be recovered. 1 ball left. A 6 would tie the game. So I bowled a wide. A 6 would now win them the game. As I finally got the ball straight once more, the batsman was baffled, expecting it to go leg-side and it sailed past into Nick's gloves for me to breathe a huge sigh of relief with the visitors finishing on 180/6.

A brilliant, eventual first game. A few beers after to soak it all in and we open 2024 with our first win... just.

We won that game with EVERYONE involved, a full team effort, brilliant fielding (especially for an opening game), some outstanding batting and equally tight bowling.

We look ahead to our first Sunday fixture, away at Wilcot. If we field there like we did against East Garston we'll be in good shape.

Go well. Cheers.