Telling Tails: Ravens vs Nationwide House
To be traditionally British, the weather on Monday evening ensured that no one needed to water their plants for a few days as it lashed down in bucket loads. At the time, play for the following evening seemed up in the air. Much to my surprise, Tuesday morning's inspection of the pitch made it clear our ground can take it and it was obvious we would be able to get underway come the evening as the remaining surface water would evaporate up in the air as the day progressed.
Prior to this, the line up was somewhat up in the air too, Sunday morning we had 13 available, come Sunday evening that was dow to 8! Fortunately the squad pulled together and we ticked back up to fill out the side. Thanks everyone!
Our opponents, Nationwide House (as in Nationwide the building society) are the previous team for our very own Sir Mitchell. Laurence still knows a handful of the players, and the guys brought the ideal vibe to the game. A big thanks to them for coming down and enjoying the evening sun.
Having lost the toss we were put in to field. It wouldn't have been my choice but as that coin went up into the air, I just felt, by a law of averages that it was time we lost one.
Harry arrived under the influence, and was struggling. Fortunately this would go one of two ways, and bowling the second over, the first delivery did stay up in the air as a full toss was delivered to the onlooking batsman. Fortunately this was the last wayward ball from Harry as he bowled three great overs within the 20. Sean got a wicket with his first ball, caught by Will, and repeated a few overs later as Malcolm bowled his first overs for Ramsbury CC and picking up a wicket in the process! Congratulations mate... as that ball went up in the air, I was pleased that Will was on the receiving end to send the visitors 36 for 2 after 6 overs.
The catching chances kept coming, ball after ball was hit, well... up in the air. I dropped one down at mid off with poor technique, Sean believed 3 people had dropped one as the batsman managed to find a gap in the field, only for it to end as a dot ball and one or two others went begging. But most importantly we kept the pressure on, run out chances where high and through good backing up, we had near miss after near miss. The batsman looked rushed and the catches that did stick all but stopped any momentum the opposition where trying to gather. An in the process a batting mix up ensured that a great pick up from Jamie, delivered at pace to Nick gave us a much deserved run out.
Warwick and Renwick both hit the stumps, whilst Harry also took a wicket too, but hot off Sunday, Rich was the pick of the bowlers as he strode in to take 1 wicket off 2 overs for just 4 runs.
This put us in what felt like a commanding position as we switched innings with Nationwide House finishing on 117/7 off 20 overs.
We got underway in our usual random batting order fashion with Jamie and Will opening the batting. Jamie unfortunate to be given out in what could be called a 50/50 decision... we need cameras for replays these days! And Will going good but not able to convert his score into the higher figures. Sean stuck about long enough and kept the score ticketing over nicely with support from Warwick and Chris. As Nick arrived at the crease though, it was somewhat up in the air. We needed over a run a ball, having kept just slightly ahead of the over-by-over scores, but were slipping away through a tricky patch.
Worse still the outfield was slowing dramatically. What had seemed like a certain boundary for Will earlier in the innings, fell short of a 6, but also landed and stopped dead. Resulting in just a single being run. Nick was striking it well, and Sean too, but 1s and 2s was the name of the game... running the 'first one hard' worked a treat though as we continued to convert the near boundaries into more runs than if we'd tried to jog through thinking it would go all the way.
As Sean dodged retirement with a match defining 23, Harry took his spare bat to the middle feeling somewhat hungover with the alcohol rapidly fading off. A nightmare situation made worse by the requirement to run nearly everything.
Struggling to connect and knowing 'one bounce fours' were the best and quickest scoring options, the catching chances were high. Fortunately a high scoring 17th over but the victory in our sights. Needing just 4 an over off the last 3 to draw ensured we were in a commanding position.
Harry hit back to back 'one-bounce-four' boundaries through mid-off to secure the win, as a sigh of relief went up in the air to seal victory with just over 1 over to spare.
Another sterling performance from all, not least Malcolm who fielded brilliantly, saving many runs and taking his first wicket for the team, a really great contribution to our win!
We look ahead to Sunday, another home fixture with a 1pm start.
Go well. Cheers! 🏏