Concorde v YRG Eagles CC

Match Report

This season we have been going through leaders at a rate that would make the Tory party proud and the latest to have the honour of being captain bestowed on him was my good self. The forecast for the game was more of a question of when, rather than if it was going to rain. My sympathies therefore at the toss were firmly with the bowlers, who I figured would probably appreciate at least some time using a ball in good condition. Happily, the Concorde tradition of being useless tossers was maintained as the oppo decided they would have a bat. My plan was to take advantage of the heavy atmosphere and that coupled with a few interesting looking cracks in the pitch, would mean that we would skittle them out for a low total and then knock off the runs before the rain came.

Tom opened down the hill with a hostile spell which clearly unnerved a succession of batsman who decided to go arial at the other end. Bowling up the hill, Dave was rewarded with 4 wickets and Tom took 2. Those 6 wickets and an excellent run out with a direct hit from Tom left the opposition somewhat floundering at 7 for 70 odd after 11 overs. At this stage my master plan looked to be coming together rather nicely and surely we’d be able to dispose of the tail in the way we had disposed of the upper and middle order. Batting at no.7 a certain Mr Atif unfortunately had other ideas. His first strategy was to hit David for 4 consecutive boundaries. At this point I thought he would surely perish with a bowling change. Despite the fireworks at the Atif end, Jerry came on to bowl very steadily and economically. He was also to take the final wicket to fall by inducing their number 11 batter to stand somewhere near first slip so that he could be bowled around his legs. For a moment he appeared to be so angry and confused by this that it looked as if he wasn’t going to walk. Happily he did eventually head off whilst berating the number 10 batter whose fault it seemed to be. At the other end, I decided my variations would also make an impact. There was an impact however not on the wickets column with my first two overs going for 25. At this stage, it was starting to feel like me bowling was a very bad idea. Happily the next few overs were tighter and a few overs later the danger man was caught behind with Justin pouching a tricky rising ball. I also took the other wicket to fall with a terrible short ball which induced and even more terrible stroke.

The opposition finished their innings after 27 overs scoring possibly 154. I say possibly as it turned out that Mick was having to explain how to update the score book. Despite the fireworks of Atif whose 88 runs were some 63 runs more than the next highest scoring batsman, we headed into tea still feeling confident of chasing down the runs. Unfortunately, the first few drops of rain started to fall as we headed off the pitch and it then proceeded to continue to rain all afternoon.

Despite the disappointing end to the game, there was plenty to enjoy in the match. I can’t remember a Concorde game where every catch was taken but Jerry, Nick, Justin, Nick, Andy and myself all snaffled our chances. There was also some great bowling and fielding as well as the run out. There was also a clear stumping but the batsman only an inch out when Justin removed the bails. The umpire decided to wave his arms around rather than giving the wicket however.