Venue: West Harrow Rec
A beautiful sunny day in Harrow greeted the eager Crossbats as they arrived at the home Yarl. Short sleeves and sunglasses were de rigeur, in direct contrast to the early season home fixture when balaclavas, mittens and Spiro’s luminous headgear were more appropriate.
The Crossbats had already been in the field for 10 minutes before their opponents arrived. Captain Shandy Pants decided to continue with his recent tactic of losing the toss and with a threadbare Yarl electing to bat first, Crossbats set about the task with gusto.
Opening the bowling were the fiery pairing of Tilson and Pants. After a couple of looseners, the bails began to fly. Tilson removed Beski, while at the other end Pants was on fire and had decided he might try bowling at the stumps this week. 3 quick wickets followed and at 28 for 4 Yarl were looking shaky.
Number 4 Tharma looked dangerous, and strangely reminiscent of a right handed Chanderpaul, clipping a couple of boundaries wristily through the on side. However, a moment of madness ensued when the youngster decided he would try to run a bye following a rare error my keeper Sphing. Misjudging the deceptive speed of Winch, the little batsman could only watch as Winch swooped, spun and hurled down the stumps with Tharma well short of his ground.
With bowling changes aplenty, Fraser trundled in off his short run up and took a bit of punishment (not helped by a boundary the length of a tennis court on one side). At the other end, perhaps distracted by having the combined skills of Arse and Mupes protecting the short boundary, Fitch was bowling with plenty of variety. From one of his cleverly pitched long-hops, Fitch struck. Ratna’s eyes had lit up, and expecting easy runs he carved it through the covers. However, the trap had been set and Jonty Arse plucked it out of the air with great aplomb.
Fitch soon showed himself again to be the thinking-man’s cricketer by opting to go around the wicket to the free-scoring Yogan. This tucked the batsman up on several occasions, and soon enough he had succumbed and was bowled.
At this point Shandy gave the call to his premier medium-slow bowler, Spiro. It was the end of August, his first bowl of the season and with barely an over to prepare, Spiro set about his task with enthusiasm. The Yarl batsman played some risky airborne shots, including one leading edge to Stroppules at long leg. Deceived by the spin (it’s not something he’s familiar with), Stroppy ran one way while the ball went the other. Four runs and now Spiro was really mad. Charging in, he got one to swing, seam and bounce off a length, Tilson taking a neat catch off of Yogan.
All that was left was for Stroppy to clean up the last 2 wickets and Yarl were all out for 103 and an early tea was taken.
In reply, Shandy decided to open the innings with the experienced Winch and the nervous Fingers. In a controversial move, Fraser enthusiastically volunteered to umpire from both ends to help out the fast fading Mupes. Winch set about the bowling well, carving some wristy boundaries across the fast outfield. At the other end, Fingers was showing a rare determination to stop the ball from hitting his pads by whatever means he could. While Yarl were strangely quiet, the square leg umpire was on several occasions heard to appeal on their behalf, but to no avail.
After a couple of scares, the opening pair had taken the score on to 39 before Fingers could resist no longer. The dreaded straight ball, he played, he missed, it hit his pad but sadly for Fraser it then hit the stumps before he was able to raise his finger.
Next in was Arse, striding purposefully to the wicket sensing runs were to be had. A couple of authoritative strokes were followed by a few quick singles, and several slower ones kept the scoreboard ticking along nicely. At the other Winch continued at a good rate and both players seemed to be playing with half an eye on the averages, much to the displeasure of the impatient Sphing on the boundary. Surprisingly, Winch misjudged one, playing back to a straight one from the left-armer and was bowled for a mostly fluent 42. Score 77 for 2.
Thus it was left to Sphing and a rejuvenated Arse to finish the match with a few lusty blows and Crossbats steamed home with 16 overs to spare.
A good all round performance from Crossbats against an admittedly below-par Yarl, it was their first victory since 5th July and sets them up for a strong finish to the season.
(Author: Fingers aka Clive Nicholls )
