Erlestoke v AVCC
Man was it hot yesterday! Hotter than Andy Murray's jock-strap, I thought. Not that I'm complaining mind - about the weather, that is.
Whilst much of the nation saw the soon to be knighted Jock ease 77 years of hurt (which I didn't feel), AVCC suffered a different sort of pain in the form of heat exhaustion, but finally triumphed over the mighty Erlestoke, chasing down 266 in two short of 40 overs with 3 wickets remaining.
Erlestoke, for the non-attendees, is picture-skew ground set in a walled garden, with no country house, tucked away up an obscure track. The outfield slopes away from the wicket on sides, making fielding difficult with the ball giving you hope, but then winning more often than not. The straight (short) boundaries are normally policed by a six and out rule, because of the nettles (and badger setts, allegedly), but we were spared that one on the day. The pitch is hard and good. They have just bought their ground and are in a good place as a club; they have agreed to give us their second scoreboard - very kind.
The skipper having got 11 quality valleyers (awkward, someone's going to have to think of something better), failed in his other major duty, losing the toss and the team were duly sent into the kettle first.
The bowling started well with Tim Law 39 off 6 for 1 and Graham Newland. Graham bowled at the death too, and produced particularly good figures of 32 off 8 for 1. Dominic Pugh-Cook, son of injured Mark, stumbled a bit with his wrong-footers early, but managed to pick up his first AVCC wicket. Pick of the bowlers was new boy, Greg Caswell, steaming in from the bottom end, fresh from a 19 day bender with the Lions, he did just that to the ball. Erlestoke use an orange ball, because of said nettles, and this thing, in Greg's hands went like a banana, late. Fine figures 18 off 6 for 1 - should have been more. I had the impression that Ben (Shane) Eveling bowled badly, but his figures were in fact 24 off 4, not bad in the context of the match, but the trouble with success is that the team expects more! We'll draw a veil over the rest - the bowling drooped a bit with the heat. The fielding was pretty sprightly though, no catches went down that anyone can remember and we generally stuck to the task, apart from the skipper struggling with right/left hand field placings. Eveling caught a particularly good tumbling catch, which involved a bit of head-banging - turned out to be his least vulnerable spot though.
We lost three wickets chasing early doors for 10 runs, including former super-hero, Dan Thornburn fourth ball of the innings. Rob Hedderwick managed to dispose of Mike (the Shop) Parr via a risky single (there was no changing-room bat throwing that I saw - and if there was, it was very discreet). He then made amends with a partnership of 214 with the skipper, scoring 129 good runs, hitting fearsome boundaries and riding his luck a little. However, they still left 40 to get off 8 when out in quick succession. Bruce (the gloved snaffle (I'm working on it)) Carter threatened but did not deliver. Tim (the finisher) Law missed his first ball, but Greg Caswell and Graham Newland saw us home in fine style, scoring 23 & 8.
The crowd went w...............we scuttled off to the pub as first as our tired legs could manage in search of lager.