Avebury vs AVCC

Not a cloud in the sky, a cooling breeze and lots of sunshine. Idyllic. Just the day for a game of cricket.

We assembled, and duly noted their extremely professional approach to pitch layout (they had flags and a white rope around the boundary). We also noted that their South African Pro (Wes) had again decided to play us, so obviously scared of our reputation and combative nature.

We kind of won the toss and captain for the day, Graham decided to have a bat, on the basis we (a) might wear them out or (b) get to the pub quicker. The track looked good and hard, although the outfield looked a bit high and green.

So we sent out Geoff Smith and Simon Borthwick to open. Geoff faced, and looked confident, hooking a tremendous 4 off his 3rd ball. Unfortunately, aiming to repeat the feat, he was out last ball of the over caught square leg. 4-1 off 1. Mike Parr came in for his second bat of the season and soon settled, and he and Simon navigated comfortably. Simon was in imperious form and not allowing dots to settle in the score book and hit some great 4’s. Mike scored a crushing 4, but unfortunately got himself (dozily) run out at the non strikers end when play looked dead by loitering around, whilst one of their fielders still ran him out. So 34-2 off 9 overs.

Jeremy Richards came in and looked sound until he was somehow bowled through a gate or mouse hole or something and the ball just grazed his bail, the cooling breeze doing the rest. Out for a duck, and we were 39-3 off 11.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man, and Greg Caswell strode out for his first at-bat of the season. You would have never have known it.. Amazingly outscoring our own opening hare in Simon, the 2 built a rapid partnership with the ball flying around the ground in all directions. They were looking good and Avebury looked to wring the changes. Unfortunately, Greg was caught in full flow on 36, having struck 7 mighty 4’s off just 29 balls. Great innings and gave us something to fight with. 91-4 in the 19th over.

Hugh Norman joined Simon and looked very stylish. He can play above his 15 years, and struck the ball well against a reasonable bowling attack. He looked settled with Simon until Simon got unluckily caught with the score on 123-in the 24th over. Simon had scored a good 51with 5*4’s off just 48 balls. Another good innings from Simon, who seems to have a penchant for half-centuries at Avebury.

Now time for our long and fairly unused tail (this season) to try and hang-in there as Avebury cranked up the pressure. Graham Newland joined Hugh and we scampered around until Hugh departed caught on 11 with the score on 132-6 in the 28th over. Good innings from Hugh who is looking stronger each time we see him, and struck both a good 4 and a good 3..

Alex Brown came in, and struck 4 off 7 balls before being bowled. 136-7. This brought in Bruce Carter, who was looking decidedly apprehensive due to lack of batting time this season. A few calming words from Graham  and the pair saw out the innings with the score on 161-7 when our innings closed. Graham was on 12 not out and Bruce 9 not out (having struck a couple of sweet 4’s). Overall, a reasonable score and the highest we have posted against Avebury on their ground. Could have been more, but they insisted on bowling very wide throughout the game and it was not easy to get such balls away as they mischievously sprinkled each over with 1 on the stumps too.

So our turn to field. We weren’t optimistic as their South African Pro has continuously turned us over previously, and they also had their club captain Dominic Fry in the mix. However, we were determined to ruffle their feathers and push the pro and this league 1 side hard. We had to borrow a fielder from Avebury as Geoff Smith was off injured with a nasty groin injury sustained whilst umpiring (please don’t ask how!).

Jeremy Richards came downhill breathing fire from all cylinders and quickly had their openers dancing on their toes. Young Alex Richardson opened up from the uphill end and opened with a beautiful maiden. In Alex’s second over, he bowled out their opener Clarkson with his first ball and looked very sharp. He then proceeded to take another wicket (clean-bowled) with the last ball of the over to have a double wicket maiden. Most excellent. Great bowling - 2 overs 0-2, and Avebury 11-2 off 4 overs.

Unfortunately, this seemed to hack them off. Their club captain, Wiltshire Query and damn good bat, Dominic Fry came in up the order. We knew this would be difficult, and it wasn’t helped when Alex took himself off after 3 overs unable to bowl more in the heat although his figures were excellent 2-2 of 3 overs.

Greg came on uphill and a great dual commenced between him and Dominic. Greg conceded 1 off his first over of tight, hostile bowling. However, not to be outdone by the schoolboys….he then took a double wicket maiden for his second over. He first had their other opener, Bruce, clean bowled and then Hugh Norman took a difficult, waist-high, and fast-moving catch off the last ball in the slips. Probably the best slip catch we have seen at AVCC.. 30-4 in the 10th over.

Now they were panicking and sent in their big-hitting South African Professional - Wes Hartslief. A man known for punishing schoolboys and treating opposition attacks with no respect. What can we say, first ball he struck it for 6 - out of the ground, over the footpaths, and into the garden of a neighbouring house. Lost ball (for some 20 minutes). Containing him was almost impossible in this mood.

Greg and Hugh bowled well. They managed to give both Dominic and Wes issues, however, Wes in particular kept thundering 6’s out of the ground (he hit 6 in total) and 4’s to all parts. Although, wicketless, Hugh performed extremely well against probably the most fearsome batting duo we have to face all season and kept beating the batsmen for no joy. Greg was extremely accurate and difficult to play for his first 5 overs, until Wes decided to lump him in his last 2 overs (2-17 off 5, 2-42 off 7).

So we brought Jeremy back to give them another pounding. I have never seen any AVCC player ever come in so fast and deliver a ball so quick. Positively frightening. Indeed, first over back he took 2 wickets - clean bowling Dominic for 25 and their no 7 for  a silver duck. In both cases, he beat the batsmen for both speed and movement. Absolutely fantastic bowling….best I have seen at AVCC in 4 seasons….and indeed, given events at the end, I think he will be in Avebury’s 1st team on Saturdays (not any other day otherwise we will find you Jeremy!) before too long. 127-6 off 23. Could we pull it off?

Well we tried, but it was not to be. We ran out of bowlers (young Alex had to go back to school), and we had no pace left. We kept them having to earn their runs  with Jeremy and Graham who were both economical, but we had nothing left. Their South African pro finished out proceedings hitting 92 not out and we lost by 4 wickets.

Overall, give the standard of the opposition (League 1) plus the presence of their Pro who cleared won the game for them almost single-handedly, we felt we had acquitted ourselves well. We ran them hard to 30 overs, had them dancing on their toes, and having to put up all their big ammunition to hold us off. Without Wes, we could have fancied our chances as we bowled well today and fielded well. No dropped catches, good movement in the field - especially Martin Mitchell (welcome back, first start of the season), Alex Richardson and Jeremy Richards.

On the plus side, Jeremy’s bowling (28-2 off 7 overs) was first class and the most hostile and accurate seen from an AVCC player. Greg Caswell comes out of nowhere and bats excellently from the first ball and bowls well again. Alex Richardson and Hugh Norman continue to show the promise that they will be formidable players when they grow and develop over the next few years and our tail got some batting practise and feel better with the world as a result.

Although beaten, there were so many positives from this game that we all came away feeling better and that’s a good thing. Onwards…!