Friday, 22 May 2020
1 Sep AVCC v Collingbourne
With the sun still shining, and thoughts of winter still long away, AVCC entered the final stretch of the season at home against local rivals and friends, Collingbourne.
We may share a youth team, but the seniors are always aiming to beat each other. This match was one to savour.
AVCC, short of numbers, batted first, hoping to exploit the dry green pitch, beautifully prepared by Tim Gent and the gang again.
Tim went in to open with Dave Battison and the pair of them returned shortly afterwards, both falling to Ashton for 0 and 1 respectively. Simon Campbell came in at 3 and was his usual bludgeoning self, scoring 25 quick runs (5 x 4’s) and ably supported by Bruce Carter at 4 with 9 runs and Stephen Flower at 5 who got a sound 18 runs. Stephen was making his long awaited return from June. However, Bull (3 wickets) and Clark suddenly moved through our middle order and we were 76-6, with Shane Williams out for a quick fire 4.
Simon was worried and called Graham who was in his car en route from playing football for Wiltshire to hurry up and get there and padded up. For the football inclined amongst you, Wiltshire won the National Vintage Cup for the 2nd year running.
But Simon need not have worried, and Graham need not have hurried. Julian Lishman and Matt Dancey were at the crease and played their finest innings to date for AVCC - being not out for 30 and 25 respectively against testing bowling. However, they kept the score ticking along and AVCC finished their 30 overs on 135-6. A 59 run unbeaten partnership which was well needed. Well done Julian and Matt. Quite breathtaking as they ran 31 singles between them. Matt also got a nasty elbow graze diving into to make his ground after a risky single call.
The pitch was taking a lot of bounce, and with the outfield looking slow, then this looked like a reasonable total to defend - although we noticed they had a good batting line up with Owen Sheppard - their well known and well-liked coach due in at 3.
After beer and tea, we had Stephen Flower and Dave Battison open the bowling. 2 tremendous spells ensued…..Stephen with great pace and accuracy taking 1-4 off 4 overs and Dave - changing style to focus on spin - taking 2-9 off 4 overs. Good start…they were 3-5 after 5.3 overs. Great bowling from both. Dave’s spell was notable for getting an lbw decision (unheard of vs Collingbourne, perhaps as Mark Brett not playing :) ), getting a caught and bowled and 2 no-balls which both descended with ice on them.
By now, Owen Sheppard and Clark had dug in and weathered the storm. So new bowlers…Ollie Lishman (youngest player on the pitch) and Graham Newland (oldest player on the pitch) now bowled in tandem. Ollie bowled well and accurately, and was defended well by Sheppard. I saw deep respect from Owen for Ollie…which augurs well for the future for Ollie. Ollie took 0-12 off 5 overs; on another day, wickets would have fallen with his accuracy.
Graham got into the groove and took 2-12 off 5 overs, getting the ball to turn off the quicker ball and even had a hat-trick opportunity. 31-5 and the match was looking almost over.
However, Owen Sheppard had other views and decided to show us a range of his shots. 59 off 16 balls and circumventing the slow outfield with 5 towering 6’s, put on 92 not out…before his team mates subsided and Collingbourne were out for 116 - giving AVCC a win by 19 runs. That’s 3 wins out of 3 versus Collingbourne this year.
Shane Williams 2-43 off 6, Tim Gent 2-20 (off 3), and Julian Lishman 1-16 (2.2 overs) concluded the innings…bowling tidily but finding Owen a bit of a handful. Tim also got himself onto a hat-trick opportunity but the batsman defended stoutly.
Interesting stats of the match - 8 of the Collingbourne batsmen made ducks; 3 of them golden. 6 of them were bowled. And Bruce did not let any byes go past and took a great catch behind too. The slower bowlers (spinners, dobblers, and mystical) - Graham, David, Tim and Julian took the majority (7) of the wickets between them. Not a day for pace.
A few beers afterwards with Collingbourne, in the sun around the pavilion, made a good day pretty wonderful. A match played in good spirit, with some good cricket - especially Owen’s batting onslaught, and some good social time. Looking forward to the return next season already.