13 Sep AVCC v Wohanka Invitation XI
On a hot, sunny day - perfect for cricket - we took on a new fixture at our picturesque Garston Field. Our neighbour, Richard Wohanka, of nearby Rushall Manor had brought together a formidable invitation team made up of largely young tyros from London and some from Wiltshire to take us on - starting what, I suspect, will be an annual event.
Starting at 11am, the wicket looked really good…freshly trimmed and rolled; it looked in good shape and with a hint of dew and dampness. Graham won the toss and decided to put the Invitation XI into bat, with the intent of using the best of the wicket for bowling, and also not fielding in the worst of the heat.
We also welcomed back Joe Wookey, taking a day off from paternal duties for his first match (for anyone) of the season and looking remarkably trim. Bruce just made it back from Church on time, and we kicked off slightly late at 11.10. Graham gave a short welcome speech to our visitors and then we were off…..
The plan started off well. Michael Rae had their highly-rated opener (V Malik) out for a duck, 3rd ball, with an unplayable ball that had venom and also moved sharply in off the pitch. 1-0. Michael and Ed Olley had their 2 batsmen under control and both bowled extremely well. Michael was always dangerous with his mixed flight and length, and deserved more wickets, but finished with an excellent 1-11 off 7 overs. Ed Olley bowled really fast and extracting great pace and bounce off the pitch, steaming in from the Upavon end. Deserved more wickets but ended up with a very valuable and well-bowled 1-16 off 7 overs. Julian Lishman took the catch for the wicket, neatly at square leg. So at 14 overs, despite the obvious quality of their batsmen, the Wohanka tyros were on 31-1 after 14 overs.
Their batsmen were handling our pace, and so at the sanitiser interval, Graham decided to change things up, bringing on Julian Lishman from the Rushall end and Stephen Flower from the Upavon end. He had a hunch that Stephen would prosper on the wicket from that end having watched Ed fizz the ball through and despite a previous groin injury that had made Stephen stop mid-over at Marden, we decided to “give it a go”. Inspired.
Julian bowled well with a good range of flight, and Stephen after a couple of reticent overs then announced he was feeling good. Cue wickets. Julian took a deserved wicket of their dangerous no.3 (J Fordyce) with a good catch by Joe Wookey (in full appreciative and excited view of wife and daughters). Julian bowled well and took a well-earned 1-22 off 5 overs.
Stephen then decided that bowling wickets was a safer option (having had catches dropped 3 times by then) and bowled the other dangerous batsman (T Jackson) in the next over, his 4th. No stopping him now, and by the time he had finished his 7 overs, Stephen had taken 5-29. Excellent bowling, well deserved, with 4 batsmen bowled and 1 lbw in a good spell where you could see Stephen growing in confidence. When the Covid-19 restrictions ease in the future, Stephen will be reminded by his appreciative colleagues that a jug is in order for this special attainment. Well done, well deserved, Stephen.
For the stato’s in this group, that’s only the 3rd “fifer’ by an AVCC player at our home ground, following Mark Banham (5-7) and Graham Newland (5-11). Indeed, only the 4th in our history - Ben Eveling at Avebury (5-31) taking the other. I think we are ready for an honours board.
Although Stephen had decimated their middle order, their number 6 (A Farqhar - one of only a small number of Wiltshire players in the Invitation team) was scoring heavily and freely. Shane Williams came on and bowled tidy for 3 overs (0-15), and then Graham returned to his favoured Upavon end and wrapped the innings up taking 2 wickets in 5 balls - (2-6) thanks to a fine catch by Shane Williams at mid-on and by completing the innings by bowling their captain for a duck.
So the Wohanka team finished on 124 all out. With the obvious capability of their team, which looked very dangerous, we considered this to be possibly our best bowling and fielding display of the season (despite 4 dropped catches). Bruce had a great game, and did not let a single bye past. Excellent stat. and good performance. Everyone contributed. If it wasn’t for their youthful sprinting, the score may have been lower.
So lunch (an unusual event for us) was taken at Richard Wohanka’s house nearby. Excellent fare, eaten in the garden (appropriate social distancing and fresh air). I would like to give especial thanks for the marvellous food - quiches, chicken legs, sausages, scotch eggs, wonderful salads, great cheeses, and some mouth-watering desserts - chocolate cake, apple tarts and strawberries. More than enough for everyone, and obviously designed to slow us down in our innings.
Wandering back across the fields back to the ground, the team were in good spirits and for once needed no cajoling on who was going to bat where in the order. Strolling back down the leafy lane that leads down from Casterley Barn - it might have been the beer, or the sun, or the easy comradeship of the day - but this just felt how English village cricket should be enjoyed.
Tim Gent and Shane Williams took the field to open. We soon discovered they had their own fast bowlers as their young tyros set about us. Tim Boycott Gent saw off a hostile opening over (0-0); no surprise there, and after a wide and a single from Shane got us off the mark in the next over, Tim was lbw last ball of the 2nd over 1-2. Not the start we had hoped for. David Battison, bloodied in the field, bravely came in and stood up to the fast bowling well, batting confidently with an ever improving Shane - holding back the pace bowlers and keeping the scoreboard ticking along close to the required rate.
Unfortunately, disaster struck in the 9th over as the tall Alex Farqhar (of Wilcot fame) had David caught off his 3rd ball for 15 good runs - 33-2. David’s best score of the season, and more “PB’s” beckon after this bright performance. Shane was caught afterwards for a well-played 6, and Francis Naumann and Harry Flack (good to see you back) were taking the fight to the Wohankas. Francis was his normal implacable self and got the scoreboard ticking fast until we lost both of them in quick succession - Francis for 12 and Harry for 2. Francis had struck our only 4 up to that time in our innings as the pitch was probably the biggest we had set-up. 59-5. Tension was mounting on the sidelines.
In came Joe Wookey (1st innings of the season) and Michael Rae. This was the pairing that now mattered and they did not disappoint. They took us to 108 before Michael fell for a beautifully played 26 - including 1 well struck 4 and and awesome 6 over cow-corner (a considerable feat given the size of the pitch) clearing a despairing jump by their fielder on the boundary (hearts in mouths time from the sidelines). Ed Olley came in and clearly was in no mood to hang-around, thumping 3 enormous 4’s in quick succession (3 consecutive balls) to ensure we passed the required total in the 24th over - 125-6 - a win by 4 wickets. Ed hit 13 not out, and Joe played a good calm innings with a beautifully played 18 not out, including one well struck 4. Good to see him on our (his) field again.
A wonderful tea was served, and with much social distancing being observed, we enjoyed some nice time in the sun chatting to our new friends until they had to depart for destinations far from here. Hope to see them back, and many heart-felt thanks for the wonderful ladies providing such excellent fare for us to consume.
Many thanks also to Skye Newland for continuing her role as scorer for AVCC. Her scorebook is colourful and accurate. Well done.
Overall, this might go down as our best win of the season, as the Invitation XI were very strong batting and in the field, and so it was a real contest. If they had got another 40-50 runs, the result may have been different.
So, a start of something….I hope so.
Days don’t come better than this….bright sun, refreshing breezes, blue skies, excellent cricket, good food, beer, and great comradeship. Already looking forward to a hopefully more normal summer and cricket season next year.
And one last set of congratulations. Club captain, Simon Campbell, made a late appearance having celebrated his 20th wedding anniversary with his wife, Mary, in Sienna. Well done, 20 not out, and many more to come…..
23 Aug AVCC v Aldbourne
We returned home to the beautiful setting of Garsten Field, Rushall on a cloudy, windy day to face the might of Aldbourne…..a very strong team - well known to us, with 2 of their players already having starred for us this season. The pitch looked good, albeit a little soft from multiple rain showers that week and on the morning of play. But overall, very good condition.
AVCC had a strong line-up, with the return of our Zim twins of terror - Michael Rae and Jeremy Richards (the only guy to score 2 hundreds for us, and put a hole in the pavilion roof). They brought with them a bushy-bearded terrorist-looking guy who turned out to be our old friend and player - Matt Boothway, and he was also warmly greeted back - and he fielded for us briefly as we assembled (late as usual) and then played for Aldbourne - distinguishing himself well (grrrh!).
Not sure who won the toss, but Aldbourne opened the batting. Good. Exactly what I would have wanted as the rain would bound to cause some low bounce. Would it be a slugfest or a shootout at the Garston (OK) Corral? All of our previous games with Aldbourne have been close - sometimes with lots of runs and, sometimes, real tight low-scoring affairs. But always tight matches.
Jamie Corden and Michael Rae opened the bowling. Both bowled fast and well. It was clear their openers were not looking to settle and they were wanting to hit out and have a slugfest with us. The cross-wind was tricky, blowing the ball off track by 12-18 inches - meaning the bowlers all had to work hard for accuracy. Michael made the break-through with the last ball of his first over, bowling Chinock. Jamie weighed in with the next ball and bowled the other opener, Hawkins - 2-3. Game-on!.
Not to be outdone, Michael took another wicket (M Singh) next over (3-5), before Sumit Surendron (who had top-scored for us in an earlier game this season) decided to start driving the ball for multiple boundaries. But we were chipping away, and Michael bowled H Singh making the score 18-4. Great spell from Michael who used the wind well, and took 3-8 off 3 overs. Jamie bowled well in tandem - 1-14 off 4 overs.
Change of bowlers and Graham Newland and Max Glibbery took up the task. Max bowled tidily and threatened regularly, with highly creditable figures of 0-12 off 4 overs. Graham made the key breakthrough of getting Sumit caught by Ed Olley (great catch), followed soon after by Matt Boothway who looked like he might repeat his high-scoring exploits, but against us. Jamie Corden took the second catch and Graham ended with good figures of 2-15 off 5 overs. 46-6! Really strong position.
We turned the screws from thereon in with David Battison and Matt Dancey giving their tail-enders no respite. Both bowled excellently, with David taking 2-9 off 3 overs and Matt 2-2 off 2.3 overs, including the prized wicket of Matt Haslett a returning former player of ours.
83 all out in just 21.3 overs. Wow! Probably our best bowling performance of the season and for a long time beyond. No catches dropped, and a sterling job by Bruce behind the stumps having to deal with the difficulties of a greatly moving ball due to the cross-wind. Well done all. Interestingly, 6 of the wickets were bowled, 2 were lbw’s and only 2 were caught.
So the now familiar home-produced teas for one came out and we replenished and prepared to go out and bat for the runs. Confidence was high and batsmen below the openers had to be persuaded to put on their pads.
But we found batting hard. Matt Haslett, now of Aldbourne, bowled superbly and gave little away, and was a threat throughout. Quresh was the other opening bowler and bowled superbly too. Runs were hard to eke out for our openers - Ed Olley and Shane Williams. Unfortunately, disaster stuck i the 7th over and Ed was caught in the slips off Matt for a very well played 10…the score now 13-1.
Jeremy Richards, our leading centurion, took to the field, and looked calm and composed, taking a 4 off his first ball. Exhale, deep breath, all will be fine…..
Matt finished his spell 1-8 (7 overs) and we saw off Chinock who bowled fast and accurate for (1-14 off 6 overs). Their spinner - Whateley came on. Spinner….that means runs doesn’t it. Hmm….not this time….Mr Whateley ran through our order taking 5-11 - taking the wickets of Max (0), Shane (5), Matt D (0), Jamie (0) and then Jeremy (a fine and patient 22). A couple of controversies on stumpings (especially for Jeremy). Sumit got David (1) caught and bowled, and suddenly the game was looking beyond us as we reached 61-8. Bruce Carter in the middle and Simon Campbell (persuaded by Graham to go to 10 instead of 11).
Whateley should now go on our ground’s honours board (if we had one) for “fiffers”. Interestingly, the only 2 fiffers from opposing teams have both come from Aldbourne, both for spinners. For the history buffs amongst you. the ground record is 5-7 by Mark Banham (vs Wilton), followed by Graham’s 5-11 vs All Cannings.
With good batting from Bruce (3 n.o) and Simon (21 not out)….we saw ourselves home to victory in the 31st over.
Very tense by the end. The now, bitingly cold wind, did not make the situation easier.
A really good game. Not a slugfest in the end, more a shootout and strong will to survive and win. Great spirit by both teams and we socialised with our friends of Aldbourne over beers for quite a while afterwards.
Also many thanks to Quresh of Aldbourne. I always let my daughter - Skye - who now scores for us - have batting practise at the end of a game. Quresh joined in and fielded for us and bowled in our mini-game. I thought that showed a wonderful spirit and action from him. Much appreciated.
Collingbourne next up.
