BASTON LEFT DEFLATED BY THIRD STRAIGHT LOSS

By Andrew Townsin - May 15 2007
BASTON LEFT DEFLATED BY THIRD STRAIGHT LOSS
Tubs' Blog
What can I say about Saturday's performance? Well in 26 seasons of playing for Baston rarely have I ever felt so deflated and disappointed by a result.
The day itself dawned damp and miserable, much like our batting display!

The pitch itself was a glorious mixture of undulating moss filled mud flats and grassy knolls, engendering in the opposition an air of trepidation and fear similar to that which a small Thai girl must experience when asked "do you want to be in my gang" by Garry Glitter. Strangely they did have an antipodean who was strikingly similar in appearance to Paul Gadd.

Tim won the toss and wisely opted to bowl first, the wicket always eases after tea.

Guy started the match with a wonderful slow beamer that stretched the agility of the ever-alert Neil to the full. This was the highlight of Guy's day; he was probably the difference between the two sides. The bowling and fielding display did improve dramatically from then. The diminutive Staziak making use of his lack of inches and low bowling arm to deliver his best spell of bowling for Baston, conceding a miserly 8 runs from 10 overs. Tim bowled his usual mixture in support of Jason who grabbed what little Glory there was to be had taking 3 for 32. All the bowlers were well supported by a standard of ground fielding rarely seen by a Baston team, magnificently led by Chris (reminiscent of a young, fit and sober Jon Howard) and Steve Barnes (100% effort) - An honourable mention here should also go to Mr Burton, definitely the best I have ever seen him keep wicket - brave to the point of idiocy (well he is from Crowland).

The catching, however, was not so impressive. The roll of shame reading;

Tim Dyer - twice
Guy
Jon Howard
Staziak
Neil Burton
And of course Pete Bibb.

Despite this we did well to contain them to a gettable 114, mainly because they had two old boys who could only run slightly quicker than our first slip.

In the changing room all the talk was about our strong batting line up and how many wickets we would win by. Exactly how wrong is it possible to be?

Pete Bibb bowled by a straight one in the gap between bat and pad - a similar distance to the Grand Canyon.
Jason was playing on Orton Park's flat & true wicket.
Guy was Guy, flashing at a wide ball without moving his feet.
Jon battled for a bit before losing patience.
Chris tried.
Neil at least was beaten when attempting to defend.
Tim attempted to hit every ball he received out the ground without ever actually connecting.
Townsin dropped anchor for a bit, surpassing himself by scoring 12 runs in 21 overs - one of those nearly resulting in running the blameless Howard out when he called for a suicidal quick single. Before lofting a longhop to midwicket for catching practice.

One proper partnership and the game would have been won - instead we were all out for 38.

Still on the bright side Guy isn't playing next week.