Winning in the Rain

By Ben Hudson - June 2 2010
Despite the downpour, Spalding and Baston got a reduced game in. 36 overs for each side with the rain continuing throughout. Read about it here

With Felix’s 18th birthday on Sunday, some of the boys met up on the Friday night for some celebrations in the Baskervilles. With the jugs going down nicely, time caught up with them as they missed their planned late bus. Fortunately new signing Jeff stepped in to offer lifts, but with it looking as if he may have to come back to pick up a couple of extras, he said “They don’t call me Jeff ‘One Trip’ Northwood for nothing!” as he crammed all the boys in, who duly signalled their appreciation with several songs on the ride to Bourne, including “There’s only one F in Jeff” and “Jeff Northwood’s Barmy Army”

 

        

Former keeper Chris 'Al' Mitchell (left), and on the right Ben & Felix meet Bourne Pro Fahad Masood!

In Bourne, it was the typical boozy night out with outstanding shapes, vodka blackcurrants and bumping into local celebrities. The next morning with the rain pouring down and a game looking unlikely, Jon, Ben and Tim went back to the OK Diner, but greasy food lover Adam refused to go due to the previous night’s fight.

With no word from the Spalding bigwigs, the team travelled to the ground with very little optimism. After 45 minutes the rain held off briefly and cricket loving captains Tim and Big Stu Parker delighted to get a game underway. Under fire skipper Tim lost his 39th consecutive toss and Baston were asked to bat. Here is a video of Tim explaining the reduction in overs etc:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ogzo-8ruMK0

Baston were boasting possibly their strongest batting line-up of the season despite missing top dog Lloydie who was out with a side strain. Doug was also missing with a groin strain suffered on Thursday night, so Baston welcomed Liam Davies back to the side for his first game in nearly 2 years while John Lamin returned to the fold, still sporting his joke beard (Where will he wear it next week?)

Jon: Cold or doing a Mona Lisa impression?

Guy and Anthony opened up with a couple of watchful overs before Guy went after the weak bowling attack. Guy was fortunate to not be out to a thin edge early on but was not given out by the Panel Umpire and didn’t walk, although the sound was heard 100 metres away on the boundary, much to the dismay of bowler and Keeper/Captain Big Stu. Liam was bored.

Despite a brief second rain interval, the scoring increased to 60 off 20 overs before Head Doctor Anthony (22) was cleaned up by first change bowler Ripley after scoring one of the shots of the day with a perfect off drive. Meanwhile on the boundary, Tim recalled the tough game in 2007 against Spalding which saw Baston set a poor total of 35 off 39.3 overs; Banksie chipped in saying that he’d scored 18 of those 35... Despite not playing?!? Liam was still bored.

Guy reached his 50 shortly after with the scoring rate around 5 an over. Towns was following on from last week’s knock and looking good (in a cricketing sense) He played a messy legside shot which left him in a heap on the floor, as he watched it fly to the boundary. 7 Spalding fielders had to help him back to his feet. Towns (18) was given out LBW in the 25th over with the score on 126-2. Banksie was now explaining how he once bowled a 15 over spell at Bourne icon David Christmas, so it was no surprise that Liam was still bored.

It was a welcome return at number 4 for John Lamin who was getting in the spirit of things as he joked with the lads and had even shouted out an excited ‘whoop’ from the pavilion. He went out with license and was soon scoring for fun with Spalding favourite Guy. At the beginning of the 31st over Guy scored a brace to take his score to 96, putting him just four away from a remarkable century, and Baston’s first since Towns roughly 10 years ago, but Guy chopped the next ball onto his stumps. Still an excellent knock from the farmer (which featured 14 fours and came from just 85 balls) and he thoroughly deserved his ovation as he walked off the pitch. Despite Guy’s 96, Liam was still bored but at least was now padded up.

The Spalding scorebook was kindly done by resident scorer D. Duck but saw an unwelcome return for the scariest man in Spalding, who had retired from scoring duty (and had his hut burnt down by schoolboys) but after hearing that love interest Felix was back in town, had made his way down to the ground. Jon was sent in as a pinch hitter to try and take Baston to 200 for full batting points. John Lamin was a livewire between the stumps, with the flying beard picking up singles and twos all over the place and dispatching the bad balls for boundaries. Jon however was concerned with protecting his average as he scored 2 runs from 10 overs.

Spalding's former scorer

With an over left, Baston still needed 12 for the final batting point, and looked set as John Lamin laminated 2 leg stump full tosses for a four and a massive six taking his score to 47. He scored a single next ball, before Jon chipped in with a rare one to take Baston to the promised land of 200 runs, and give the Laminator the strike for the final ball, but alas he was bowled for a fine 48 off just 41 balls.

The teams went upstairs for a spot of tea, prepared by injured superstar Tom Dale and bag on queen Clarkey. After a 20 minute chat with Dr. Anthony, John Lamin was surprised to be handed an invoice for £90. Tim told everyone about Panel Ump & former teammate Eric King, who carries the nickname “Super King” at home club Ufford. The tea went down well and saw a nice addition of piles of cucumber for Jono and fruit for the skipper though he was unfortunately attacked by a banana:

Banana Attack - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9JL7_C7jtk

Jon plumps for his favourite: 2 ham sandwiches and half a cucumber

The Baston boys wanted a quick turnaround to try and produce a result, but would be without keeper Towns who had to rush off for a problem at home (“a feeble excuse to get out of fielding” – T. Dyer)

Love rat Adam opened up and should have had a wicket third ball as nice guy Steve Lloyds (singular) popped the ball up to mid-off where Felix dropped a clanger and carried a bag-on for the rest of the day. Liam made the breakthrough in the fourth over taking young opener Green’s off peg.

Mr. Lover Lover

Casanova Adam got his man in the next over as Lloyds found a safer pair of hands in Jono at cover. Spalding 2nd XI’s number 3 Alex Lyon was out next, the same batsman who once took great offence to Jonny Francis’s sledge of “We’re into the tail boys”. He was out plum in front for Liam’s second wicket. Spalding were stuttering on 38-3 when Captain Parker walked out.

Baston’s fielding was far better than their Spalding counterparts’ efforts, but there was some uncharacteristic poor fielding from ‘the ultimate wingman’ Ben on the boundary, who first dropped the angry captain before letting a four run past his brand new boots. Chief ball-dryer Banksie was still persisting with his comedy throw; it’s just not funny anymore! Jon had to leave the field for a minute with his weak bladder, but got in big trouble with the umpires for trying to come back on too soon. Lloyd and Katie turned up to watch their heroes, but there was no sign of Rico!

Skipper Dyer, struggling for form in the South Lincs was back to some of his best with a fine exhibition of slow bowling, cleaning up Angry Captain Parker for a beefy 21, before removing wiley spinner ‘Ardstaff and old man ‘rick (silent P) Dale with catches from Liam and Dr. Ant.

Spalding’s resistance came in the shape of left hander Keith De Keyzer, who must have been saving himself for batting earlier on as he dropped a couple of snippers, and gave away a lot of runs in the field including a beautiful left boot over the boundary rope. De Keyzer hit five boundaries in his innings of 46 before being ousted by Dyer as Paul C took a good catch at midwicket diving forward... after jumping back.

Tim Dyer, back to form

‘Eath Ripley and burley first teamer Page put up some resistance before Ripley was bowled by The Doctor. Lamin caught Page in the next over, leaving two youngsters at the crease much to the frustration of Dyer, who bemoaned the shortened game as he wanted to take advantage of the small boys and get his five-fer. Number 11 Martin is no taller than 5 foot but claimed to be 15 years old. When this was doubted, he said he’d get his birth certificate to prove it.

The Mad Doctor got the final wicket as he sent a beamer down to young Lewis Martin, before bowling a fuller one and hitting the stumps. Spalding closed on 136 from 31.4 overs and never looked like chasing down their target. It was a good win for Baston who took 20 points from the clash, where they would have taken just 5 if it had been abandoned. It was an easy man-of-the-match choice with Guy’s superb 96 the talk of the village.

The boys stayed for a drink with the carrot crunchers before making their way back to the Spinner. Kip bagged himself a lift with Banksie, but soon regretted it and after the umpteenth story, Kip had to step in to say “shut up Steve, you’re boring me”

The boys stayed in the Spinning Wheel all night, and they kindly put on some chicken, scampi and chips, though still refuse to offer a price on jugs! Felix only popped by for a drink as he went off to Stamford with the cool cats!

http://baston.play-cricket.com/scoreboard/scorecard.asp?id=10891835