An early start awaited the 11 finest men Timmo could assemble on Wednesday morning, all eagerly anticipating a day trip to Nottingham away from revision. Early chat moved quickly onto the World Cup as we travelled past Trent Bridge, a quick summary: England’s kit is shit, but all the boys will buy one when we win the whole thing. It’s coming home. We arrived at Trent at half 10 and took a wander over to the pavilion, we were greeted with superb facilities and a lovely looking deck, only to be told by the ground staff that we were on the back pitch, which doubled up as a football pitch. Any. The day didn’t get much better, as the umpires informed us that we would be playing a 30 over game due to general Trent SU incompetence, good think we don’t have that at Warwick. The issue was resolved eventually, and the boys were good to go.
Timmo lost the toss and the boys were inserted, Uzair and Ling opened up, and Ling quickly made the trip back to the pavilion for six after being adjudged LBW from a half tracker that pitched 3 sets outside leg and shot on the pitch, the first signs of the variable bounce that would trouble everyone that day. “I think it was probably a good call to be honest lads” Ling 2k19. Don’t be an umpire pal. Uzair and Topper made light work of the next 15 overs, scoring with ease on both sides of the wicket. Uzair hit a free hit so far over mid-offs head, and not content with playing second fiddle, Tops hit another huge six right into the football goals. Crossbar challenge? Completed it mate. Tops was guilty of giving his wicket away whilst set, hitting the ball straight to extra cover for an attractive 30. Uzair followed soon, snicking off to a beauty on 40 that did all sorts off the track, which was playing worse and worse by the minute. In came Captain Fantastic to join Nathan at the crease, and the people’s two’s captain played two very attractive pull shots to get going, before falling for 10. Anyone following the game would’ve known this as he immediately took over the Twitter, running out of superlatives for what was actually just a bang av knock. Ojas came and went, caught and bowled on the pull (an interesting mode of dismissal but it happened I promise) and Essex came in in the midst of a collapse. Nathan was caught behind for a really boring 4, it literally took long enough for Owen to run a half marathon. Curtis joined Essex at the crease, and a real period of dig in occurred, the boys, nudged, nurdled, and in Essex’s case, periscoped the bowl around the park for the next 10 overs before Curtis got caught and bowled off of literally the worst ball that came down all day. You hate to see it, you really do. Essex played on, taking the leg spinner back over his head for a one bounce four. This normally wouldn’t be included because it wasn’t that good a shot, but clarification like this is needed after the Twitter abuse that happened today (@samhawes19 if you’re interested). He eventually got caught behind for 25 accelerating in the 45th over, and the boys were all out for 182 in the end, a really competitive score on a spicy track.
Tea was a whole lot better than the umpires told us it was going to be, which was the best news after some of the boys tried to sample Trent SU shop only to be charged absurd amounts for squashies. The boys took to the field, with Sru (8-1-18-0) and Vrushal (5-1-13-1) opening up. Oh my god it was so tight, batsman playing and missing like they’d never seen a ball swing before, and in Vrushal’s second over one that didn’t go took the inside edge, Essex taking a sharp catch to get Timmo’s Twos on the board (#BirdOut). Another squeeze occurred, but the batsman survived until the change bowlers of Curtis and Nathan came on. Runs started to flow a little bit easier, but that all stopped when OYASSS took a juggling catch off of Nathan to dismiss the other opener. Redemption for dropping that dolly at second slip. His figures of 4-1-23-1 were impressive for a bloke with one hamstring. Timmo was constantly tinkering with his field, like a young Claudio Ranieri. The whole game I literally thought he was a cricketing genius, surveying angles and moving men accordingly for a whole innings. Turns out he was trying to get into the batsman’s swede and didn’t actually have a clue what was going on. Still, he smiled more than Bird would’ve done so we were happy. Jinesh and Ojas came on, and runs slowly started to leak again. Jinesh taking a wicket just before drinks to really open the game up, although at this stage Trent were ahead, sitting ominously on 96-4 after 26. The fourth wicket was a really questionable run out from Ling, Essex whipped the bail’s off and thought it was close so just started to celebrate and the umpire really took the bait. Reel him in. Their number 3 looked handy, sweeping and driving attractively on a few occasions. He was the man who the chase depended on, and he was looking good. He moved down the track to Jinesh, and many were having fears of Sri Lanka and Jinesh having to go and collect his ball 674m away, but the ball squeezed between bat and pad and went straight down, in all the confusion he was looking for the ball, little did he know that Warwick’s Ben Foakes (love you Parth) had already whipped the bails off, sending him on his way. Jinesh and Ojas bowled solidly, a combination of good seeds and reckless shots reducing our Trent counterparts 9 down, Jinesh finishing with an undeserved 4-for (10-1-46-4) where all the wickets pitched closer to Jins than the batsman. He also managed to piss off the umpire by just walking all over the wicket straight after we got told not to, and claiming he was just shuffling so it was fine. I have no words. Ojas was much tighter and got less reward, ending up on 10-1-18-2. Ojas’ second wicket coming with all sorts of controversy, the ball being creamed at Topper who took the daisy cutter just off the ground rightfully claiming it, even though the batsman didn’t agree, he eventually had to walk off. Timmo and his vice-captain Essex decided that Curtis was needed to blitz the tail away. He rewarded the faith by trying to take the batsman’s head off with a delightful beamer. Rattled. A few balls later he drew the edge, the ball flew to first slip who was non-existent, Essex flew across to get a mitt to it but it wasn’t enough, the ball just popping out to deny him the catch of the day. Luckily the dolly going down didn’t affect the result, as just after the game ended in the much more reliable hands of Nathan.
Shower club was eventful, only 3 of the boys getting in with Ojas deciding he didn’t even need a towel, or to get naked for that matter, for him to join in with the boys. A quick pint at the SU followed, before the bus arrived 10 minutes ahead of schedule meaning a wack was in order for most of the boys, and they were happy to do so after circle was officially reinstated during the game. Timmo has since rightfully declared himself the Lord and Saviour, bringing the two’s back up to zero points after they were deducted points for general negativity. No finger’s pointed. The Great Escape is now very possible, and Timmo’s twos won’t be back next week, but gave us a BUCS game we will never forget. The two’s however, will be back, where even though he won’t be playing, Essex will probably still pop up writing a match report somewhere.