With the starting VI sorted a whole three days in advance, the UWMCC Clobbers were far more organised heading into this week’s fixture than last (the revised meet time of 5.10 helped us aim to get there on time). Lining up for the UWMCC was a twice-changed starting VI including opening partnership Jono and Kit, new boys JP and Goodyear, ousted keeper Jewson and ever-reliable skipper Hobbs. Aside from a small delay, after Kit’s alarm broke and he slept through the meet time, we were off campus by half five and managed to turn up just on time.
Upon our arrival at the Connexion, Hobbs’ opposite number requested no toss, but for the UWMCC to bat, citing ‘because quite frankly we’re terrible’. After giving it some serious thought, we charitably agreed to allow Barford CC to bowl, and a relaxed opening pair of Kit and Jonno strolled into the middle.
Having seen the umpire failing to give wides a foot down the legside, the openers had to earn their runs themselves, and earn them they did, with shots all around the ground from both before Kit got run out for the second week in a row, for 7. 30-1. New man Goodyear came to the crease and picked up where his predecessor left off, battering the bowlers around and retiring before compatriot Jonno, who lingered on 24*.
Once Jonno had also retired the next ball, it was up to Jewson and Hobbs to continue the surge of runs. Hobbs saw a short ball, rocked back and looked to send it back past the bowler for four. The shot was played with astounding technique, but unfortunately missed the ball completely, as Hobbs had mis-read a yorker, and was clean bowled for 0(1). Jewson scored some runs.
JP came in at six, and after a deft touch for what looked to be a certain three runs, a smart piece of fielding cut short the cheers of ‘good running’ and JP was sent straight back through the ridiculously small door for just one run. Jewson and the returning Goodyear saw out the rest of the innings, scoring plenty more runs, finishing on 22* and 52* respectively.
Having finished on 127/3, the UWMCC were not-so-quietly confident heading in to the second innings, with Hobbs even considering letting Jack Jewson open the bowling. After a few practice overs while the umpire went for a long enough toilet break to leave no questions unanswered about exactly what he was doing in there, the Barford CC opening batsmen strolled out and readied themselves for battle. With a combined age of at least 90, the crowd expected the batsmen’s experience to translate into many blocks and leaves, and were not disappointed, with Hobbs’ and JP’s combined six overs going for just 22 runs. JP’s testing legspin proved just too good for Barford’s openers, who were both stumped well by Goodyear, and their number three didn’t last long either, nicking off to our new best bowler.
Despite some acrobatics in the field, UWMCC struggled to claim many more wickets, with catches put down by Jewson and Goodyear, and several run-out attempts could have been better. Eventually Jewson broke the deadlock, with a muddled stop confusing the batsman, tempting him to take a run despite the ball only having travelled a yard away from him. After the bails were whipped off, out came Barford’s skipper at six, who proceeded to make even Jewson’s off-‘spin’ look hard to play.
The game rather petered out after the fourth wicked fell, with all five bowlers coming tantalisingly close to the stumps but to no avail, and after ten overs had been bowled the final score was given as 44-4. A heavy defeat for the Barford Boys marked a continued rampage for the UWMCC, leaving the skipper with much to think about when it came to the question ‘are we too good?’.
Final Scores:
UWMCC 127/3 – 10.0 (Goodyear 52*, Cook 26*)
Barford CC 44/4 – 10.0 (Peters 3/14)