Sunday dawned bright and warm. What a spring it has been. Memories of playing in the snow at Peper Harrow were long forgotten. Several players were seen reaching for the sunscreen. Was this to be the year when everything changed for the better? No early season wash-out. Tim wouldn't be involved in any more unnecessary runouts. We'd take our catches. Harry wouldn't get out straight after hitting a monstrous 6. Jonathan would turn up on time. We'd wean ourselves of our reliance on the batting rock that has been Chris Healey for as long as anyone can remember.
Well, the short answer is "no". 10 Mandarins had arrived in good time. Jonathan had headed for the wrong ground and got caught in traffic. The opposition, St Anne's Allstars, also had several laggards so on winning the toss chose to bat. Tim bravely took the gloves. Our sharp opening pair of Harry and Wahaj both bowled with speed and accuracy, testing out both Tim and the St Anne's openers. Unfortunately, one of those openers was seriously classy and started to get into a good rhythm. Of course, we missed chances to get him out. I dropped him off the sort of missile I might catch once in a Mandarin career. Raki dropped the sort of chance he'll miss once in a Mandarin career. The other batsmen were a much more mixed lot and with three quick wickets from Dan we were certainly still in it at 95-5 at just over halfway. Then things rather deteriorated. Stan tested out the umpires' knowledge of all the different signals for wide, no ball, boundary etc and all in his first over. And then the rain came. Gentle at first but driving later. The St Anne's opener had now been joined by the capable ("I played a couple of times for Sussex Seconds") Dindyal . The pace picked up until an incredible catch by Tim (nothing new there...) running in from the boundary and diving forward did for the opener for 113. The innings ended rather tetchily as the rain got worse and with the ball now like a bar of soap, the new batsman was hit by a Wahaj beamer. Wahaj apologised. The injured batsman calmed down. Dindyal didn't and as we left the field for tea/a rain break he was heard loudly promising to come in off his long run up to our tailenders and we could borrow his helmet as we would need it.... Happily, his teammates (a nice Mandarin-esque bunch) calmed him down.
The rain happily relented and St Anne's declared on 213 off 38 overs. Tim and Sam started our reply. Unfortunately, Sam went early followed by Jonathan, caught sharply by Dindyal. But Harry arrived and upped the pace. Even the opposition applauded a stunning leg side 6 off one of their better bowlers. But then Harry "Kiri" played on next ball. This brought Chris H to the crease and he and Tim put on an excellent 63 with Tim's new pads surviving just the one clear LBW appeal. We were up with the rate before Tim was (inevitably?) involved in mix up in the middle and was run out by Dindyal. Stan carried on where Tim had left off and at 171-5 needing 6 an over, we were well placed. However, Chris jarred his problematic elbow and was forced to retire for a superb 70. With Stan and Wahaj also falling to Dindyal who had belatedly begun a 9 over spell of quality seam and the rate creeping up to 10 an over, playing out for the draw was now the instruction. As the gloom deepened Dindyal went to his long run up but was beginning to run out of energy and Nikhil and I saw out the last few overs for the draw (despite one rush of blood from Nikhil who managed to hit the ball straight up in the air a yard in front of himself attempting a big swipe - 6 fielders trying to take the catch converged in a confused huddle inches away from where the ball landed a foot in front of Nik).
184 for 7 off our 34 overs - a respectable enough start to the season. The odds of snow at Peper Harrow next Sunday?
John Hawkins