Is it because I dropped a catch when RUASC were on 117? Or the rain in Sonning Lane falls mainly at the end of the game?
Reading University Alumni and Staff CC 140 all out
Mandarins 131-4
No Result*
* D/L score had us ahead! [Ed.]
When is the
most frustrating time for the rain to come? As one draws the curtains on
the morning of a much anticipated game? Or as the metaphorical curtain
comes down at the end of another Mandarin season?
Ten minutes before the start of a match that you have already made the
effort to drive to? Or ten runs short of victory at the end of a season
in which wins have, shall we say, been hard to come by?
It was the
latter fate that befell the Mandarins against Reading University Alumni
and Staff. And it certainly felt frustrating. Especially so perhaps
because all week we had been anticipating rain, with
the forecast suggesting it would begin to fall at some point between
the Chiswick roundabout and Captain Tunbridge losing the toss and being
put into bat.
But neither
eventuality materialised and the only thing that fell with any
consistency were Reading wickets, five of which all went to our recently
discovered tearaway opening bowler Chris Healey (7-1-16-5)
who bowled with control and not a little menace. (Or perhaps it was his
identical twin brother Nick - who made a 'can you tell them apart?'
appearance at tea). Backed by a somewhat surprisingly competent fielding
display (McIntyre's one hander, Heard's athletic
grab on the run and Tivey's steady under a steepler take all being -
with all due love and respect - unexpected highlights), the bowlers all
did a job. Heard was unlucky to go wicketless with the new ball. Venky
was unlucky to be put on a time when the RUASC
number six was swinging hard and happily; and Sommerville was unluckly
his good ones were not rewarded (although took one with arguably the
worst ball of his spell). McIntyre then supplied control and your
correspondent (5.2-0-19-3) supplied three well caught
wickets to finish the RUASC innings on 140 with an over to spare.
(Although - in
what later proved to be a crucial turn of events - I also dropped a low
but catchable caught and bowled chance an over earlier in the spell. And
while it was not costly to my own figures,
it was to the team's as Tunbridge went around the ground for 16 in the
intervening over. Team-spirited skipper that he is, Graeme naturally
blamed this entirely on me.)
Tea was taken
in the well-appointed Reading CC club house, rather than the rather
exposed and ramshackle hut that served as the changing room for the
second team pitch. And heartily fortified by samosas,
spring rolls and chips, we set about the gettable but by all means
fail-to-gettable chase. At this stage the weather still looked set fair
for another 35 overs and it looked like we were going to need them as
Tunbridge (victim of a ruthless first ball LBW
decision by Umpire Tivey it must be said) and Mills returned promptly
to the pavilion, leaving us 8-2 and asking Sommerville (44) and (Venky
52no)to set about a patient rebuilding job. This they did with aplomb,
watchful at first, accelerating later, taking
us to 93 in what was set to be a match-winning partnership.
However the
mid-September weather was yet to have its say. As it worsened, RUASC
creditably resisted coming off before a downpour made that unavoidable. A
short delay ensued although not long later Venky
and Tivey were back out there edging us ever closer to glory. But the
weather worsened yet again and - while RUASC were sportingly willing to
stick it out to a conclusion - a groundsman did nothing to confound his
trade's grumpy stereotype and ordered us off
for good without consultation.
A quick check
of a Duckworth Lewis calculator had us comfortably ahead but in the
absence of an agreement between the sides that DL would apply, we had to
settle for a moral victory on this occasion,
which is at least an improvement on all the 'moral/Mandarins draws' we
suffered/earned in limited overs games earlier in the season.
Over a
Healey-bought jug of local IPA in the bar, our belated run of form
brought forth talk of trying to find a further fixture to keep the
season going (not least for Graeme whose trips to Rochester
and Reading brought scores of 0 and 0, figures of 1-0-16-0 and a horror
drop to boot). But it was raging against the dying of the cricket
season light. So we went our separate ways for 2017. In glorious
sunshine of course.
Dan Forman