SCORECARD

FITMEN GO DOWN FIGHTING

There was a sense of déjà vu as we got to the ground and encountered our opposition. It reminded me of playing Stratford upon Avon a couple of years back; indeed the circumstances of the lead up bore a striking similarity to the afore-mentioned game. There was a late cancellation from Newbold; fixture bureau were on the case; a team were found of a “reasonable” standard (read Birmingham League 1st XI); beautiful setting and beautiful weather.

We lost the toss (after their skipper glibly reported that they had their strongest XI possible available due to the bank holiday, in total contrast to ourselves) and the first part of the afternoon was an exercise in leather chasing. Interspersed with some tight bowling, there was some loose stuff provided to their opening pair who were good enough to put the bad balls away. However, what didn’t help was the edges going between keeper and slips and, even more frustratingly, for four. Indeed, the opener who ended up scoring an unbeaten 100, must have edged the ball at least 5 times and on another day things could have been different - such are the fine margins in cricket. The Fitmen toiled valiantly in the field and kept the oppo to an imposing but respectable 263. It could have been worse, but other than their first 2-3 batsman, there was nothing special about the others and so it was all the more frustrating that we couldn’t get the wickets earlier than we managed to.

The fitmen batting though was the real highlight. Tom and Simon started solidly, with Tom in particular hitting the middle of the bat straightaway. Simon was eventually caught at point and then it became the Tom and Richard Bice show. Both men played some excellent attacking cricketing shots and treated the oppo’s seamers with disdain. There was a sense of optimism that we could still win the game with the way the 2 were going. Unfortunately though jug avoidance came into play when Tom played all round a straight one and was bowled for an excellent 49. Bice continued to flourish before also eventually perishing for a superb 69. Butcher et al tried to keep the scoring rate going but by then the oppo brought in their slow bowlers and had spread the field so it became an almost impossible task to keep up with the run rate. Eventually the Fitmen managed to bat out their 40 overs and achieved a very respectable but ultimately disappointing 199-8. We won’t dwell too much on the fact that the score should have read 200-8 had not Ash not started to admire his own shot through square leg and walked to the other end. In truth, he could have walked twice and still have been safely through for 2! The dodgy leg was to blame.

All in all an excellent day out, beautiful venue, great view of the game and a nice oppo (apart from the 1 instance of Simon being called a “Cheating Bastard” when umpiring, which he took with consummate grace, although pointing out he agreed with the former but took umbrage against the latter). With hindsight being such a wonderful thing if we kept the early flow of runs (especially extras) down, we should have restricted then to about 210-220 and it really would have been game on. The oppo’s bowling and fielding was nothing special but there were a few lessons that were learnt for the skipper and hopefully next time there will be a more positive result.