Romany WIN by 11 runs

Romany CC 277-2

F Read 100*

H Bruckner 104*

A Maiden 31

Lofthouse & Middlesmoor CC 266 ao

C Costello 150

P Solomon 33

R Smith 4-41

A Maiden 3-44

The term ‘village cricket’ has become synonymous with poor batting, sloppy fielding  and wayward bowling but last Sunday at a sunny picturesque Lofthouse & Middlesmoor CC we ended up victorious in a village cricket game at its very best.

We arrived at L&M’s tiny ground with a reasonably strong side, but we realised that we were likely to be a seam bowler or so short with such short boundaries and a batsman friendly track where 6’s and 4’s are the most regular scoring shots.
Following a short discussion between Nick Hawkins, Romany’s skipper for the day, and the L&M captain, Romany batted first, and got off to a good start with father and son opening partnership Duncan and Freddie Read taking the score past 50 before Duncan was out bowled to a sharply turning off-break just as Freddie was starting to find his range and the boundary at regular intervals.

Freddie was joined by Hamish Bruckner and they proceeded to add over 100 in partnership, Freddie later retiring on 100 exactly (his first Romany ton and the first of many we hope!) Soon after joined back in the pavilion by Hamish who also made a century before retiring on 104, a century on debut!

Alistair Maiden then made a quick fire 31 before missing a straight one while trying to keep the scoring rate high.  Romany closed on 277/2, which we felt was a good defendable score.

We enjoyed a great tea in the bijou L&M clubhouse, as a light shower passed over the ground, the weather timing it perfectly as the sky began to clear just as we were ready for play to resume after the tea break.

Steve Jackson and I opened the bowling, with Steve keeping things tight with characteristic accuracy and a nagging length, a good foil for my many ‘variations’ (inaccuracies) at the other end.  The first couple of overs passed without drama and L&M struggled to get the ball away as we restricted scoring shots.

Early in my spell and thanks in the main to excellent fielding I was fortunate enough to collect a hat-trick!  The first wicket from an overpitched ball fell to a Duncan Read catch at extra cover, then for the second the batsman pulled a short ball to mid-wicket and was unlucky to pick out our best fielder on the day Freddie Read, who completed a spectacular diving catch, which would otherwise have been a certain boundary.  The dismissal that completed the hat-trick, however, I am claiming as a ‘proper’ wicket.  Nick kindly agreed for me to bring the field in (even adding a second slip – take note Knighty) and the batsman, under pressure allowed a good length slightly inswinging ball to pass between bat and pad, dislodging off stump!

The fall of that 3^rd wicket brought the L&M number 5 to the middle and I think we knew despite being ahead in the game that we could have a battle on our hands as he strode to the wicket smoking a tab and brandishing a specially shortened ‘mongoose’ bat.  My first ball to him was a high full toss on leg stump and he proceeded to bludgeon his way to 100 and retirement in only around 10 overs. 

We knew our bowlers may have a long afternoon and for spin bowlers in particular it was hard to prevent regular boundaries, Nick Hawkins and Charlie Read’s first spell were controlled but still expensive.  Freddie Read and Alistair Maiden managed to reign the scoring rate back in and each picked up wickets (Read 2 & Maiden 3) and once Costello, their no 5 retired we regained control of the match.  A special mention should be made to Duncan Berry who kept excellently throughout.

Both Read and Maiden bowled out, and the scene was set, with L&M running out of batsman, it seemed inevitable that Costello would return, and with around 70 runs needed and 7 overs left, the match could still be lost by Romany.

What followed was the perfect finish; I closed out the bowling with Charlie Read and we managed to get to the last over of the match with L&M requiring 21 runs and 9 wickets down.  13 year old Charlie proceeded to pull off a minor miracle, bowling to Costello he sent down his leg spinners without fear and restricted the scoring for the first 3 balls of the over, meaning that the batsman had to go all out to finish the game.  On the final ball, Read tossed it up once more and Costello swung his Mongoose (once more) and the ball sailed high into the air, but only picked out Alistair Maiden who executed the most cool calm and collected parry and rebound catch to win the game!

After such a strenuous afternoon as would be expected we retired to the Crown Hotel in Middlesmoor for a quick pint before home, content with a superb game of village cricket in a great setting with superb opposition, in the very best sense of the word.

Departing the Harrogate area in shorts, sunglasses and with factor 50 at the ready, the Romany boys rode in the East Riding looking to get things back on track after the shock defeat at Swinton, and to avenge the last ball defeat at Yapham 1 yr ago. Clearly none of us had looked at the weather forecast in the Yapham micro-climate and to find out it was a ‘two sweater’ day with a howling easterly wind off the north sea dampened the spirits somewhat!

Still not to worry, we had batting and bowling talents in our rank and all that we needed was the tactical genius of Knighty to bring that blend together to deliver a victory. This tactical plan started off with a lengthy discussion with the Yapham captain which somehow resulted in them batting in the agreed format of a 40 over match.

Romany opened with Matt Graham and Rob Beilby who both immediately put pressure on their openers.  ‘Paddy’ their rather less mobile opener, had driven from Dumfries to take part in the match and when Matt clipped his off stump in the first over, it looked like a 350 mile round trip may have been in vain – however in keeping with World Cup trends, the bails didn’t tumble and Paddy stayed out in the middle to put on a useful opening stand. This stand was only broken due to an excellent run out by Marcus, the first of three in the Yapham innings (yes you read that correctly, Romany managed 3 run outs!). Matt and Rob were replaced with a father and son ‘pincer attack’ – the speed and aggression of Tom Edgerton at one end, and the guile and accuracy of Keith at the other. This lead to a mini Yapham collapse with good catches taken by Matt and Steve Hardy (along with a stumping) leaving Yapham reeling at 52-4. This is when tactical know how comes to the fore, and Knighty managed to rotate his bowlers, including a hostile spell of 3 overs from President Hockin, however due to the fact he can’t actually count, Knighty was left to bowl the last over himself. Their last partnership, of two lads from Pocklington School, showed us to pick up runs effectively, and also how to reverse sweep part time captain bowlers for 4! Towards the end the Romany fielding wavered slightly amongst the ridged and furrowed outfield, allowing Yapham to reach 180-8 at the close.

Tea lived up to its pre-match billing with hot pulled pork sandwiches being this year’s treat, along with exploding meringues that seemed to catch the Romany captain off guard whilst deciding on his batting order. However fuelled up, and with an extra jumper on for all the waiting batsmen, Romany began their innings with the Captain and Steve opening. Their bowling could be classified as gentle (at best) and so it was jolly generous of our Captain to dolly back a slow full toss to allow others to have a go – and have a go they did. Steve and Tom very quickly got to 50s with some excellent aggressive shots along with quick running and once they retired, Matt and Marcus contributed some valuable runs to bring us within sight of victory before Read and Howard took us past our target of 180 with 5 overs to spare.

Good to get the result after losing out for the last couple of years in the final over and a good all round team performance. Copies of score book attached for reference with the learning outcome of the afternoon being: ‘don’t stay up past midnight making hay, because if you do, you won’t make any hay off shite bowlers’