Bethesda 159 for 8, MIMCC 157 all out
Score card – https://mynyddisamaeshafn.play-cricket.com/website/results/5710941
For a while, it looked like stand-in captain Applewhite might join ex-skippers Meakin and Houghton as the only Maeshafn captains to register an away win at Bethesda. Ultimately, it was not to be in what was a very good, close game but was soured by a bad-tempered finish and ended in a narrow, somewhat controversial defeat.
The day started badly. We’d already lost Euan to concussion and amongst other absentees, captain Will had taken the extreme measure of leaving the country to avoid being within shouting distance when the money laundering, sports-washing charlatans from East Manchester won their inevitable treble, but then a bad accident on the normally tranquil A55 resulted in the entire team (except Venkat) arriving late.
Stand-in skpper Applewhite and secretary Fagan arrived just as Venkat, presumably nominated as our best tosser, was walking out to the middle to flip the coin. He won! Bat first of course on a clear warm day with a rock-hard track. Openers Applewhite padded up quickly and then waited an extraordinary amount of time for partner Dey to emerge from the newly-refurbished dressing room (very nice too). Fordy had been helping with his box apparently. Best not to give that one too much thought…
As has become an unfortunate habit this season, Applewhite was back in the hutch in double quick time – first ball edge to slip who clung on to a catch he’d drop 9 times out 10. Even the change of lucky pants didn’t change the batters luck and that’s now 3 ducks in 5 innings this season (skip – a trip down the order might be called for methinks!). Rubbish.
In came Siv and a very nice partnership ensued. Abs played serenely with some lovely shots and tidy defence while Siv opted for some glorious boundaries mixed in with some wild swing and misses to keep the fielders on their toes. By first drinks at 15 over, we were on a tidy 56 for 1 before Siv missed a straight one and returned for a valuable 29. Abs was joined first by Yash (3) and then Umang (1) who both departed quickly before, like a reliable old Cortina, Ford joined him in the middle and steadied the ship.
Abs reached his faultless 50 before trying to hit another 6 off bowler Poppy (one of her 4 wickets on the day) and picking out the fielder in the deep. Out for 51 but an excellent innings, well done Abs.
Ford was joined by Fagan and we all know what that normally means…15 overs of dotting, a frustrated scorer and only the overs column needing updates on the scoreboard. Not today though. Now I suspect they’ll both have their own versions of what actually happened but the upshot was Mr Fagan trudging back to the clubhouse without troubling the scorers, having thrown his bat towards the wickets in a desperate attempt to make his ground before being run out by a country mile.
To offer an opinion from square leg (where I was happily sulking away my 1st ball blues), it went something like this. Fordy plays a nice little drive into the off side, very comfortable single on offer, and shouts yes before trotting (I think that’s fair) down to the bowlers end. Jonty, meanwhile, is holding a stance reminiscent of his old sparring partner Chairman Pugh, sitting on his bat at the non-strikers end with no expectation Fordy was about to play an actual run-scoring shot. In fairness, he did shout ‘NO!’ straight away but when he realised Mr Ford was on his way and has the turning circle of an oil tanker and therefore no chance of getting back, he set off himself…but it wasn’t to be, replaced at the crease by Venkat.
Fordy eventually perished for a well-made 16 and in came Prasad. To steal (and slightly alter) a famous line from Forrest Gump, life is like a Prasad batting innings…you never know what you’re gonna get! Well today was one of the entertaining ones – all the shots were coming out and a six and 4 fours later, he became one of three victims for the returning opening bowler, out for an excellent and extremely valuable 29. The partnership with Venkat (9) was crucial and saw us through almost to the end. Alex, who had stated at the start of the season he’d probably only manage one game all year, has now played in two already and contributed a very useful 4 and Graham, who had only really come to watch, bravely padded up, scored one more than the stand in skipper and club secretary and protected his average thank you very much.
157 all out. Could’ve been better but certainly could’ve been worse. Something to defend at least. A final point of note before undressing our bowling performance…stand-in skipper Applewhite, in between sulking at square leg, was obviously umpiring at the business end every other over and, as is his usual amiable way, was pretty lenient on the old wide front…indeed receiving comments of praise and thanks from the (at this point) lovely people of Bethesda for said leniency. In fact, with the exception of a no-ball called by umpire Prasad early in the piece for the lesser spotted offence of a fielder being off the field of play when the bowler released the ball, before entering again while the ball was in mid-air, the first innings had passed without controversy.
For the sake of complete honesty – although not sure we should let that get in the way of a good story of course – I should say that the leniency shown in the first innings was largely reciprocated in the second…until it very much wasn’t, but more on that later.
So we opened with Yash and Umang, conscious that their openers were both the stick around, score slowly types. After 10 overs, Bethesda had reached 27 without loss, helped in no small part by Fordy kicking the ball over the ropes in a valiant attempt to stop a boundary and instead gifting one! There was also a sharp chance to slip where Graham managed to get one foot off the ground (a half-jump?) in an attempt to reach a ball that flew over his head. It’s rare someone actually gets lower when they jump but he pulled it off.
Then, in the 11th as Prasad has a tendency to do in his first over, we made the breakthrough…Abs catching the ball with his ear. Yes, you read that right, his ear. When it’s your day, it’s your day…
Ironically, had we kept their openers in for longer, I suspect we might’ve won the game as they seemed neither willing nor able to chase the runs but rather set a platform. Opposition skipper came in at 3 and hit his straps early but by drinks at 15 overs, they were on 40/1, in theory well behind the run rate.but with 9 wickets in hand. Eventually we got the other opener – tried to smash Jonty back over his head only to find Siv in the deep. Unfortunately, Siv dropped the catch but he did manage to hear the screams of ‘RUN HIM OUT!’ from the rest of the team as he inspected his hands for holes and the elderly and not particularly speedy batter had set out on a run. Siv threw the ball back quickly, Jonty did the rest and we had our first point.
Prasad and Fagan were replaced by Venkat and Ford for a brief spell of two overs before regular rotation of the bowlers to try and stem the run rate and take some wickets. We started to take wickets at fairly regular intervals then but Bethesda seemed to be scoring quite freely too. They went from 64/2 at the halfway point to 119/4 after 30 overs. Yash had the number 4 caught behind, Prasad bowled the number 5 with a beauty, and Umang – who finished with incredible figures of 2 for 11 of 8 overs – got one too.
At this point, Graham’s knee had flared up and he’d left the field…the short man leaving us a man short. I’m not sure the hard ground suited him. He needs something softer…a bouncy castle maybe? With that in mind, a blatant plug for Graham’s daughter’s new business venture http://www.emphire.co.uk for all of your bouncy castle, ice cream machine and party event needs!!
It was at this point the controversy started. Two things happened at around the same time. Firstly, Yash noticed that the scoreboard updates weren’t quite matching what was happening on the field. The board was being updating very intermittently and he’d been keeping a close eye on it and expressed concern that it didn’t seem quite right. Obviously we’d like to think – and have to believe – that there was nothing untoward going on but the fact the book didn’t add up at the end of the match, suggesting in fact that Bethesda didn’t actually reach their target (depending on which set of numbers you believe to be accurate) does add some weight to Yash’s concerns…but I guess we’ll never know. Needless to say, Bethesda didn’t like the fact it was being challenged!
The second thing that happened was the older opener had now come out to umpire. He is, by all accounts, a panel umpire, meaning he stands as an umpire in Prem/Div 1 matches. He knows his onions, of that I’m sure there is no doubt. However, we play division 3 and sometimes a) you have show some leniency to that point when talking about wides and b) as mentioned, the tone of cutting the bowler a bit of slack had been established in the first innings.
It was clear that wasn’t going to be the case here though and, albeit not many, there were a number of wides given by the new umpire that were quite frankly ridiculous. Six inches inside the off-side tramline with the keeper not having to move to take the ball is not a wide at our level. Worth noting at this point that Bethesda had two sets of tramlines…the normal ones and another set 6 inches or so inside, presumably for 20/20 games or for leg side wides for their first team…but we were getting wides given down the off side. Stand in skipper Applewhite voiced his displeasure at one point, merely pointing out that these weren’t wides in the 1st innings. The umpire demanded to speak the captain and was ‘dismayed’ when he realised he already was…the tone for a feisty ending was very much set.
To avoid being called wide off his final delivery, Yash threw down a gentle lobbed delivery (which ironically would’ve actually been wide had the batsman left it). The batsman took great offence at this and attempted to smash it back from whence it came, only to pick out a fielder for a catch!
Somewhere in all this, 4-wicket-Poppy had come in, smashed Jonty back over his head for 4 before he took great delight in bowling her out. Not sure whether the Bethesda sun or Jonty pearly whites were the brighter. Umang finally got their skipper for what turned out to be a match-winning 49 and secure our 4th point but their number 9 came in and smashed a few 4s to win the game. Their victory was met with loud cheers from the sidelines as things had turned a bit fraught, before there was a bit of handbags and insults from the home team as we trudged off.
Overall, while it was a disappointing outcome, we put in a good performance and on another day, we could easily have won. Anyway, on to the next one – tabletoppers Ruthin await next week, still places available for those keen to play!