Skipper’s Match Report – Bank Holiday Double Header Special Edition
Saturday 25th May 2024 Marchwiel & Wrexham 2nds v Mynydd Isa & Maeshafn and Monday 27th May 2024 Mynydd Isa & Maeshafn v Llanrwst 2nds
Saturday 25th May 2024 High Quality Umpiring at Marchwiel
MIMCC 140/8 (40 overs), Marchwiel 2nds 141/4 (33.2 overs) – Marchwiel win by 6 wickets
It’s fair to say that, for one reason or another, we’ve had some memorable trips to Marchwiel over the years. A tied game, a medical emergency, several Maeshafn batters nearly getting killed by an Aussie pro after an ill-advised Welsh Cup entry. Saturday’s game certainly added another entry to the list, though perhaps not for the best of reasons.
As usual, the skipper lost the toss. And as usual we were invited to have a bat. Although the pitch seemed a bit two paced, openers Apples and Siv got us off to a strong start with a 50 partnership in 13 overs. Siva struck a few characteristic blows before falling for 30 to a sharp caught and bowled. At this point play was temporarily halted while Apples, having locked his wife and children out of their own home, sheepishly returned to the pavilion to retrieve the house keys from his kitbag. Despite Apples’ protestations that this wasn’t his fault, this version of events is definitely what happened and was independently verified by Marty. Sadly, a second visit to the pavilion followed a few minutes later as Apples found the fielder to depart for 18. Jay followed him later in the same over without troubling the scorers, trapped lbw. This brought together Abs and Dave, and Dave made 7 before being bowled by one that jagged back sharply.
Pictured: Stu Applewhite’s presumed Saturday night sleeping accommodation
Saboor came to the crease and started to find the boundary, scoring at better than a run a ball. Moments later however, his brief stay was brought to an abrupt end as a piece of running between the wickets which can only be described as Pugh-esque saw both batters practically shaking hands at the bowler’s end, the keeper taking the bails off at the other end, and the umpires having to work out who was out. Saboor was the unlucky party and departed for 15. Naseer followed next ball clean bowled. This brought Jeremy (on debut) to the middle to join Abs. Against some tight bowling runs were difficult to come by, with Jeremy making 8, and Abs facing a lot of balls….
The skipper came to the crease to join Abs with the score at 98-7. Abs had been taking some flack from Marchwiel’s chirpiest fielder for his scoring rate, and decided that enough was enough. Runs started to flow more freely including a 6 into the leg side lots of quick singles. In the end Abs made 24 before departing in the penultimate over. Niall joined yours truly (13no) and made 3 at a run a ball, leaving us with a respectable final total of 140/8 off our 40 overs.
Marchwiel started slowly in response, with Jonathan and Naseer giving very little away in the opening overs. Dave came on as first change and picked up a wicket in his second over caught and bowled. Sadly this would be his only wicket of the day as a hamstring injury sustained while fielding brought his spell to a premature end. Over the next 2 overs, Naseer and Saboor (whose bowling rivalry is shaping up nicely) traded wickets – Saboor’s clean bowled and Naseer’s to an acrobatic grab from wicketkeeper Applewhite, who is clearly better with the gloves than he is with a set of keys….
Expert Umpiring Decision 1
At this point Marchwiel were 40-3 and a long way behind the rate. Their no 4 came to the crease looking to rectify this and began to find the boundary on a regular basis. Cue massive controversy #1. Their batter charges down the wicket, the ball keeps low missing the stumps by a coat of varnish, ricochets Pugh-style off Apples’ pads and onto the stumps with the batter out of his ground. Out stumped presumably? Sadly, the square leg umpire had been trying very hard to read the tail number off a passing aeroplane and claimed to have seen nothing….
Expert Umpiring Decision 2
With the score creeping into the 70s, Jonathan came back into the attack. Cue massive controversy #2. Their big hitter charges down the track and hits the ball on the full straight up into the air, whereupon Jonathan takes a caught and bowled and sets off at full speed in search of Pete Ford in order to poke him in the eye. But wait, what’s this? The square leg umpire, having apparently completed his plane spotting assignment, had keenly observed that the delivery was above waist height and therefore a no ball. The fact that the point of interception was halfway to the bowler’s end was apparently of no consequence. Must be a local rule.
Pictured: The Laws of Cricket, 41.7.1
This was the moment that turned the game. Their big hitter carried on with a sense of invincibility and despite the efforts of Jay, Jeremy, and Saboor (who did pick up the final wicket), Marchwiel reached their target with 6 overs to spare.
A very frustrating day. Had certain things gone differently it could have been a very close game indeed. Which would have been a more edifying outcome for all concerned.
Monday 27th May 2024 Health & Safety, Sawdust, Wooden Legs and Bouncing Balls
MIMCC 148/9 (28 overs), Llanrwst 2nds 79/7 (28 overs) MIMCC win by 69 runs
Sometimes in North Wales, it rains. Even in summer. I know – I’m as astounded as you. Elements within Monday’s opposition were seemingly similarly perplexed by this revelation, and visibly shaken by the prospect of being asked to step onto a cricket field following a rain delay. Thankfully both captains were of the opinion that the point of being a member of a cricket club is to play cricket rather than pontificate about the weather. So after only one threat of legal action had been made against the Hon Sec, and approximately 75kg of sawdust procured in the name of safety from a local agricultural supplier, play got underway in a match reduced to 28 overs per side.[1]
As sure as night follows day, the Skipper lost the toss for the 946th time in a row. And as sure as day follows night, we were invited to try our luck batting first on the Argoed’s finest. The Dream Team of Apples and Siv at the top of the order started strongly, quicky moving the score past 30 before Apples chopped on to one that didn’t get up much. Siv, supported by Abs, was scoring at a good rate, and finished with 28. This brought Aryaman to the crease, and it was at this point that some odd things started happening. Llanrwst had kindly supplied an umpire for the fixture, who applied an artist’s touch to the interpretation of the laws of cricket. Personally, I was brought to mind of Dali, or perhaps Magritte. Great art challenges its audience and it was unfortunate that a couple of Maeshafn’s batters failed to appreciate this. After all, in a very real sense what is a double bounce? And don’t we all, to an extent, have a wooden leg?
Pictured: The Treachery of Images, by René Magritte (1929), featuring the declaration “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” (“This is not a pipe”)
With Aryaman and Abs back in the hutch, it was time for the Deepak show. Making his first appearance of the season, Deepak took on everything Llanrwst’s bowlers sent down at him, and smashed it to all corners. With an ever-changing cast at the other end not offering the scorers much work, Deepak hit a majestic 55 at better than a run a ball to send us to a final score of 148 off our 28 overs. A second excellent score on a difficult Argoed pitch in as many home games, giving us a great chance for points.
From the get-go Llanrwst struggled to get anywhere near the required run rate. Naseer struck the first blow, rearranging their opener’s stumps with an unplayable delivery, before Abs took a very sharp catch in the leg side to give Jonty a wicket. Saboor came into the attack as first change and removed their other opener caught at square leg by Lalit. Aryaman replaced Naseer at the clubhouse end and bowled very tightly indeed. This pressure soon told as Abs took another good catch to give Aryaman his first wicket for the club on the way to impressive figures of 6-3-9-1.
By now the win was pretty much out of the opposition’s reach and it was just a question of how many points they might be able to take. Their no 5 foolishly attempted to take on Siv’s arm at mid-on, and despite having hurt his finger in the process of *ahem* dropping a catch on Saturday (which we shan’t mention…), Siv had no problem finding a direct hit to leave the Llanrwst player short of his ground by miles.
Deepak kept the pressure on with a tight 5 over spell. And then all that remained was for Jonty to come back to massage his bowling average by mopping up the tail, to finish with 3-13 off his 6 overs. A 69 run victory, for 13-2 in points.
Well done to everyone who turned out for us this weekend. In the past it has always been a massive challenge to get 2 sides out over a bank holiday weekend; whereas this time we were faced with selection decisions for both games. Which is a nice problem to have.
[1] This sawdust of course went completely unused throughout the course of the match, so if anyone needs to house a hamster, or maybe clean up some vomit, we have a plentiful supply of the requisite materials.