"At Least We Turned Up!!"

In early 1973 the troubles in Northern Ireland were at their height. The previous year both Wales and Scotland had refused to travel for their five nations championship matches, and as England’s visit approached it seemed likely that they too would pull out. In the end, Willie-John McBride’s friendship with David Duckham helped convince the players to come. After an 18-9 thrashing, John Pullin wearily rose to his feet at the after-match dinner and uttered the immortal words “Well we might not be any good but at least we turned up”.

Jim Creed must have been thinking the same thing after a short, if spirited, game against Chippenham 4ths at Sheldon School. Selection had been challenging, with 19 regular players unavailable for a host of reasons, and the university tapped for cricketers harder than ever before. The team that eventually took the field contained no fewer than four members of the Pharmacy and Pharmacology department (even with Professor Guy, who was elsewhere failing to trouble the scorers), plus a mathematics professor. Stalwart arm-stretcher Threadgill returned to the fray, but even some of the players present were there with restrictions of what they could do – Will Christie forbidden from bowling on account of a long term injury and Tom Lamb saving himself for the Village Knock-out the next day.

Despite Jim warning the opposition about the strength of the Marshfield line-up, on winning the toss the Chippenham skipper chose to bowl. The least said about the batting the better, suffice to say 41 runs were garnered over 25.1 overs, on a difficult pitch (and fairly slow outfield). Tom Lamb top-scored with 15, but even he could have been dismissed early in his innings with the keeper dropping a fairly simple chance.

In response Marshfield strove desperately for wickets to take something from the game. Lamb bowled a tidy four overs for just two runs, and Matthew Jones was also frugal, with just seven off four. Turning to spin increased the scoring rate, but did at least bring about a wicket, Jim earning an lbw by dint of daring the umpire not to give it. A second wicket would have meant a point, but alas Chippenham reached their target in the 15th over with just one wicket down.

The start of the 2018 season for the 3rd’s was bedevilled by opposition sides failing to raise a side and forfeiting the game (three occasions in the first six matches), and this lead to both a disjointed first half of the season and some significant grumbling. As such, Jim was very keen that Marshfield ‘at least turned up’, and I would contend that although the result was a heavy defeat, with the resources available, the performance was at least creditable. On the points balance, one point was at least gained (trained umpires) and the -10 point penalty for the forfeit was avoided. This may be of great significance come August.

 Tim Wooman