3rdXI batting Frailties Resurrected against Christian Malford

Marshfield 3^rd XI vs Christian Malford XI, Tormarton, 1st June 2019

Christian Malford won by 64 runs.

When I perused the fixture list earlier this year, one stood out – Christian Malford. It looked as if there had been a mistake – surely this was the captain or fixtures secretary, not the name of an actual place? A quick perusal of the map showed otherwise but also got me thinking (a dangerous thing at the best of times…) The British Isles is replete with humorous, rude,  arcane and obscure place names – was there a sporting eleven out there waiting to be found? Of course, there was! So here is the batting line-up of Christian Malford (as I thought it should be…)

Fanny Barks (late of the Durham parish) regularly umpires and the club plays its home games at Scratchy Bottom (Dorset), just down the road from Minge Lane (Worcestershire).

A magnificent eleven, definitely posh, almost certainly public school, and all supporting Brexit.

On to the match…

It was a hot day – definitely a day to win the toss and settle in for a nice long bat, while the opposition toils in the field, and to be fair that was exactly what the Christian Malford skipper did on winning the toss. This week’s version of the Marshfield 3^rd XI was notably stronger on the bowling front – Professor Guy would swing his arms in Jim’s direction as hard and long as he wanted, there would be no call to arms. Instead it was another promising youth player, Ollie Bates, who led the attack with Andy Elliot, with Mark Dixon relegated to second change. Both Bates and Elliot started well, and Brazier was removed for a duck by Elliiot, well taken by Sam Duckett. However, the pair of skipper Dixon (T), and Messingham now laid a steady platform, and were severe on any short deliveries, without ever really cutting loose.  After finally breaking the partnership, it became apparent that the Malford line-up may not be full of great batting talent, and wickets began to fall regularly, with Bates eventually claiming 9-1-26-3. Despite the tumbling wickets, Dixon sailed on, never forcing the pace, but calmly accumulating runs and dispatching the odd bad ball to the boundary. As such it seemed that the total might be kept to 130-140 and that Dixon might run out of partners. Eventually, Dixon reached his century, and then calamity struck for the home side. The next ball was slogged to cow corner, where Andy Elliot did everything right, with the exception of actually taking the catch. Would the reprieve be costly? You bet! Elliot soon found out to his cost, as Dixon flayed his last over for 20 runs, and helped push the score to 190-8, way above where it should have been and in truth probably a total beyond the relatively weak looking 3^rd team batting line-up.

Chasing down 190 would require some good individual performances and some solid partnerships. Jim Creed and Prof Guy both started like they had a hot dinner date waiting, and boundaries were racked up by both. All looked good until Guy attempted to pull a short ball, forgetting that the pitch at Tormarton is prone to being on the slow side, and was through his shot, off the pitch and into the shower before the wickets were broken, 34-1. Stalwart number three, your correspondent, joined Jim, who after dispatching a huge six into the turkey farm, then picked out mid-on trying to repeat the dose, 40-2. Problems.

Ollie Bates enjoyed a brief stay at the crease, but could not replicate his bowling feats with the bat, so now Andy Elliot joined your correspondent, with both feeling the need to stick around and accumulate if there was to be any success in chasing down the total. Some steady batting followed, but at 75, the seemingly unthreatening Williamson removed Elliot, who edged to gulley and shortly after your correspondent perished too, caught behind off the very toe of the bat. At 76-5 things looked bleak. A fine innings from Sam Duckett, supported by Dixon (M) and Tanner helped the score along, but in truth the total was out of reach and Marshfield closed on 126 all out, including a magnificent golden duck from ex third team skipper Andy Pierce, who apparently saw it all the way, but failed to use the bat.

As England recently discovered against Pakistan, poor fielding can lead to conceding too many runs, and losing the game. Cricket can be about small margins, and keeping potential twos as singles, and taking catches are crucial. Too often Marshfield’s fielding lacked the intensity and focus and as a result an imposing total was built by a side with realistically only 3 or 4 batsmen. It’s easy to say, but without Dixon’s 122 it would have been a very different game.

There were some good performances – Sam Duckett will have learned a lot from his unbeaten 13 (a very decent length of time at the crease), and he took a catch and a wicket in his four overs. MoM on this occasion goes to Ollie Bates for his fine bowling spell and three wickets.

Your correspondent (Wes Twardho!)

 Tim Wooman