Scratch 3rd XI earn 17 Points (Sort Of...)

Marshfield 3rd’s vs Swindon 4th’s, Tormarton, 22nd June 2019

Swindon 4th’s won by 70 runs

JRR Tolkein’s classic, the Hobbit, actually has two titles – as in ‘The Hobbit’ or ‘There and back again’. This report could similarly have two, largely depending on your point of view. If feeling somewhat negative, downcast perhaps, then it’s a tale of another heavy defeat. On the other hand, in some ways, the tale can be spun in a positive light, and this author certainly believes that the 3rds ended up on Saturday evening 17 points better off than looked likely for most of the week. How can this be? Read on dear reader, but beware of dragons…

Early reports suggested that across the club player availability was not looking good. By Tuesday, and official selection, around 7 to 8 players were needed from somewhere. Without going into details there were 35 players not around, notably most of the youth element being involved in school cricket. Clearly, this would be a tough week, and your correspondent started actively recruiting at the University, so often the source of one or more extras to fill out the side(s). Directed emails, then mass emails were tried to no avail. Our local friendly clubs were asked to no result. Marshfield has a proud record of not forfeiting games, but as the week wore on it seemed an increasing possibility – send out the 1sts and 2nds, and shamefully default against Swindon. Aside from the disappointment at not fulfilling the fixture and the 10 point penalty, there was also the opposition, currently sat bottom of the 7th division and thus someone we really needed to beat.

By Friday it looked as if the 2nds and 3rds would end up with 9 and 8 respectively, and play (and almost certainly lose), but at least avoid the forfeit. By Saturday morning, suddenly the 3rds had a full roster after some heavy recruiting the previous evening, and possibly some alcoholic induced bravado. Step forward Hannah Palmer and Amelia Bond, two Maidens and Andy Lanning and John Smail, provenance not entirely sure, but possibly a friend of Dicko (really? –Ed) and the friend of Dicko’s father-in-law. Not exactly parachuting in Joe Root, or David Warner for a one-off performance, but all looking keen, and crucially, turning up and based on avoiding the forfeit, we were 10 points better off already…

On winning the toss Jim decided to field, probably wary of the weak looking batting line-up, and so began an intriguing couple of hours in the field. Dixon and Duckett opened the bowling, Dixon carefully choosing the end without the ridiculously short leg-side boundary, and he was his usual frugal self (surely ‘boring’ – Ed), and he claimed the first wicket, clean bowling Kukreti with the score on 16. A change of bowling brought quick rewards, the rested Will Christie finding a nice rhythm and no little swing to find the outside edge of Hobson, 28-2. Two wickets down and the points swing now up to 11. Will followed up with two more wickets, the first held at the third attempt by veteran Threadgill, keeping his legs together in fine style, and the second bowled off the pads. With Rich Guy cleverly inducing Selladurai to edge down leg-side, well taken by the keeper (surely ‘rank leg side long-hop’ –Ed), and then bowling Jagdey with a ball that did everything (surely ‘slow, rare straight ball that the batsman unaccountably missed’ – Ed) suddenly Swindon were in trouble at 65-6.

Jim Creed claimed the wicket of Gabb, and at 85-7 the innings looked done, and perhaps would have been without the big hitting of Hallsworth (A). His 50 was not without controversy – early in his innings a low full toss from Creed was miss-hit to mid-on and the catch taken, only for the young square leg umpire to rule it a no ball. This seemed a poor decision, but with no DRS available (obviously) there was nothing to be done (other than Richard berating the youngster several overs later when he didn’t call a genuine high no-ball).

In the end the innings closed on 161 all out, with three wickets apiece for Christie, Creed and Guy (much to Dicko’s chagrin).

After another fine Marshfield tea, with perhaps a touch too many crisps, the skipper and Rich set about the response. If there was to be a hope of chasing the total down, a good start would be a prerequisite. Alas the very opposite happened. Firstly Richard was lost LBW to a ball that kept very low (‘only hope was if it went under the stumps’ – Prof Guy), and then yours truly was needlessly run out. Hitting a no ball through the covers, the first call was waiting, then when it passed the fielder, the call was ‘one’. Jim called for two, but on reaching the end of the first run, Woodman called ‘it’s in his hand’. Turning, Jim had already committed, and so your correspondent, gamely taking one for the team, elected to run himself out, rather than the skipper, reasoning that Jim was far more likely to make the big runs. Sadly this did not prove to be the case, and the top three had all gone, with just 6 runs between them.

With the result now not in doubt, the interest was to see how long the rest could bat and how many runs could be acquired – could more points be added to the 5 already gained? Sam Duckett (19) and Wil Christie (28) both played well and all the guest players had their turn, albeit Hannah was denied the chance to face a ball by Will being pinned in front of middle stump, closing the innings on 91, from 34.5 overs. With the batting point gained, 5 from the bowling and 1 for the playing umpires, a total swing of 17 points was registered from the worst case scenario. To that end the club is heavily indebted to the four guests who turned out for us and threw themselves into the game in good spirits. None looked out of place in the field, notably John Smail, although he would have done better to take Dicko’s advice when batting and not wandered out of his crease. (To be fair to Dobby, we did omit to tell him what the crease was. I feel this oversight was crucial in hindsight - Ed)

Man of the match Will Christie, on his return showing just what we have been missing.

 Tim Wooman

Some photos by the author, click on a thumbnail for a bigger picture...