Sunday 30th June

Match Report

This week Lavant welcomed regular opponents Ashling however due to the the England football team kicking off at 5pm this week’s game took a rather funky approach with both sides aggreeing a format (which most didn’t understand) that allowed for this Sunday’s game to be completed in good time to meet the England KO.

One of the agreements was to start at 12pm so with the Lavant players rushing to the ground clutching their teddy bears, morning newspapers and weetabix all was left was for everyone to get changed out of their pyjamas and wait for the outcome of the toss. The Lavant captain looked tired from the late night repairing the torn webbing of his favourite keeping gloves in a patch up job even Dave ‘the shoes’ Burford would have been proud of. He would have seen it but apparently 12pm is too early for him to arise from a long night of clubbing in Bognor. Sorry I meant cobbling….. 

The Lavant skipper (continuing his fine tossing form this season) won the toss and (with a long Lavant batting line up) elected to bowl. Game on! 

With an unusual lack of front line bowlers for Lavant the duties fell to Justin and Richard to open for the home side (looking to try and protect the short boundary from the slow / spin bowlers).

Richard (finding it hard to get his radar right) was slow to get into his work but managed to find his rhythm but with very little reward and kept plugging away until the drinks break.

At the other end Justin continued his fine form with the ball finding zip and accuracy but also with little reward.

At drinks (after a few crucial drops) the Lavant side had a sinking feeling as the Ashling batsmen passed 100 and were looking to put on a big total.

Looking to change up the bowlers after their long spells the Lavant skipper turned to Mark S to replace Richard. A plan was hatched and the field was set and Mark ‘The Chairman’ stuck to this task very well keeping the ball in good areas and halting the charge from the Ashling team who were looking to push hard after drinks.

Mark was rewarded for his efforts clean bowling the #3 batsman….although I don’t think he knew about it at the time and seemed more surprised than anyone! 

At the other end the team turned to the premier strike bowler Tam to see if he was able to find a breakthrough and it didn’t take long as in his 3rd over he was able to dispatch the inform Ashling batter. After that Tam picked up 3 more wickets and stemmed the flow of runs.

Justin returned to the attack for the last 15 mins to try and keep the runs down and was finally rewarded for his efforts in his first spell picking up 2 wickets with Ashling finishing 2 hours of batting with 167. Lavant had done well in the period after drinks to keep the runs down.

It felt like a more than competitive total on a challenging pitch that had gone up and down all game. Lavant had to chase 167 from their 35 overs.

Due to the quick turn around no tea was taken, one banana was eaten and too much time was taken to change clothing to get out to bat! 

The Lavant innings started well with the Lavant captain (in an attempt to get ahead of the run rate) getting off to a blistering start hitting the opening bowlers to all parts. At the other end Harry remained steady looking to work the ball into gaps. A nice partnership was forming when a ball got a bit too big on the Lavant captain and clothed the ball back to the bowler.

Tragically what came after was a collapse even the England test side would be proud of. Many Lavant batters returned to the changing room getting out without troubling the scorer too much with everything hit in the air seemingly being held onto with aplomb by the razor sharp Ashling fielders…..Lloyd can feel particularly aggrieved after hitting a shot with such venom even Chris ‘John Maclean’ would have been proud of it to see it snaffled one handed by a fielder.

Harry continued to plug away at one end with partners coming and going but also fell LBW (with the top score of all the Lavant batters with 36) going back to a ball that didn’t get up being hit in front of all three.

With not much left in the Lavant batting tank and the run rate climbing Justin and Tam did their best to get the innings going again hitting some lusty blows but after trying to get the scoreboard moving both men got out on 12 with yet another great grab by the Ashling fielders in the deep.

With the final partnership in the middle Rob was able to remain calm and hit a couple of nice shots into gaps but Mark was clean bowled with Lavant all out for 115 off 28 overs and well beaten.

From the highs of the last game this felt like a leveller and reminder that Lavant have to work very hard to compete with the opposition they face each week and with the teams they put out do have to punch above their weight a lot of the time to compete so over the course of the season there will be results like this.

Without getting too much into the detail of where the game was won / lost the very simple age old cricket adage of ‘catches win matches’ could not ring more true. Lavant just simply let key and dangerous batters off the hook with dropped catches which allowed a good score to be put on the board where Ashling caught nearly every chance that was presented to them.

Man of the match goes to Mark S. His continued support for me is not only appreciated but also for the club. Willing to step aside to allow others to play but also never complain if he does bowl / bat understanding what is best for the club. Today, after not bowling for a long while, came on during a tricky period of the game and stuck to the plan and bowled to his field very well when the Ashling batters were looking accelerate. 

Champagne moment also goes to Mark for the look of utter surprise when he took his first wicket not even realising he had cleaned bowled them! 

You can’t win them all so we reflect, learn and move onto the next game.