Match Report

With dark grey clouds looming in the morning when the mighty Lavant awoke from their slumber the prospect of any match play seemed unlikely. However the afternoon forecast looked good and thanks to TamsTarps™ even the heavy rain couldn’t deter the home side from getting out onto the park! This week Grayshott were coming to play on one of the rare Saturday fixtures.

Upon arrival at the ground suddenly the thunderclouds had lifted, the rain had moved on and the outfield was basked in bright sunshine and what was looking a gloomy day turned into a scorcher.

With the hard work put in by Robin the day before prepping the square and then Tam and Will T in the morning on clean up duty the pitch was ready for play! 

After an in depth pitch inspection the two skippers tossed up and (YET AGAIN) the Lavant skipper was on the losing side. He has spent all week tossing, working hard in the hope of getting to some form but alas no dice.

The Grayshott captain elected to bowl first leaving the Lavant skipper time to trudge off thinking of another excuse why he had lost the toss.

Pitch prepared, tea assembled, wedding guests gathered, pads and helmets were slapped on……GAME ON!

Yet again the tried and trusted opening partnership of the Lavant skipper and Justin walked to the middle looking to do what they have been doing all season. See off opening bowlers, set a platform for the team and get the team off to a good start.

Today was no different! 

With the Lavant skipper being watchful, Justin, now seeing the ball like Jupiter, didn’t take long at all. Slamming his first delivery to the fence for 4 he set the tone and in a flurry of boundaries all the Lavant skipper could do was lean on his bat at the other end and watch and admire, and whenever possible take a single to get the form man back on strike! 

The stroke play was brutal and after 6 overs the score had raced past 50 for another 50 opening stand from the two great mates and it didn’t stop there!

With Grayshott seemingly determined to continue with their opening bowlers there was no mercy shown from either batmen (even the Lavant skipper got in on the act a few times)! 

Suddenly the 100 partnership arrived in the 10th over with neither side seemingly wanting to take a backward step. It wasn’t until the 15th over (with the score on 121) did a change of bowling come.

Into the attack was a familiar face of Dave ‘The Shoes’ Burford making an appearance for the opposition (who had been struggling for players)! Licking his lips at the thought of claiming a few Lavant scalps for bragging rights he didn’t have to wait long taking the wicket of the Lavant skipper (out caught for 28).

Shortly after this (with more lusty blows coming) Justin registered another 100 of the season and probably his most brutal / destructive and had come in record time. Justin retired on 100 to allow others a go (well played again Justin).

In came Joe and Lloyd who looked to build upon the solid platform and both men didn’t take long to get into their work dispatching the ball to the boundary. With the scoring rate picking up again ‘The Shoes’ managed to do it again picking up the wicket of Joe (out for 21).

Next in was Jayden who (after kindly helping the club out last week playing for the opposition) was making his full Lavant debut. Understandably nervous he joined Lloyd in the middle and took guard, and looking solid he certainly wasn’t shy in trying to score. There was a big roar and applause when he scored his first run for the club!

It was great to see Lloyd taking up the senior role in the batting partnership and with great game intelligence. It wasn’t that long ago Lloyd was the ‘new kid on the block’ but was happy to try and help Jayden and also looking to push the scoring on when the run rate started to drop.

In a very selfless way Lloyd was out bowled trying to attack a ball that wasn’t quite there to go after and was bowled for a breezy 17.

Jayden stuck around but found it hard to score and ended up chipping the ball up to be caught out for 2. A great learning experience for someone who was only playing his second game of cricket! 

Will ‘T-Rex’ entered the fray knowing that the scoreboard started to look a little shy of a good total and in his normal manner went big from ball one! Launching a mighty six of his first ball…..then another! On the 3rd time it looked another 6 was on the way…the ball was travelling high and far and most had started to already celebrate and clap, however not many had noticed the young Grayshott lad (who was dressed in green) who took a very decent catch right on the boundary rope! Will was out for 12.

With Rob out plum LBW for 0 suddenly there was a scramble of people trying to don whites and batting pads!!

Tam was seen one moment just wearing shorts and a vest to then suddenly appear with just about enough batting gear on to get out to the middle (including some pads being worn on the outside of his clothes)!

Chris similarly had scrambled and he got the middle just in time to launch a final assault. It’s a nice luxury for the team to have not only such capable batters in the middle / lower order but also able to call upon such destructive fire power too!

With only 3 overs remaining Tam and Chris went ballistic! Smashing boundary after boundary it was explosive batting of the highest order!

The score was 193 when they started and when they were finished the final total was 225 and appeared to be an extremely competitive total.

Tea was taken. Beautiful cakes were eaten (thanks Carly)! Crisps were devoured, sandwiches consumed as well as some bananas and (in a rare moment) a certain person maybe ate a small cake before getting ready to keep wicket and try to defend the total.

The Lavant skipper threw the new ball to premier opening bowler ‘Jean Claude Van Tam’ asking him to continue in his great bowling form and yet again didn’t let anyone down. Extracting a wicket in his first over (cleaning up the #1 batter) and then delivering a wicket maiden in his second over (cleaning up the #3 batter). Giving nothing away Tam rattled through his 7 overs finishing 2-19. Great work Jean Claude!!

At the other end Peter ‘The Professor’ was asked to open the bowling hoping to extract some turn and bounce from the new cherry. What was encouraging to see from Peter this week was his resilience (after a challenging couple of games) to take his chance when the opportunity arose. His line and lengths were much better and the team could see the confidence growing. With fielders stationed close in ‘The Prof’ picked up a classical off spin dismissal drawing a false shot and caught smartly by Joe who was in close on the drive.

Peter continued in this vein for the rest of his spell (rattling off 3 maidens in a row at one point) and even unveiled a tasty arm ball! Peter finished with figures of 1 for 10. Well bowled Peter!

Chris ‘John’ Maclean entered the fray and started strongly getting the ball to talk and picking up a wicket in his second over of the #5 batter clean bowling them. In the searing heat Chris faded a little but finished his spell with a decent 1 for 20 off 5 overs.

Next the skipper turned to ‘Super Steve’ Brooker who for some reason has organised a group of people to play a set of drums, a flute and the banging of some sticks when it was his turn to bowl. Most of the team were puzzled by what was going on…was it a way of distracting the batters….was it a odd hypnotic spell (or curse) or was it just to get in timing with his ‘Super shuffle’ when he ran in? Just another one of those odd things that goes unexplained during the season! 

Either way whatever was going on it worked as Steve also picked up a wicket in his first over extracting a false shot from the #2 batter who clipped the ball up to Jayden who at first seemed unsure what to do until some cricket instinct kicked in. Jayden set off at pace and was able to snaffle a smart catch low down. The celebration and fist pump was great to see and was celebrated by the whole team!

Next came Joe who was making his bowling debut for this season. After a very promising opening over the second over…was…well….a little mixed. With a mixture of beamers, wides and moon balls that flew over the top of nearly everyone, what seemed to be the epitome of ‘village’ perhaps actually was just a brilliant plan because after (what felt like 1000 balls) Joe picked up a wicket! Obviously enticing the batter with the previous deliveries to come out of their crease and picking up a regulation stumping. Joe finished his eventful spell 1 for 14 off 2 overs. 

At the other end came Will ‘T-Rex’ to the attack. Looking to show why he was the apex predator of cricket now fully fit and bowled some tasty looking deliveries that were hitting the keeper’s hands hard! Will bowled so well he was able to knock over the #6 batter (with a snorting Yorker) but also was able to pick up the very prized wicket of Dave ‘The Shoes’ for a duck which was fitting considering the damage Dave did to our batting with the ball earlier in the day! 

Will T finished a very impressive spell of 2 for 7 off 5 overs. Great work Will.

After Joe’s ‘eventful’ spell Steve returned to complete his spell and was able to pick up a wicket  (a great grab from Tam). Steve finished his curse…I mean spell…I mean charm….2 for 24 from his 7 over spell.

With the game coming to the conclusion Jayden and Rob were asked to finish out the game. Rob tried hard but found it hard to land the ball in the right areas and finished 0 for 13 off his one over.

At the other end Jayden came into the attack and in a day of firsts was able to have his first bowl for Lavant CC.

Showing a solid action Jayden certainly looked the part butting the ball in the right areas and giving the opposition batters nothing to score off finishing his over 0 for 4.

With the 35 overs complete Greyshott were only able to to gather 113 runs and were way short of the required amount giving Lavant the win.

All in all a great win but to be honest the atmosphere of the game was terrific. The attitude shown by everyone from the start of the day with Tam and Will T getting the pitch ready, everyone’s willingness to muck in and help out, to the fun and laughing everyone was having during the batting and bowling it was just a great day all round.

Well done everyone.

Man of the match

Can only go to Justin for not only a brilliant and rapid 100 but mainly because the opening stand not only set the game up to be in favour of the home side due to the volume and speed of runs. It was the match defining moment. Well played Justin.

Champagne moment

A truly terrific moment for Jayden (after scoring his first runs earlier in the day) to take a great catch running in and the celebration from him would have warmed even the coldest of hearts. It took a few of the older guys back to a time where cricket was new and exciting and teaches us all a lesson of enjoyment for ourselves and for our teammates. Great grab Jayden!

Another game….another weekend…and I even managed not to mention the 11 dropped catches!

Oh.

On to the next!