Sunday 4th August

Match Report

With the mighty Lavant moving into the August fixtures another Home game was in the making. This weekend Lavant welcomed a very youthful Droxford to the village who appeared very keen as they arrived a good 30 minutes before most of the home side and gathered around the wicket where (one can only assume) to discuss their tactics and game plan and do some cricket drills.

Lavant on the other hand decided to go with the more customary Village cricket approach…show up in dribs and drabs, chat about anything but cricket and kick a football around with Eli.

The Lavant skipper (after crawling out of his bed from battling a terrible case of man flu and rocking a Barry White voice) decided to get things going and strode to the middle with the aura of a great tosser and (yes yet again) won the toss and decided to bat.

The Lavant innings started strongly with the Lavant skipper taking to the opening bowler, pouncing on anything short of a length and biffing it over the boundary. At the other end Harry (considering he’s not played in some time) was ever watchful and solid looking to build a decent opening platform. 

With 56 on the board and a solid foundation being laid both openers (after looking comfortable) were guilty of getting out with the skipper chasing a wide ball and toe ending an edge to slip (for 32) and Harry missing out on a full toss and being clean bowled (for 22). 

Joe and Justin walked to the middle looking to continue the good work. Joe got stuck in quickly and found a way of smashing good balls to the fence. Justin at the other end was playing in a solid manner and helping to build a partnership with Joe on tricky wicket with both men moving the score along and passing 100. 

Droxford shuffled around their bowling attack looking to stem the flow of runs and picked up Joe’s wicket (falling for 39) and then Justins (falling for 15) in quick succession. 

With an hour left the Lavant skipper asked Tam to join Lloyd in the middle to try and counter attack but unfortunately Lloyd was struck on the hand by a ball that lifted and blood started to appear through his glove from damaging the end of his finger.

Lloyd had to quickly retire hurt to get his finger seen too. At Lavant we pride ourselves on being ‘village’ about everything. Fielding….batting….bowling …..even first aid kits……with many of the items inside the first aid kit being out of date by at least 10 years! I suppose we all can take heart in the fact that the badges were so old they had probably grown penicillin on them to help counter any infection.

It’s ok though…the word going around was Dave ‘the shoes’ Burford was going to (reluctantly) open the club coffers and look to purchase another first aid kit. It was noted it seemed odd that he was looking for local car boot sales to see if he could find a second hand one to save money….

Anyway…back to the game..

With Lloyd getting ‘fully’ bandaged up (see the picture) Phil took his place in the middle with Tam and both men faced some tough bowling not offering much to hit. Both men held on to keep the innings together with one highlight – Phil out of the blue launching the Droxford captain for 6!

With Tam and Phil getting out looking to push the score on (and the innings entering the last 20 / 30 mins) Lloyd returned to the middle like a (WW1 veteran) with his good mate Nathan. It was going to be a difficult test for two rookies of the game to not only face down the good bowling attack on show from Droxford but also look to push the score along to get the team to a decent total.

Both men exceeded expectations and both got stuck into the bowling looking to punish anything over / through the tight ring field and also running singles hard (Nathan this time remembering to keep his bat down when running in). It was an amazing partnership given their lack of experience, the context of the game and the bowling on show and both were able to carry their bats at the end of the innings and should be very proud of helping to push the Lavant innings score to a very competitive 175.

I would like to note that the team has recently been able to put solid batting totals on the board by looking to start well, build a solid foundation and bat in partnerships through the batting order. This weekend really highlights that. With not one ‘big score’ to note everyone who batted played their part and was a real team effort to get 175 on the board.

Tea was taken and (thanks to Sheila) looked resplendent with many baked goods on offer. I was told it was lovely. Anyway cakes were eaten, drinks were drunk, strepsis were sucked and Lavant took to the field looking to keep things tight and make early inroads into the Droxford line up.

And what start! 

With Lavant welcoming back their ‘overseas’ from a much deserved break ‘jean claude van tram’ got stuck into his work quickly. After bowling 4 quality balls in his first over Tam decided to ditch the disciplined line and length strategy and bowl a changeup delivery….a filthy leg side full toss which totally outfoxed the Droxford opener who planted the ball right round the corner into the safe hands of James C (stationed at on the 45) who snaffled the catch with aplomb!

At the other end Justin (who according to Joe was bowling the fast spell he had seen this season) was tearing in probing the defences of the Droxford top order and caused chaos with batters trying so hard to get off strike it caused a calamitous run out (with some great fielding in the deep). Justin was also able to smash out of the ground the off stump of the #3 batter. Is there no better sight in cricket than seeing off peg cartwheeling out of the ground from a seam bowler. 

Once the team had retrieved the off stump from the river (Justin asked me to add that) Justin was also able to clean bowl the #5 batter (this time I made sure the stump was in the ground properly) and the home team felt well in the game.

At the other end the Droxford #4 (and captain) had come to the middle and looked assured in defence and not interested in playing anything too expansive. After 30 / 40 minutes of play (and plenty of batting and overs remaining) the general feeling was surely that the away side weren’t looking for a draw that early on and Droxford would make a move soon. Over after over came and went without much being scored and at the final 20 over stage the Lavant skipper decided to go on the attack to try and force a result. 

Giving Tam and Justin a chance to get their energy back after long bowling spells the home captain turned to the ever dependable ‘King’ Richard. I can’t stress enough how much of a luxury it is to have someone of Richards quality to turn to and (yet again) he delivered by bowling the limpet like Droxford captain in his first over! 

At the other end James C was bowling tempter after temper, forcing the batters to deploy a defensive shot or try and hit over the top of the close in field with the #6 batter not getting hold of a shot over mid off and skying the ball high for a very smart grab from Nathan.

With the #7 Droxford looked to be the only middle order player who wanted to score (mainly by heaving over deep mid wicket) the field was adjusted to block off that scoring area (and forcing him to try and hit squarer of the wicket) and sure enough James was able to clean bowl him when attempting to hit another 4.

At this stage Droxford had gone from ‘defensive’ to ‘dropping anchor’ to ‘hold the line at all costs’! With most of the Lavant team positioning in close (and the Lavant skipper running out of close in gaps to position fielders) the team went all out attack to try and force the win. The field set was something to behold!

Richard was working hard to try and extract anything from the pitch and was unlucky on one occasion catching the edge that fell short of the many waiting slip catchers. James equally could not find any way of getting the Droxford batters to come out of their bunkers.

The Lavant skipper turned to the ever dependable Dave ‘the spinner’ Burford who tried his best to extract something from the wicket to find the breakthrough (even in an act of genius chucked in a moon ball leg spinner)! I think the chat of Dave being a spinner can probably end there…. Dave bowled extremely tight and on another day (if the objective was to keep the runs down) would have been a perfect spell.

After all the hard work and effort from Richard, James and Dave (and no real lateral movement on offer) the overs were ticked down. With one last throw of the dice the Lavant skipper turned back to Tam and Justin in the hope the change of bowler / pace would extract the Droxford batters out of their comfort zones.

Unfortunately it wasn’t to be. In fairness to the Droxford #8 and #9 both defended doggedly and was a clear example of how to bat out for a draw as both men saw off the final bursts from Justin and Tam and the game ended in a draw (with Droxford only managing to score 67 for 7). 15 maidens from the Lavant bowling told the story.

A lot of positives can be drawn from the game from a Lavant point of view. In my (albeit limited time) at Lavant it’s not been often when we are the team who are trying to break through a team batting for their lives to get a draw the match (it’s normally the other way around)! The batting from the whole batting unit was great posting a very competitive score. The fielding and catching were solid and the bowling was on point. Even though we didn’t get the win there was certainly a moral victory to be had from a dominant performance against a strong side who are used to playing league cricket….

….but….

………it was a shame not to be able to get the win over the line! 

Match of the match this week goes to Nathan and Llloyd. After taking a blow Lloyd got patched up (although he might need a tetanus shot) and back out to the middle with Nathan put on a terrific batting partnership to add on another 50 runs to move the Lavant total to be very competitive. Both men stood up to tough conditions against a very good bowling attack, middling many deliveries to the boundary. Hopefully a good sign of things to come from the pair of them!

Champagne moment would have gone to Joe’s shoes in a hilarious crocodile moment (with the bottom sole ripping clean off the bottom of his shoe BUT after saying Justin’s spell was the ‘fastest he’s seen all season’ I’m not sure I can. So this week’s champagne moment goes to Nathan for a really good catch off James that hung up in the air a long time.

It was nice to see after the game that the team were happy to take the positives and were not too downhearted with not being able to get the win over the line. 

Well done to everyone on a solid team performance. On to the next….