Sunday 26th May

Match report

After a nervous overnight wait to see how the weather looked in the morning the mighty Lavant travelled away to the picturesque ground in Elsted. After weeks of having to ask people in the street / people in the park / people walking their dog on the seafront the Lavant captain was in a strange position to be able to select a strong 11 to the away game (huge thank you for the people who kindly stood aside for the good of the team).

After losing the toss Elsted elected to bat first so Lavant took to the field looking to bowl tight and get stuck into the opposition batting unit. Game on!

And boy…did the team deliver! Starting the proceedings was Tam and Will who didn’t bowl skinny jeans tight….or ducks butt tight…but submarine tight! Sticking to the plan and making the most of conditions and offering nothing to the Elsted batting unit.

At one end Will kept tucking up the batters time and time again offering nothing allowing the captain to go with some attacking (and at times funky) field settings as was the sheer dominance of his bowling finishing with an amazing 1 wicket off 7 overs going for a measly 8 runs! Top work Will.

At the other end was the ever dependable Tam. The Lavant ‘overseas’ had to travel miles from his home (in Chichester) to keep the other end shut down, frustrating the batting side. On other days Tam has beaten the edge so much without much reward but today was well rewarded with his bowling performance picking up 3 wickets from his 7 overs for only 5 runs! I heard a game of backyard cricket the day before helped sharpen his skills in readiness for this game!

The opening bowling partnership was so good and honestly a joy to watch from the best viewing position from behind the stumps and they both made setting a field incredibly easy. A very well done to both men.

It’s never an easy job for a first change bowler to follow that start but on this occasion the team were safe in the knowledge that it was able to deploy the other premier left handed bowler Chris and the Wiley fox James C.

Chris must have had some sort of ‘local’ knowledge from his good mate (who was playing for Elsted) beaucase he decide to serve up a half tracker to ‘allow’ the set batter to smash the ball into the field so it would get lost obviously knowing that the replacement ball would go round corners…..

…..and so it did because he was able to dispatch the batsman with a great in-swinging ball to clean them up! Chris finished with 1 wicket for 12 off his 5 overs. Top job.

At the other end James C (who had been keeping a keen eye on proceedings) was doing what we have all expected from him. Keeping it tight and frustrating the hell out of batmens with his flight and guile! After a sustained period James was able to snare the important wicket of the dangerous looking set Elsted opener. He toiled away brilliantly and finished with 3 wickets off his 4 overs for 7.

HOWEVER

It must be mentioned that one of those wickets was a 11 year old kid who just wanted to come out and have some fun. Chris kindly stood down to allow the young man a fair chance (who had dreams of playing cricket and had probably been looking forward to the game all week while at school)…James had different ideas. James clean bowled the young man’s first ball (that the team had decided was a “no ball” and  the Lavant captain had also retracted any form of appeal)….but James was having NONE of that and  decided he had seen enough and caught and bowled the young man the very next ball.

It was probably a little harsh giving him a send off, nicking his lunch money and telling him to go do his homework…. ;O) 

Well done though James. Sort of. You big bully (lol). Finishing with 2 wickets (I’m not giving him the 3rd wicket) for 7 runs off 4 overs

With the young man coming and going the team switched back on and turned to the very dependable Richard to fire up his off spin and yet again bowled so well giving nothing away finishing with 1 wicket off his 4 over spell going for 7 runs.

After James had been removed and sent to stand in the field and think about what had just done the captain threw the ball to Phil to come on first his first spell of the season. Considering the lack of bowling he did a good job with a mixture of delivery’s but overall a decent run out. It was great to see the joy in the side for Phil (a much liked and respected member of the team) pick up his first wicket of the season!

The damage had been done before the side could even turn to Dave and Justin. 

Normally I come to the part where I had to mention the dropped catches but not this week. The fielding performance was brilliant today not only keeping things solid in the field (stopping runs) but nearly all chances were taken! So I’m going to list them!

Chris ‘can’t catch a cold’ Mac took a wonderful grab off James (a big straight skier that swirled around).

Dave took a great catch after being moved into position and the batsmen fell into the top edging it up to him to scoop it up with his safe as ever hands

Steve had the job of poaching the catch for Phil’s first wicket by speeding in and catching at full stretch (even with hearing me thundering towards him going for the same ball).

And the best of the lot was Justin pulling off a worldie one handed catch when he was in a close cover position and the ball was nailed (and past him) to haul it in! 

It was great to see and all contributed to the amazing effort of bowling out Elsted for 62 off 30 overs!

Tea was taken. Muscles were stretched and the run chase was on.

After a little persuasion (and arm bending) the Lavant captain (with one eye on the rest of the season and keen to get him back into the flow of batting) managed to convince the club’s other ‘overseas’ player from Scotland Steve McBrooker to open the batting with him. After he scoffed down his haggis, washed it down with an iron bru and warmed up his arms tossing a caber walked out to the middle.

Both men set to their tasks well looking to set a platform for the small but tricky run chase and all was going well until the dopey captain decided to shoulder arms to the straight ball and get cleaned bowled.

Steve on the other hand continued in his normal way (like he hadn’t been away) by being solid and keeping the scoreboard moving. Some might say that he had already walked 500 miles so was happy to walk 500 more for the team.

Although I’m not sure every time he hit the ball he had to shout ‘Da-da da da (Da-da da da)’ and then ‘Da-da dum diddy dum diddy dum diddy da 

da da’ when he was running between the wickets….a bit odd…

Super-gran Steve finished with a not out 16 and played an important role glueing the innings together. 

Richard walked to the middle to steady the ship and so he did…for many overs until we hit the drinks break and after a little chat cut loose and everyone got to see the shot making skills of someone we had all hoped would see. Suddenly he looked a different player and started to find the middle of the bat and hitting the boundary rope. Once the damage was done and the run chase was under control Richard kindly decided to retire (getting 28 runs) to allow others to get some time in the middle. 

Special note to Lloyd who is still finding his feet in cricket and had performed great in the field but was bowled facing his second delivery. I think we can all remember what it was like starting out but this is all good experience and I know the Lavant team will help support and assist him going forward

After that Will entered the scene and steady the ship and took us home.

The mood after the game was joyful and buoyant and a much deserved victory after a couple of tough fixtures. A big thanks to everyone for a great game and an even better result.

Man of the match (and I’m sorry but I’m going to be boring and pick two again) but I simply could not split Will or Tam. As per batting bowling also works in partnerships and the dove tailing between both men was amazing to watch and as good an opening spell I’ve seen in a long time.

Champagne movement has to go to our (still JUST 39 year old) Justin for an incredible catch. I probably had the best view of it from behind the stumps and it was past him before he stuck out a bit paw and grabbed it (at a crucial time in the game).

A very very well done to everyone and on to the next one!