28/08/1999 v PAST XI

won

John fell to a smart catch from Andrew Deal and was thoroughly disgusted with himself according to the spectators . Pete Sulway then came to the crease and gave Tony Porter admirable support. Bob More replaced Richard and started bowling quite sharply- he produced a good full length delivery to remove Tony's off stump just when it looked as if Tony was cruising to a well deserved fifty. Chris Jones came in next but in the same over mishooked a fast rising all and Jonathan patrolling the square leg area moved well to his left to poach yet another victim. Bob produced some more fast short paced deliveries which Sulway bravely hooked one of which nearly hit the middle of the bat and soared over the boundary for six. If he had of timed it a little better- it would have landed in the river.

Meanwhile Richard Greenwood had come in fresh from his good showing in the fixture last year- he was not destined to repeat his half century however and was bowled by More for 3. Pete was riding his luck with some strong shots through the covers however he did have a tendency to pull his cover drives close to the bowler and twice possible caught and bowled chances went begging. A further chance was missed as Pete pulled through mid wicket in the air it travelled at great speed to Clive who was lazily contemplating earlier games. Needless to say the catch was spilled and indeed the ball seemed to proceed faster to the boundary after Clive's feeble attempt to catch it. (Since this shot took Pete to a half century- I maintain this was in fact a good thing and all part of a cunning plan to get Pete playing again occasionally)! Alan Gregory had come in by this time and sure enough his first shot was that familiar glance down to short fine leg off the front foot. Alan scored over 4 000 runs for the club (only Tony Day has scored more) and I reckon about 3 500 of these came from that shot. Pete was out soon after his fifty which brought Scott and Alan to the wicket the scoring rate almost dwindled to the pace of the traffic between St Albans and the M11 turn off but Scott did manage a good four.

Andrew Deal came on a bowled 5 overs for 6 runs which is pretty incredible in view of some of his earlier efforts this season. Martin came on and when he managed to pitch the ball made the batsmen struggle and gave Jock plenty of practice in whipping off the bails- which he did with great aplomb though never when the batsmen was out of his ground. It was time to give the past a few runs to play with and the Stringers came on in tandem with Clive much the more successful in dishing up some awful rubbish for the batsmen to hit. Jonathan did manage to get Alan to spoon up a catch to point though how Alan ever reached the ball I'll never know. (Jonathan's arrival at the bowling crease did give the skipper the thorny problem of who to use at square leg!) Sid Clench unfortunately lasted just a couple of balls as he damaged his leg crashing Bob Dunkly style to the crease .

The Past side eventually made 152- which seemed par for the course on a good pitch with shorter boundaries than usual. Liam opened up with Clive mainly because Liam had to go at 5.45- this led to the unusual spectacle of the batsmen waiting out in the middle for the fielding side to arrive. Liam did not really make the most of his time at the crease and was bowled by Tony porter for 2. Andrew Steeene came in to Join Clive and it looked as if another big partnership between the two would develop- however they took one short single too many- Clive being the victim of a good throw by Scott Gregory. Some audacious running between this pair has been the hallmark of the season and it was all bound to end in tears eventually. Chris Jones and Tony Porter were bowling with considerlabe skill and Tony bowling left arm round the wicket trapped Tony LBW ( at least in the gospel according to umpire Ricahrd Coverly. (This was to make Richard rather nervous later on as he was batting and Tony was umpiring with a very itchy finger)

Andy Deal came in and kept Jock company for a good while and even scored some splendid boundaries himself. John Nunn had come on and bowled extremely tightly- with the 73 year old Sid Clench extracting some turn from the pitch at the other end. When Paul Allen and Richard Coverly went fairly cheaply it looked as if the past side would win Richard Greenwood excelling in the field as demonstrated by the brilliant catch he took to dismiss Paul Allen from a steepling leg side hoick. The defining moment of the game probably came when Chris returned to bowl an Jock mis hit a hook to Tony at fine leg Tony made good ground to the ball but split the catch much to his obvious disgust. Bob More came in and hit some lusty blows which took Old Dartechs to the brink of victory- even then a very close LBW call from Chris against Jock almost turned the match (I havn't given an LBW descsion in about ten years but this was about as close as it gets!) .

Dicky Greenwood meanwhile had given a very good imitation of Marion Jones as he raced round the boundary to try to head off another boundary- pulling up with two torn hamstrings. Even though Richard had the greatest of difficulty walking back to the dressing room skipper John MacSweeey still tried to move him finer at third man to field for the rest of the over. Jock ended up with 72 not out and whilst this was not his best innings of the season it was one of the most influential we certainly would not have won without him.