Went to my first village cricket match this afternoon for... something like a quarter of a century, I expect. Big game - Scothern (my Mum's home village) against Market Rasen (my old home town). They play 50 over games now (was always 40 overs when I played for Rasen 3rds as a lad - and that was more than bloody long enough), and this was the Lincs County Premier League, which sounds like quite a high standard on paper.
When I got there Rasen were being tied down by some tight Scothern bowling and were eventually all out for 85 in the 44th over. Scothern started to knock off the runs and were soon 35 without loss after just a seven or eight overs. But 'Mattie', a left arm, round-the-wicket leg spinner with great variations of bounce and pace, started whittling through the order and Scothern got nervous. The batsmen became progressively crapper as Scothern edged towards the total, and in the end they only scraped through with two wickets to spare in the 34th over, taking about 10 overs to eke out the last 15 or so runs. Mattie bowled unchanged from the start and took seven wickets. I worked out that even in my prime he'd have taken three or less deliveries to suss me out and remove me.
It was breezy and sunny and I didn't stir from my bench under a tree for three hours - probably the most relaxing Saturday afternoon I've spent since about 1974.
When I got there Rasen were being tied down by some tight Scothern bowling and were eventually all out for 85 in the 44th over. Scothern started to knock off the runs and were soon 35 without loss after just a seven or eight overs. But 'Mattie', a left arm, round-the-wicket leg spinner with great variations of bounce and pace, started whittling through the order and Scothern got nervous. The batsmen became progressively crapper as Scothern edged towards the total, and in the end they only scraped through with two wickets to spare in the 34th over, taking about 10 overs to eke out the last 15 or so runs. Mattie bowled unchanged from the start and took seven wickets. I worked out that even in my prime he'd have taken three or less deliveries to suss me out and remove me.
It was breezy and sunny and I didn't stir from my bench under a tree for three hours - probably the most relaxing Saturday afternoon I've spent since about 1974.
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