Flyford make heavy weather of run chase under heavy weather
In the last fixture before departing for their annual tour, Flyford took on the Birmingham Unicorns at the picturesque Lapworth Cricket Club. While numbers were good (11 players albeit with one fielding at long off in Dublin) the weather was not so well ordered. In total contrast to the previous week of upper twenties temperatures, this week it was multiple layers and trying to keep the hands warm. Still, village cricketers are known to be hardy souls who will endure almost any conditions for the love of their sport.
One such was debutant Sarah Poole making her first long threatened appearance for the club. Sarah having never set foot in anger on a cricket field before has no doubt got the full addiction. It is rumoured that doing the scoring is actually a gateway drug.
As is his usual wont skipper Joey Poole agreed with the opposition captain that Flyford would have a bowl and Unicorns bat.
On a pretty good wicket, with the odd delivery taking an unpredictable bounce, Unicorns got off to a steady if moderate start, before opening bowlers Joey Poole and Paul ‘Scritty’ Clarke made inroads into the Unicorns top order. Parsimonious bowling and some sharp feeling meant that Unicorns were never able to get up much of a head of steam.
Skipper Joey then introduced his secret weapon to rip the heart out of the Unicorns middle order, step forward and take a bow Steve Nullis, who returned figures of 8 overs, 1 maiden, 3 wickets for 34 runs.
The other bowlers worked steadily either side of an hour-long break for rain to return the following; Joey Pool 4 overs 2 maidens 2 wickets for 3 runs. Scritty Clarke 8 overs 3 maidens 1 wicket for 10 runs. Ash Rahman 4 overs no wicket for 16, Joh Nullis 8 overs 1 maiden one for 22. Steve Bevan 4 overs none for 11 and Walks 4 overs 1 for 13.
Another highlight of the fielding effort was Dan Miller taking a superb catch in the deep. Modesty dictates that only passing mention is made of two legside stumpings!
Unicorns finished their 40 overs on Nelson (111). All superstitious cricketers know that Nelson is an unlucky number, so it was to prove for Unicorns.
After a shortened tea interval Flyford openers Joey Poole and Dan Miller strode to the middle confident that 112 was an eminently gettable figure. However, Unicorns had every intention of making life as difficult as possible.
As is often the case in village cricket ‘pace off’ is by far the hardest bowling to play and runs did not flow freely against the slow and loopy but accurate Unicorns bowling. Even losing Joey Poole for nine, Steve Bevan for 1 and Walks for an uncharacteristically low 17, surely there was enough left to see us through. With Steve Nullis on 5 just making a making a big enough score to secure him Man of the Match, Josh Nullis returning to the pavilion having been very well caught on 1 and Ash Rahman making the afternoon’s only Flyford duck, things were getting a little squeaky at the collective rear end.
However, Dan Miller was still there having carried his bat from the start and was joined at the wicket by Scritty Clarke who together saw Flyford through with 11.2 overs to spare and two wickets in hand. Dan finished on a match winning unbeaten 55 and a cameo 14 from Scritty meant we could all breathe easy again.
While the efforts of Dan and Scritty did bring a collective sigh of relief and a welcome Flyford win, it did mean that the padded up and ready Sarah was not able to go in at 10 to score the winning runs. Scriptwriters these days are just not up to the job!
So the Flyford hoards set off to the bucolic pastures of Devon, assuming I am spared and return in one piece full reports on the proceedings will follow.
Awards;
Man of the Match: Steve Nullis great all round performance
Tit: Ash an experience cricketer forgetting his whites
Champagne Moment: Superb catch by Dan Miller
Thank for coming: Sarah Poole