Overnight and morning rain led to a change in venue. Originally due to be played at Gaston Green, a morning change of venue was arranged, with Stansted House hosting. A few of the boys had also not expected to play and there were some rumours flying around of 3pm tee off times booked in advance, not naming any names of course. (Rory).
JT provided the coffee as usual, a lovely Ugandan blend this week I believe, which was enjoyed by the ‘Love Cafe’ members before the match. A delayed start of 2.15pm was agreed, hoping some moisture from the pitch would miraculously disappear.
JT won the toss and elected to bowl on a fairly damp and green strip. A reduced 30 overs per innings was agreed. Openers, Ward (2-24) and Turner were licking their lips at the possibility of making good use of this seamer friendly wicket. Alas, the bowling started off pretty poorly with plenty of opportunities for Hallingbury’s expansive opener to score at a good pace. Grant was somehow getting the ball to swing away, despite never doing this in his cricketing career before, and was finding it hard to get his usual excellent rhythm going. Nonetheless he tightened things up and managed to find the edge of the opener, which was then duly spilled by Josh diving across Naz at first slip, who had a simple catch had Josh left it. Thankfully, for Josh’s sake, it didn’t cost too many more runs as Grant had his man caught in the covers by captain Jacob, (the gut helping smother the ball safely).
By this stage Grant had found some decent line and length and had the new batsmen in all sorts of bother from the get-go, shaping balls across the left-hander with good accuracy. The catchers behind the bat could sense a wicket coming. Soon after we thought Grant had found the edge, as Josh safely snaffled the catch behind, but the umpire didn’t agree. What ensued was pure cricketing brilliance. A fired up Grant came steaming in next ball and the left-hander had a horrid swipe at it and somehow managed to get enough bat on it to slice it over point for four. By this stage I think Grant was close to explosion, but undeterred, he came running in once more and delivered a classic Grant Ward slower ball, which completely bamboozled the batsman pegging middle stump back and breaking a bail in the process. Pure ecstasy for a bowler and Grant was embraced by his adoring teammates.
After all this excitement, the change bowlers came on, with good spells from Naz (2-24), and Mohsin (1-23), especially, to bring some good control to the innings. Mohsin initially struggling with his line and length, but brought it back nicely to offer some good swing, and got his reward with Charlie effecting a steepling catch to dismiss their number four, in front of club photographer, and Dad, Tony. Naz offered some lovely shape to threaten the stumps on several occasions. JT (1-13), brought himself on, which after his performance with the ball last week was questionable captaincy. However, he bowled nicely and treated himself to a wicket, by removing off stump out the ground with contempt. Hallingbury continued to score thanks to their opener who kept playing his shots, including a massive 6 off Grant over cover. Grant for some reason still directed his customary stare towards the batsman, whilst the rest of us admired the shot. His contribution 71 out of a total of 139. The Hallingbury innings came to a stuttering end, but credit to them for managing to bat their 30 overs, finishing 139-8.
A quick turnaround, before The Hall’s superstar openers, McGurk (28) and Beaumont (39) strode out to the crease, confident of knocking the runs off. However, some good bowling from Hallingbury’s opener, restricted McGurk from his usual barrage of boundaries with his first boundary coming on his 11th ball. A big six over long on was a highlight in Rory’s innings. Beaumont and McGurk kept the scoreboard ticking over and took us to 46 for no loss after 11 overs, before McGurk skied one and was well caught in the deep for 28 off 25 balls. Enter Mohsin at 3. His stay a brief one, after sweeping a ball on middle stump and missing it, with the umpire not hesitating in raising the finger. Captain, JT (17), in at 4, and looking to build a partnership with Beaumont, made a good contribution, with some nice shots, including a lofted drive over mid-on
for 4. He fell to a nasty ball, that bounced more than expected and was caught behind. James Brown (22*) came in at 5, (he was expecting to be on the 10th tee by this stage), but he was in his whites trying to get The Hall home in a tighter than it should have been run chase. Beaumont had chewed up enough balls by this point and decided to let the sloggers have a go, as he gloved one, (that exploded off a length), to the keeper, this allowing Nick Price (21*) and Jimmy to slap the change bowlers to the fence and see us home in the 27th over, 4 wickets down.
An enjoyable and tighter game than expected, down to some good bowling from the Hallingbury chaps. Looking forward to the return fixture which again will be at The Hall. Next week we are home to fierce rivals Matching Green.