'AWNIOGO': BETLEY (H)

Monday, May 8

The Bank Holiday visit of Betley saw Paul Kingsbury come into the side in place of Harv, whose injury should keep him out for about a month. His face had swollen enormously and he had dark bruising surrounding his right eye. I was tempted to offer him a Panda Pop, but thought better of it. In recent seasons, Dickie has had atrocious luck with injuries: a freak skiing accident forced him to miss the whole of last season, and a couple of years earlier he broke his arm after being thrown from a car following a crash near Sneyd Cricket Club. However, due to the atmosphere at Moddershall this year, both he and I still felt very much a part of the team despite being sat on the sidelines, still able to twiddle our thumbs. 

Addo lost his first toss of the season and, unsurprisingly, we were asked to bat. The weather conditions were Arctic, almost cold enough to have forced Anthony Ledger into wearing a sleeveless jumper. We started well, and had passed 50 before the first wicket fell. The victim was Andy Hawkins, run out by a furlong when he looked up to see the rampant Lovejoy standing about 4 yards away, shouting ‘Yes’. Hawk appeared as shocked as everybody else that Addo had run a quick single, and had no option but to sacrifice himself.

Elevated to number 3 following his match-winning efforts at Crewe a couple of days earlier, Barry Brian came in and looked comfortable against the seamers in making 19, but then chipped the off-spin of Neil Harrison straight to long-on. The third wicket was that of Mauler, who had bludgeoned a couple of massive sixes in his 22 before being bowled by the unmistakable rotund and hirsute figure of Paul Belfield. Shortly afterwards, Addo lofted Harrison to deep mid-wicket with the score at 146 and was pouched by Richie Jervis, fifteen short of a century.

Addo’s dismissal brought Iain Carr trotting out to the square to join Heardy and the pair of them proceeded to carve the ball around the ground in a magnificent, soul-destroying century stand. Heardy’s half-century was vintage Tacker, full of slogs, sweeps, slashes and squirts. It is an immensely difficult task to bowl at Drew at the best of times because he manages to get the ball away at the weirdest of angles, yet today he was in prime form and all but seven of his 51 not out came in boundaries. Billy was not to be outdone, though, and despite the slowing down of what had been quite an impressive over-rate he kept on standing tall and clubbing straight through the line, matching Bully’s enormous six off Butler with an even better one of his own, dispatched over deep extra-cover from a low full toss! 

Time for tea: Mmmm 

Addo kept Betley in the field until tea, by which time Iain had completed his maiden first team half-century from exactly 50 balls. As Harrison led his team from the field, looking thoroughly demoralised, we decided to put them out of their misery, declaring at 247 for 4. Everyone enjoyed their half-time cuppa as we contemplated setting about dismissing Betley, which wouldn’t prove easy as, although Cowap was missing, they had a strong top order. But we had scored enough runs to ensure that we could maintain attacking field-placings throughout.

I didn’t think Betley would be prepared to take up the challenge, particularly with Butler opening the batting, and when they got off to the worst possible start I was sure they wouldn’t. Their disastrous opening was down to John Myatt, who, having spent the early part of the season operating as a change bowler, had announced during the tea interval that he fancied taking the new ball. The fact that he was snarling like a hungry rottweiler probably convinced Addo that it was worthwhile to give him the new cherry, although the skipper was a little concerned about whether or not it was fair to Billy and Barrington. As neither of them had been bowling particularly well, it was an easy decision. Mauler was unleashed.

John usually bowls quite a tame first ball but on this occasion he sent down a straight, quick delivery that the dangerous Simon Cork edged straight to Lovejoy at second slip. This early success sparked John into bowling an extremely lively and hostile opening burst which netted him another wicket in his fifth over when Butler was caught off bat and pad by Wayne. Jonathan Cork joined Richie Jervis and they both played impressively before being removed in consecutive overs by Cokey. At 82 for 4 with a probable 25 overs still to be bowled and not a massive amount of batting to come, victory was definitely within our sights. 

Paul Belfield 

Having taken 2 for 16 in his opening spell, Mauler was recalled to the attack and immediately knocked over Neil Harrison with an unplayable leg-cutter. Paul Belfield – looking like Meatloaf in whites – fell next, bowled by Cokey as he attempted to put the ball into another universe, the one in which his mind is located, I’d guess. 14 overs remained and 4 wickets were needed.

When it comes to blocking out for a draw, it has to be said that Moddershall’s track is not the most difficult upon which to do it for an organized batsman, particularly in the early part of the season when there is a dearth of pace and bounce, and so Dumbill and Baskerville found it. The former, somehow managing to survive Mauler’s barrage of short stuff with wicket and health intact, clung on for 29, whilst Baskerville’s survival was principally due to him playing far enough down the wrong line not to get an edge.

It was curious that Addo decided to share four of the final fourteen overs between P.K. and Heardy. Also, it bemused a lot of people that the skipper didn’t have a trundle himself, especially as Betley’s spinner had bowled 21 overs. Then again, he only took 2 for 83 and both wickets were catches in the deep…

It was ultimately frustrating to collect only two more points than our opponents having thoroughly dominated the match from start to finish, but I’m sure we shall play much worse and collect 20 points. Despite being one of the teams fancied for promotion, Betley must have left Moddershall feeling completely chastened, knowing full well that they had had finished a distant second. 

MATCH DRAWN 

MODDERSHALL 247 for 4 dec. (53 overs) 
J Addison 85, I Carr 54*, A Heard 51*
BETLEY 156 for 6 (46 overs) 
R Jervis 37, J Myatt 3-37, K Colclough 3-28 

MODDERSHALL 8 points
BETLEY 6 points