'AWNIOGO': BIGNALL END (A)

Bignall End and, behind it, the Cheshire Plain -- the second best view in North Staffs cricket...

Saturday, September 2

“And now, laaaaay-deeez ‘n’ gen-ul-men, it’s time for the main event…”

For such an important, top-of-the-table clash, it was surprising that Peter ‘Scoop’ Hewitt from the Evening Sentinel didn’t put in an appearance, especially since (a) neither side had been out of the top three since the turn of the season, and (b) neither side had yet played in one of said newspaper’s featured matches. This may sound elitist, but surely it is remiss that a team that has reached the last eight of the Staffordshire Cup, the last four of the Talbot Cup, and has spent all season around the top of Division 1, Section B should be considered unworthy of a featured match whereas the likes of Blurton, Fenton, Oulton, Oakamoor, Stanfields and ME-bloody-SC have their respective profiles boosted by highly flattering (and ever so slightly fabricated) accounts of high-calibre cricket matches.

I am not opposed to these clubs and their league receiving coverage in the local press, not at all, but why does it have to be at the expense of a more prestigious and higher standard competition. I mean, it’s not as if we can’t smear mud all over our pads, sport Burton’s menswear polyester shirts, pick the odd 65-year-old, field too close at mid-off whilst holding optional pint, score all our runs off the inside edge, not mow our outfield, draft in the local vicar for a spell of comedy medium-pace, cover our bats in thick insulation tape – you get the idea…

village: what the Sentinel readers had to put up with back then

Perhaps it was because of the onset of the football season that we would once again be absent from the Sentinel’s “comprehensive” sports pull-out, or perhaps it was down to the dismal weather on Saturday morning, weather that prompted my Dad to predict that we wouldn’t bowl a single ball. Well, by the time Mauler, Addo and I arrived at Boon Hill, the sun had got his hat on (hip-hip-hip hooray) and, despite the saturated outfield, it appeared that we would get an uninterrupted day’s play. The track looked like the mushy peas at my local chippy – soft, green, greasy – and was sure to offer considerable help to anyone who could hit the seam. So, it was good news when we won the toss and asked the leaders to have first use.

Addo elected to give the new ball duties to a combination of the wild and the wily – Shaun and Coke – and it was Barrington who made the initial inroads. Tim Myatt, Bignall End’s stoutly-built skipper, was the first casualty, fending a short ball ‘up the chimney’; despite being slow off the blocks and treading water (literally, on the sodden turf) for a few strides, I managed to gather just enough momentum to get to the rapidly dropping ball and, with a sprawling belly-flop, took the catch inches above the grass. My next victim was more straightforward as friend and team-mate of mine from University, Rob Howell, snicked a wider, quicker ball from Shaun. Mauler, freshly tanned after his fortnight in Ibiza, then replaced Shaun and immediately removed Dave Edwards, courtesy of an excellent slip catch from Addo. Clearly, Myatt’s bowling improved when his preparation was Mediterranean rather than subterranean.

HH: site of Myatt's subterranean preparation

Bignall End’s woeful start continued in the 17th over when ‘Big’ Eric Riley, so often a thorn in our side, mistimed by far Coke’s worst ball of the day to Harv at point to leave them on 25 for 4. It was Coke’s first wicket and well deserved after a typically accurate and probing spell. He was briefly rested to allow Iain Carr the benefit of the cross-breeze to assist his outswingers, but returned at the top end to snare another couple of wickets, including the crucial scalp of Nigel Nixon, leaving our opponents in the parlous position of 69 for 6.

Due to our habitually tardy over-rate, we were, at this point of the afternoon, caught between two stools: either go for the jugular, or send down some quick overs so as to leave ourselves longer to chase the target. Both strategies held clear risks, but I felt an ideal compromise would be for Addo to come on, since he would have been able to send down the quick overs, keep it tight and perhaps take the odd wicket on the slightly soft surface. However, Addo was convinced that it was a seamer’s pitch and that just about everybody else could do a better job than him. Was he hiding? Remembering the old maxim – the captain’s always right, even when he’s wrong – I decided not to force the issue.

Big End tea hut

As it transpired, Bignall End picked themselves up by the bootstraps and by tea had reached 137 for 7 from 51 overs. The only wicket we took during this period was that of Adrian Myatt (who I’d already caught off a no ball) for 43. During the interval, we seemed relatively content with our work, although recognizing that the final hour of the session was won by the home side. After tea, our grip on the match was loosened still further by a busy little partnership between Marcus Sharp and the younger Howell brother, Richard. Mainly through positive running, they added 63 vital runs together before Sharp fell to a direct hit from long off by Seth. His 43 helped Bignall End finish their 60 overs on 183 for 8, many more than they could have dreamt of at 3.00pm and certainly many more than I thought they should have been allowed to get.

At any rate, at the halfway stage it was four points apiece and we needed 184 at just over five per over to go top of the league – a stiff task, though not one that should have unnerved us unduly. There was little debate as to whether or not we should go for the runs, since there was no real danger of being bowled out in 36 overs…

'hitting the deck', Iain Vellocott

On a devilishly slow pitch we started the chase like a crippled tortoise, crawling to seven runs from the same number of overs. Addo was out of touch and struggling to get the ball away whilst I was getting bogged down by some unerringly accurate bowling from the 6’7” Cumberland and Minor Counties opening bowler, Marcus Sharp, who had packed the offside with seven fielders and didn’t bowl a single delivery on my side of the middle stump. By the eighth over I realized that we had to inject some urgency into our chase and, after slogging Nixon through mid-wicket, I profited from a half-volley and full toss to collect 12 runs in 3 balls.

Things were seemingly on the move, yet we only picked up 19 runs in the following seven overs, by which time the second bowler of a double change, Paul Johnson, had been introduced. I hit his second ball straight through our open dressing-room door for six, but was making the exact same journey a ball later when I mistimed a high full toss straight to mid-on.

home team dressing room door, centre

Harv came in at 45 for 1 in the final over before the last 20 and went on to play easily the best innings of the day. His 23-ball stay, during which he thumped the ball to all parts of the ground – and, on two occasions, out of it – brought us into serious contention. At 86 for 1 with 15 overs left we were beginning to dominate. Unfortunately, Dickie, whose whirlwind 40 constituted all but 3 runs of his partnership with Addo, then fell to a sharp yet contentious stumping by White just as he was about to go into Lara-mode. This dismissal opened the floodgates to a collapse of quite monumental proportions as 8 wickets tumbled in just 6 overs – I repeat: 8 wickets in 6 overs – for the addition of only 22 runs.

Addo was the third to go, the result of an increasing desperation that, if not evident when he asked to borrow Harv’s bat as he walked off, was certainly present in the shot that brought about his dismissal. After making only 11 from 55 balls, he top-edged a ball from Adrian Myatt straight up and Eric Riley took the catch at slip. Hawky was the third casualty of the over when he drove a full toss straight at Sharp, fielding at extra-cover. From a position of concern, Bignall End had, in the space of a six balls, bagged three prize wickets to seize control of the game and now had the bit firmly between their teeth. Their previously mute supporters had also unmuzzled themselves in growing anticipation of a previously unlikely victory.

Wedgwood Monument, Red Street  -- overlooking Bignall End --
'castrated' by gales in 1976; were BE about to rediscover their virility

Sharp was recalled to the attack and immediately took the wicket of Mauler thanks to a catch of staggering brilliance in the gully by Edwards. We were in complete disarray. Iain Carr, who was due in at the fall of John’s wicket, was nowhere to be seen, whilst on the pitch Cokey was losing his off-stump thanks to a yorker from Sharp. Mayhem. Thankfully, Iain had turned up – he had been on the toilet – and walked out to join Drew at 99 for 6. However, in the very next over Billy was involved in two run outs as the chaos, the panic spread through our team. I was just stepping out of the shower when the first one occurred but if the expression on Drew’s face was anything to go by, I didn’t need to ask whose fault he thought it was. A couple of balls later Smudge was run out without facing a ball, getting completely covered in mud in the process, and he too was blaming Billy’s habit of relying on telepathic communication with his partner.

The braying home crowd was becoming extremely exuberant and slightly cocky, and this was beginning to grate with our small band of travelling supporters, particularly my father, who was involved in a discussion with one partisan and chauvinistic fan that came quite close to the line where banter meets hostility (not that Jim’s buttons are difficult to push in these situations). Drew, still smarting from his dismissal (it usually took 3 weeks), also found time to express one or two thoughts to a slightly obnoxious chap in a purple shellsuit, whilst I could only sing “We’ll support you ever more!”

'I Watched Every Ball',  Benjamin Toupein

Out on the field our situation deteriorated still further when Billy played a ludicrously aggressive shot in the circumstances and gloved a bouncer to Sharp at slip, prompting a stern word or two from his father, all of which meant that our last pair, Darren and Shaun, had to negotiate a further eight overs if we were to draw the game.

Shaun hung on gallantly whilst Darren protected him from Marcus Sharp, whom he was handling quite comfortably. After four overs without looking like getting the final wicket, skipper Tim Myatt (no relation) decided to bring on Nixon from Sharp’s end and allow the pro to switch to the other end where he might have a crack at Shaun. In theory the plan was successfully executed, but Shaun scuppered it immediately when he confidently pushed Sharp through the covers and escaped, as it were. Darren took care of the rest of the over, leaving us only 12 more balls to survive, albeit with Nixon bowling the penultimate over at Shaun. Just as I thought we had reached safety, Nixon produced a swinging yorker that proved too good for Shaun and Bignall End had won a game that they ought to have lost. Founder members of the NSSCL, they were now assured of promotion to Section A for the first time since the league took its present format in 1982, and looked likely to finish as champions.

Doc, 2004

As far as we were concerned, we needed to win two of our last three games to ensure a return to the top flight, having heard that Ashcombe Park had closed the gap to 23 points by inflicting a fourth consecutive defeat upon Newcastle, erstwhile contenders themselves. Our own post-mortem was full of premature pessimism and an unnecessary amount of bickering. Addo and Darren had a spat which ended with the latter refusing to play again after the skipper had questioned his attitude and desire.

Earlier in the day, I had made an unfair comment to Darren, in private, provoked by what I considered his unjust attitude towards my wicket-keeping. Whilst I accepted his analysis of my limited, patchy stumping skills, I also believed that his criticism completely undermined my attempts at doing a job which, originally, I only undertook temporarily to help out the side. I may sound like a whinging old goat (then again, it’s my book) but it pisses me off when people take cheap pot shots if I fumble a stumping or even just a take. It’s a difficult and demanding job, one that I would much rather not do, and one that people might appreciate more if they had to do themselves, particularly Darren, who seems to find it amusing every time the ball isn’t crisply gathered. “Grouty”, he calls me.

OK, I’ve got that little matter off my chest. Even so, I did say something wholly unreasonable which no doubt contributed to his totally misguided belief that I had put Addo up to saying what ultimately led to their argument. I think there is a personality clash and a misunderstanding of each other’s behaviour rather than any deep-rooted enmity, and the sooner it is resolved, the better, for all concerned.

Teams should pull together during the bad times, not disintegrate, which, at the time of writing, appeared to be happening to us. Harv, who not insignificantly was the only person drinking coca-cola rather than gallons of consolatory lager, summed it up perfectly when he stated that everyone was over-reacting to one defeat and one poor performance from the pro.

MODDERSHALL LOST BY 71 RUNS

BIGNALL END 183 for 8 innings closed (60 0vers)

M Sharp 43, A Myatt 43, Rich Howell 36*, N Nixon 31, K Colclough 3-68

MODDERSHALL 112 all out (34.3 overs)

R Harvey 40, S Oliver 32, A Myatt 4-27

MODDERSHALL 6 points

BIGNALL END 20 points