Sunday 10th May 2026 proved to be a generally overcast day
with a north-easterly breeze providing sufficient cooling for jerseys to be
recommended. Organisation for the match
produced a team that arrived on time, although a short hold-up in the car park
to allow Jake Helsby to finish some clearly important business did cause a
short queue of vehicles.
We were back at Seer Green for this match, the square
having been relaid. Jordans Taverners had spent the previous few years playing
at Coleshill but had been keen to return for some time and had won the support
of the Parish Council. To celebrate, we
were offered a barbeque tea of freshly cooked burgers or hot dogs, the latter
of which appeared to be the more popular with the Strollers.
Prior to the game, there had been chat that questioned when
the Strollers had last lost three matches on the trot. Whilst no definitive
answer was offered, it was generally agreed that it must have been some time
ago.
Skipper Oliver was confident in his batting line-up but
became more concerned when he canvassed his team for bowling fitness. Weak
backs, twisted knees and other ailments were all mentioned – a normal
Strollers attack then.
As is customary, Oliver lost the toss, and the Strollers
took to the field with the Taverners supplying a pink ball and a reminder that
no-balls would result in a free hit.
Good opening spells from Broster-Turley, who took two wickets, and De La
Rue, who missed out as a result of some woeful Strollers catching, with two
players being within two yards of a skier when it hit the ground. Unusually the Strollers capitalised on this
by throwing the ball smartly to the wicketkeeper for an easy run-out, with both
batsmen static at the bowler’s end.
With Jordans at 27-3 after nine overs, Oliver introduced
Ben Mangham, who bowled a tidy five overs up the hill without much luck, and
then Jim Hodgson.
Seer Green was once very much within Hodgson’s stamping
ground, but having recently re-located to Derbyshire, he may not be quite so
frequent in the selectors’ minds. A
couple of well-pitched-up deliveries on the stumps bagged two quick wickets
before Taverners opener Ashley Turney and No 7 Oli Myers settled in and began
to find boundaries and score some runs.
So the skipper turned to Tom Salvesen (with the aforementioned
twisted knee) to bowl off a short hop to replace Mangham. Early success came
from a top edge off a widish ball and a smartly taken catch at backward point.
Salvesen’s following over brought more success with an
upward drive heading straight to mid-off. That was to be the end of his cameo
as despite the raising of a quizzical eyebrow and a subsequent maiden, with
Jordans’ two dangerous batsmen removed, skipper Oliver decided to bring on Brad
Trebilcock and Alastair Macaulay to terrorise the tailenders with lack-of-pace
and share the final wickets between them.
So the Taverners were all out for 120 and a slightly early
but nevertheless excellent tea was taken and enjoyed.
Jake Helsby and Jack Le Serve were selected to open, and
after a few settling-in overs, started finding the boundary ropes
regularly. After ten overs, with half
the deficit having been scored, Taverners changed their approach and pace was
taken off the ball. Despite having scored two boundaries earlier in the over,
Le Serve’s eyes lit up again only for him to miss a straight one and be bowled
for 19 with the score on 72.
Guy Seddon came out to the middle and Helsby continued to
find boundaries. Unfortunately, Seddon was not to last long with Taverners’ Tim
Sonnex finding his line and the scoreboard read 103-3. Surely the Strollers would be able to score
the 18 runs required with Helsby still at the crease…
Such is the predictability of the game of cricket that
something was bound to change. And so it did, with a proper Strollers
middle-order collapse. Trebilcock, Helsby, Salvesen, Broster-Turley and Oliver
were all out with only 14 of the required 18 runs scored. Happily for the
Strollers, De La Rue had arrived at the crease and made contact with a leg-side
delivery to score the winning runs.
So both teams retired to the very supportive Jolly
Cricketers pub where scorebooks were updated, bodily fluids replenished and the
Taverners skipper announced his fines raising a total of some £4.50 from half a
dozen of his players. It was agreed that we all qualified to be Jolly
Cricketers.
Capt: Glen Oliver. Wkt: Jake Helsby.
Match fees: Alastair Macaulay. Match report: Tom Salvesen.
