Chenies and Latimer
Sunday July 27 in Chenies Strollers won by 167 runs Strollers 335-4
(40 overs; Travis 100no, Oliver 53, Helsby 50no, Anand 30, Le Serve 21, Pandor 21no, Dias 11no)
Chenies & Latimer 169-8
(40 overs; Macaulay 2-23, Oliver 2-21, Dias 1-5, Fleet 1-21, Pandor 1-21). The Strollers continued their midsummer odyssey under
sullen skies at the lovely Chenies & Latimer ground. The late
withdrawal of two players reduced the team to nine and gave skipper Michael
Pittams much to ponder before the scheduled 1300 start time.
Pittams ably demonstrated why only those other than your
incompetent correspondent should be given responsibilities anywhere near a
coin, winning the toss and correctly choosing to bat on a very good pitch.
The skipper was apparently so impressed with said pitch that he extended
a playing invitation to opposition 12th man and groundsman Roshan Dias, who was
our opposing skipper in the equivalent fixture last year. Dias eagerly
accepted the offer to bring the Strollers up to 10 men, to the mild bemusement of
the opposition.
2025 run machine Blair Travis opened as usual and carried
on as he has all season by languidly stroking the ball to all parts. He
was partnered by debutant Aidan Fleet (courtesy of Jonny Waugh), who declared
himself “more of a batsman” and that he didn’t intend to hang about. Fleet was
true to his word, depositing his first ever scoring shot for the Strollers
clean over the midwicket fence. Unfortunately, he tried to repeat the dose the
following over and was comfortably caught.
This bought Glen Oliver to the crease, who took 19 off one
over on his way to a rapid 50. Unfortunately, he tried an ill-advised kneeling
sweep/pull/thing shortly after and was promptly given his marching orders.
The third debutant, Adhvyth Anand (courtesy of Isa Pandor),
stepped into the fray, and looked the part as he accumulated a solid 30 before
missing a gentle medium pacer. He was still trying to work out how he
missed it an hour later, to little avail.
Jack Le Serve then braved a badly twisted ankle to hit a
straightforward 21 before also missing a straight one.
Jake Helsby contributed some pyrotechnics, even bringing
spectator Aidan Selby into the game via a towering six hit at him while
stationed in the clubhouse seating. Having brought sons and club members
Rhys and Caleb down to watch proceedings, Selby either saved the life of his
son or dropped a sitter – depending on one's perspective.
Helsby, having rapidly brought up his maiden Strollers 50,
then provided possibly the highlight of the day. Your humble
correspondent has played and watched cricket for more than 40 years but had
never seen a batter borrow his teammate’s helmet with the sole
purpose of taking it off to celebrate such a milestone. Pittams hooked him
on the spot; perspective again guides whether the decision was made to
duly punish such sacrilege or merely to give everyone a bat.
In amongst the free hitting (and aided by somewhat
charitable catching), Travis quietly reached his fourth ton for the season with
his 15th boundary, and in doing so equalled the all-time single-season
Strollers century record. In his current form, it’s highly likely he'll own it
outright by the end of the season. Travis was diplomatically withdrawn
moments later after an audible “I’ve seen enough!” from his skipper.
Seeing the score mounting rapidly, Pittams chose to man the
scorebook for the day, sending in Isa Pandor to contribute 21, Dias to slog for
an over against his erstwhile teammates, and Alastair Macaulay to put the
cherry on top with a single chipped over the bowler to register his first run
for the season.
A new entry was made in the all-time records as the Strollers
finished on their second-highest ever total – hitting 38 fours and seven
sixes in reaching 335-4 off their allotted 40 overs.
After a brief tea, the Strollers began their defence, with
Dias taking the gloves and looking every inch a “proper” keeper. Shorn of
their regular opening quick bowlers and defending a large total, club treasurer
Tom Wood (in attendance with Pickle the Pooch) politely implied that cost
savings might be made by using a decent old ball instead. Advice
accepted, Helsby and Pandor took on the C & L openers.
Helsby's bowling has continued to improve over the course
of the season, a trend continued here as the ball went where it was aimed more
often than not – to his surprise and delight. Pandor at the other
end was relishing not being a death bowler for a change and bowled a very tidy
spell that included two maidens.
Travis was a surprise call-up at first change but was
withdrawn soon after as the skipper was politely abused for considering him at
all after his run-making exploits.
Le Serve tried to overcome his dodgy ankle with a few overs
but eventually saw sense. Macaulay was introduced shortly afterwards and
did exactly what he always does – befuddle batters who can't work out
whether to go back, forward, back and then forward, or none of the above.
He took two wickets in his eight- over spell, including the dangerous looking
overseas pro.
With the game seemingly safe, Pittams then adhered quite
literally to the Strollers “give everyone a go” creed, giving every one of the
remaining players a bowl – with a view to checking out the debutants in
particular.
Fleet and Anand turned out to be handy with the ball as
well as bat, with Fleet taking his maiden wicket for the club. As the
game meandered to its inevitable conclusion, the Strollers fielding unit took
their foot off the gas somewhat, resulting in a series of harbour bridges and
increasingly comical dropped catches to align with a theme for the season.
Opposition wicketkeeper Daniel Layzell (one of a long
procession of left-handers, and who only started playing during the Covid
lockdown) was a beneficiary. Having decided early that chasing the total
was never a possibility, he was delighted to battle his way to his first ever
50 and promptly retired to the clubhouse to savour the moment.
Pittams, having “led from behind” the entire match, decided
to finish the match in style, bringing himself on to bowl the last over via his
usual repertoire of all sorts at maximum volume.
Cricket, as we now know, is a game of perspective and his
first ball should have resulted in either a) a long walk into the fields over
the square leg fence to play fetch with Pickle or b) a wicket via a simple
catch at square leg. History only records a dot ball as the eventual
result, and no more need be written.
C & L concluded their 40 overs at 168-8 – and
the skipper was in no doubt that his over had turned the match. The
Strollers retired to the clubhouse just in time to watch extra time and the
penalty shoot-out in the women's Euro football final with beers provided by
centurion Travis.
Postscript - accurate stats are something of a proud
tradition for FSSCC - one aspect of which is preferring always to keep a paper
scorebook to avoid the possibility of data corruption and the peculiarities of
digital scoring. The wisdom of that approach was aptly demonstrated after the
Play-Cricket website showed one “Jono Addis” had not only been selected but had
scored an unbeaten 11 off four balls and taken a wicket – despite being
over 11,000 miles away at the time. Pleas to have those stats added to his
permanent record are unlikely to be accepted by chief statistician and club
President Maggie Patston...
Capt: Mike Pittams. Wkt: Roshan Dias.
Match reporter: Glen Oliver. Match fees: Alastair Macaulay.
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