Match Report by Edward Phillip James Featherstonehaugh Cowen

We gathered in the opulent surroundings of Rothamsted Park in Harpenden: full of hope following a solid victory against Scratchers in Sunday’s ‘season opener’. With little ceremony jeans were dropped and flannels donned. That is, with the notable exception of Phillip who, once again, hadn’t found his whites and looked like some sort of shabby street urchin.

Somehow it was decided that SFDWP would bat and Phillip and Tim volunteered to open. Warm applause greeted them as they strode purposefully to their respective creases. There was already a feeling that this was a match that was going to be played in the right spirit.

Phillip took guard to a Shaun Pollock look-a-like and some steady batting followed. The pair produced a reasonable opening partnership, before Tim had a bit of bad luck playing on for 13. Crabtree looked pretty sharp in the field, keeping the boundaries to a minimum and Pip was bowled when trying to accelerate the pace on 14.

Peter Church had replaced Tim earlier and was going nicely, with some sweetly timed boundaries, before surviving a couple of sharp chances. Sensing the cricketing Gods were smiling, Peter moved to an excellent 29, which included 2 sixes. Not before, however, he was dropped for a third time on the boundary!

Meanwhile, Ian had joined Peter in the middle and his swash-buckling style was soon in evidence. The chorus of “well left” accompanied some early wild-swings as he struggled to find his mark early on. Ian was joined by Phil, who was straight into his usual game, cracking an excellent boundary off the first ball he faced. Although he was then out cheaply by his standards for 5 when he spooned an easy catch to mid-off – a rare mis-timed stroke by the Northern Wonder!

David came out, with the game starting to turn the way of Crabtree, particularly as they now had their best pair bowling. ‘Stumps’ did well to weather some of the storm and batted well for his 6 – undone with a well-taken catch. Simon came to the crease looking keen to make his mark, having failed to get a bat on Sunday. Alas, with the decent bowlers on he was soon bowled for 1. When Richard replaced Simon there was a sense of anticipation, as he had batted so well on Sunday achieving a solid 23 runs – against SFDWPs in Judas-like fashion! Again, disaster struck and Mr Noden said good-bye to his middle stump first ball! A golden duck – what a game cricket is….In truth, it was a hell of a ball to face first up; a real ‘snorter’, which kept low.

This brought the first hat-trick chance of the match and the usual gathering of the fieldsman round the new batsman, Peter Stauvers, brought a justified sense of anticipation. Pete bravely kept it out and The Dads could breath a sigh of relief. By now The Dads were looking decidedly ragged and only some dogged batting and excellent running from Ian seemed to be keeping our hopes of a reasonable total alive.

Pete was Ian’s 6th partner and he was soon off the mark with a well-timed clip to the square leg boundary. Padding up to a couple in the next over, Pete again managed to work another to the rope. Ian reputedly beckoned PS to the middle remarking that they “needed to get a move on”. Sure enough, Pete was bowled next ball and it was only as he took the long walk back to the virtual pavilion that it struck him that Ian had been in for about 10 overs!

Peter Cook, our Skipper for the day (no encouragement required and should we make that: Skipper for the season……?), strode to the crease with his usual mix of furtive energy. He quickly belied an earlier comment that he was a “pusher and nudger” by striking a fine early boundary; but he was bowled soon after for a useful 8.

Jonathan came to the crease striking an imposing presence and saw out the innings for 3. Ian carried his bat for 21 – a fine effort, which also included a splendid 6.

115 always looked a bit short, though, on a pitch where you could score pretty well if you got bat to ball. Crabtree had fielded pretty well on the ground, although had spilled at least 6 chances and they had at least 3 very fine bowlers.

A quick turn-around saw the Crabtree openers soon in control. SFDWPs struggled with ball-in-hand early on and the fielding was a touch ragged with a couple of ground shots finding their way through fielders to the rope and too many ‘twos’, which should have been ‘ones’. Something we must tighten up on in future games.

Richard eventually made the breakthrough by taking a sharp caught-and-bowled chance, but by this time Crabtree had sped to around 40 runs. Ian took the next wicket, but the score was moving along all-to-easily. Jonathan finally bowled their opener for 17; then took a really good caught-and-bowled chance, with the last ball of his 2nd over, to set up a potential hat-trick ball if he was given a third over…the crucial ‘spare’ additional over in the gift of the Skipper. Drama, however, as many feared Hook had been taken out by a sniper secreted in one of the magnificent, towering oak tress, as he rolled at least eighteen or nineteen times down the wicket, having taken his diving catch….Relief, though, as he proudly got to his feet. “One more for you, Jonathan; sorry Phil, we’ve got to have the hat-trick ball” said the Skipper; nods of agreement all round.

By now, urged on by Skipper Cook, we had tightened up the fielding considerably and, with a few breakthroughs, we had started to ‘peg back’ Crabtree. The field was set suitably aggressively for the start of Jonathan’s next over, with plenty of chat being meted out to the batsman. A tentative nudge looped the ball agonisingly over Phillip’s head to land not far from where he’d come in from! Another day, perhaps…

Mr Cook bowled their #5 batsman with an excellent straight ball, pitched up in his usual inimitable fashion: there’s that moment where the batsman considers dancing down the pitch, thinks better of it, decides to have a crack, with dreaded result. A glimmer of hope…

Phil had his usual spell with the ball putting their batsman in all sorts of trouble. Alas, despite the quality no wickets fell in his two overs and David did an excellent job behind the stumps to this quicker stuff.

Pete S. bowled well and there are a couple of good catches off his efforts. This included an absolutely scintillating catch from our Skipper fielding close in. From the moment the ball was cracked off the meat of the bat, Peter was moving with astounding speed to his left, arching gracefully and landing heavily with the ball safe in his clutches – surprise and jubilation! The moment of the match!

Tim who bowled well, and Phillip saw out the last overs, but by now it was too late. Some early indifferent bowling and fielding, along with far too many extras had left us with too much to do. However, at least we had managed to be competitive, not give up and take the game to within a couple of balls.

Special mention should also go to excellent work in the field by Phil, Peter C., and Simon in the deep. Pete S. also did sterling work guarding another part of the boundary.

Man of the match has at least a couple of contenders with excellent knocks from Peter C. and Ian; but with contributions with bat and ball, good and decisive skippering and, what might be, catch of the season this has to go to Peter Cook.

Comment of the match has to go to the batsman Peter dismissed, muttering as he slumped back to the pavilion, “I’ve waited all my cricketing-career for a bowler like that!”

The game was played in excellent humour and not even the encroaching gloom could dampen our spirits as we tried to close out the match. We all retired to the Engineers Arms for a couple of well-earned pints and a welcome plate of bolognaise and chips. Well done to Crabtree for a deserved victory and the manner in which they played the game. Excellent "Team Crabtree" gear as well!