A Rose blooms; Allstars wilt

Saturday 4th June, Barnes Common. St Anne's Allstars (184) lost to Rain Men (187-6, 33.4 overs) by 4 wickets.

Scorecard

By Garreth Duncan

I made the drive from Canterbury with mixed emotions – pride at being asked to lead the Allstars for a second time tinged with a bit of nervousness at not wanting to be the first Allstars captain to lose to the Rain Men. Both were to pan out in a fluctuating yet absorbing contest.

Many Allstars and opponents will appreciate the beautiful Barnes Common ground, surrounded by trees which hide it away from the road and railway line. Yet this lush greenery proved the final resting place for a plethora of balls, providing several frustrating interruptions to the main event. The use of white balls was to no avail. Maybe Readers could come up with fluorescent leather.

As well as being James Sherrett’s Allstars debut, this match marked the first appearance of our new scoreboard, purchased at considerable expense from Australia, financed by Chris Hipwell’s dedicated fundraising. It didn’t take long for the board to take its first blow, one part breaking off in practice. Let’s hope they do spare parts and service.

The pitch was freshly cut but green and looked lively. It was with this in mind that Rain Men skipper Howard McMinn asked us to bat first when he won the toss. Yet Tristan, opening with brother Felix looked solid against a handy opening attack of Leonard and left-armer White, who looked like justifying his skipper’s decision as he extracted bounce and movement from the pitch. Tristan began watchfully, but soon started to put the bad balls away.

Felix had a fortunate reprieve when given out LBW before he had scored, only for the appeal to be withdrawn when the bowler decided the ball was going down the leg side. Having seen off the opening pair and added 53 with his brother, he was bowled by Ransome’s first legal delivery (the first being a chest-high beamer).

Liam Mulcahy had looked a class act in his previous Allstars appearance, striking a 50 in our draw against Sanford. But, looking to lift the tempo against the slower bowling of Young, he was bowled attempting a big hit. Richard Eager came in and hit 2 fours off his first four balls, but soon became Young’s second victim, unluckily given out LBW when the ball had clearly hit the bat.

Richard Throup looked fairly comfortable against the bowling, but the first shot in anger he played was a tad unfortunate to pick out the man on the long-off boundary. The last of the York quintet, James Sherrett, immediately set out to play shots but, having been dropped off a skier before he had scored, was out LBW missing an attempted sweep. With the overs running out, we were 127 for 5, badly needing some urgency injecting into the proceedings. Enter Tom Chicken to play one of the most amazing cameos in Allstars history, living up to his shot-a-ball reputation as his first five balls were smashed for 4, 6, 4, 2, 6. Sadly it couldn’t last as he was bowled two balls later attempting to launch Kraft over the railway line.

All the time, Tristan was slowly gathering momentum, and was ably assisted by James Devlin in a useful seventh wicket stand as he completed his third Allstars century, and his second against Rain Men, in the penultimate over. He fully deserved to carry his bat, but with 2 balls remaining he was bowled by Jones.

Andy Crawford went in with strict instructions that he was not to get out, I having no intention of going in to face one ball, let alone a hat-trick ball. Having charged halfway down the track before playing a forward defensive to his first ball, he promptly tried the trick again and missed to leave a stumping even Geraint Jones couldn’t miss. Just as well it wasn’t off a wide. Our eventual total of 184 for 8, while defendable, seemed like 30 or so too few.

James Devlin and Richard Eager opened our bowling, Devers soon settling into a steady line while the taller Richard got the ball to bounce awkwardly. Rain Men’s opener, the left-handed Neal Ransome, had played a lone hand in the corresponding fixture three years ago, scoring a defiant hundred as Paul Nicol skittled his colleagues, and started ominously once again. No doubt he was eyeing another boundary as he attempted to loft Eager over mid-on, but what followed must have startled even the most avid Allstars watcher as I nonchalantly plucked the ball out of the air one-handed. I saw it all the way. Honest. Devers quickly followed up this unlikely breakthrough in the next over by bowling Jones and having Ramscar smartly taken at gully by Felix with successive balls to leave Rain Men reeling at 27 for 3.

White survived the hat-trick ball and, with Simon Rose, began to repair the damage. Simon profited from my initial reluctance to deploy a third man, frequently finding the short boundary with cuts and dabs, and kept up with the asking rate, before Richard Throup bowled them both in successive overs. At the drinks break Rain Men were 100 for 5 and we once again had the upper hand.

Even though we were short of one front-line bowler, with Tristan exhausted after his batting masterclass and only able to bowl 2 overs, we still fancied our chances against the Rain Men middle order. But their skipper McMinn is a class act, and he immediately took a shine to my bowling, despatching my first three balls for 4 through square leg as Rain Men pressed hard on the accelerator. The game remained in the balance as McMinn was unafraid to hit the ball in the air, just eluding the fielders. On 28, though, he offered a skier to cover. The chance fell to Tom Chicken, whose fielding had otherwise been exemplary on a day when our ground fielding fell short of the high standards of previous games. Agonisingly, it went down – and McMinn proceeded to flay the bowling for 65 off just 46 balls before, in sight of victory, he was bowled by the returning Devers.

With only 12 required, we crowded the bat and prayed for a miracle. Rain Men held their nerve, Leonard striking Liam straight down the ground to bring the scores level before five wides carried them over the line. Not the most fitting way to end a gripping encounter.

Rain Men celebrated their victory in style with a bottle of champagne at the Sun Inn. Our table promptly collapsed as soon as I touched it. Maybe captaincy’s not all its cracked up to be.