All a bit Village

Sunday 21st August, Bank of England Sportsground, Roehampton. St Anne's Allstars (160) lost to Village XI (161-4, 29.5 overs) by 6 wickets.

Scorecard

By Garreth Duncan

Another belting summer’s day in Roehampton, another Allstars defeat. But this time, in contrast to the lesson given us by West XI a fortnight before, the Allstars emerged from this game with a lot more credit, the excellent Ross Lang eventually proving the difference between the sides.

With the West XI thrashing on the same square still fresh in a few minds, some viewed the opposition with a little trepidation, being on average 10 years younger than us and carrying several stones fewer. However, in the absence of Tristan for only the second time in our history, Tim Ross and James Terrett gave us a solid start against the accurate bowling of Sellyck and Boyd. James had a fortunate escape when he edged to gully; he stood his ground, adamant it was a bump ball, and was somewhat ludicrously reprieved by the unsighted Maxie umpiring from square leg.

Buoyed by his good luck, and encouraged by the barracking from the boundary (“Get on with it”, “It’s not a Test Match”), James opened up his shoulders against Lang, hitting his first three balls for 6, 4, 4 before holing out on the long-on boundary next ball. His dismissal brought about a familiar collapse as Lang claimed the next three wickets – Simon Begley hitting his first ball for 4 before getting a terrible LBW decision on his second, Chris Hipwell nicking one to the keeper and Paul Nicol, having snuck a couple of fours down to third man, being taken at first slip. Chris’s dad Russell was caught at mid-wicket off Simms and Felix was run out in a mix-up, and we were in some disarray at 109 for 6.

Tim had stood firm, keeping the scoreboard moving amidst the carnage at the other end, and his innings gathered momentum, with excellent support from Andy Dyer. Although Fats has played fewer Allstars games since settling down to the joys of married life, he showed he hadn’t lost the knack of nurdling singles and punishing the bad balls as the pair put on a useful 29. Though Tim was bowled by Simms having reached his first Allstars fifty, Fats and Nick Chadwick continued the fightback, taking the score to 155 before Fats was bowled by the persevering Larcombe.

With the tail in, Village XI decided to give their occasional bowlers a go. De Metts’ first ball was a juicy full toss and Chadders’ eyes lit up - but he picked out the man on the extra cover boundary. This brought me to the wicket at no 11, relishing the opportunity at getting on the scoresheet for once. The batsmen had crossed, however, and I could only watch in horror from the non-striker’s end as Roger smacked another lollipop straight to the same fielder. Two hours’ drive and I didn’t face a ball. No justice.

Though the pitch was showing a bit more life than the Antigua-esque shirtfront of two weeks earlier, defending a target of 161 was going to be tough. An early breakthough was critical, but it wasn’t forthcoming as Lang and De Metts saw off testing opening spells from Chadders and Paul. Russ Hipwell's accurate bowling was treated with respect, but no mercy was shown to his son as Chris disappeared to all parts. At the drinks interval Village XI were 91 for 0 and we were staring in the face successive defeats without taking a wicket.

Lang completed a well worked fifty but, having survived a huge LBW shout to my first delivery, was not so fortunate against Tim at the other end. Tim continued his good day’s work by having Simms caught by Chadders in the deep and Khanna caught first ball by James. De Metts had batted purposefully, if slowly, for his 34 before he was bowled by the deserving Chadders, but Burns and Larcombe saw Village XI home with more than five overs to spare.

Chris rounded the day off with the beer raffle and vainly hawking his fiancée’s golf clubs to raise money for his flight home to Oz. Let’s hope he never found out that Maxie and Jason were raiding his bank account to try and keep him in Blighty.