Thornford vs Horningsham

5 June 2011
TCL

Three of our players pulled out in the run up to this game. A desperate search for replacements produced one guest - Bez, a friend of Callum's - and Bill, who on health and safety and parental grounds should not have been playing. We arrived at the game with a team of 10. Coming off three straight league defeats, this did not feel like a perfect preparation.

With the aid of hindsight, one can see that the key event of the game and hopefully the turning point in our season's fortunes was something else that happened before the match even started. Cricket can be like this. We all know how England won the 2005 Ashes because McGrath trod on a cricket ball in the warm up. I would argue we won this match because Angus Hilleary was hungry. Not metaphorically hungry to win, though he was that too, absolutely, but more importantly, he needed to have lunch. Upon arrival at Thornford's rather beautifiul village ground, he disappeared in search of food, and did not come back until the game started. This meant he was not around to make the toss. Bill stepped in and won it. And this was a massive good toss to win.

We inserted them on a sticky grass wicket, dampened by morning rain. With the odd ball stopping or rearing up, with movement off the seam, and the rain falling throughout their innings, batting was certainly tough. Fielding was also miserable but we did not mind as the wickets tumbled. Indeed this was our best fielding and bowling performance of the season. Bez took three early wickets, James bowled out his 8 overs, taking 4 for 9, and Angus finished off the tail with three. Several catches were taken - Christy set the tone by catching both the openers at mid on - no silly ones were dropped, we were well backed up by good fielding, and the unfortunate batsmen found scoring extremely hard. But batting first, they felt they had to try to force it and kept getting themselves out. 64 all out.

When our turn came, the rain had stopped, the pitch was still slow, but we knew we didn't need to push for runs. It was pretty easy to stay in and accumulate carefully. James was undone by one that stood up on him, which he chipped back to mid off, but that was the only wicket. Tony and Angus, our outstanding batsmen of the season so far, carried us through to 65 for 1, a nine wicket victory.

A lot of credit is due to Thornford for not calling the game off. They have an excellent bar and did a very good tea. They also produced an umpire and two scorers. Luxury!