Colonel Mustard reports from Winchcombe on Bays v The Travellers CC
Cricket can be a funny game. I should know, it’s made me laugh a few times. It’s also made me cry a few times, but then again if you’d ask me about that to my face, I’ll deny it emphatically. So let’s not ponder on the imponderables and crack on with the cricket.
Crows are birds that some find irritating, some think of them as harbingers of doom, others consider them birds of intelligence and wisdom and others still as beasts with wings and nothing more. How sad to have such limited horizons. Crows are of course Corvidae and as such noble creatures and ones which deserve the utmost respect. Yes, there were crows at the game today and they wheeled and dealed in the ways crows will do with no inhibition or upset. The Bays seemed not to notice their aerial dances over Sudeley Castle and may be, just may be this upset the influence crows clearly have on the game of cricket.
For starters Nobster lost the toss again and the Bays were put into the field. West and Sharma put the opening bowling pair to the sternest of tests. West retired on 52, but Sharma ploughed on to 104 before allowing the Bays keeper, Steve Liley, the easiest of stumpings off Colin Harding.
The score climbed inexorably onwards and upwards with the Bays bowlers beginning to make headway. Tom Liley took a sharp caught and bowled (Pathan) before bowling Saramurs. Saunders bowled a few spinning deliveries, one of which was hit into the middle of next week, before having McCarthy stumped by Steve Liley.
Pierce took a tidy caught and bowled and that was it. 285 runs and 40 overs over. Not even Chris Thorp (teacher of the year 2014) or Jamie Liley could break the deadlock!
So to tea and a well deserved break. Rye bread sandwiches furnished with Dijon mustard and lashings of Abbot Ale! Holy moly what more do you want? So with tea languishing in the stomach and the excitement of batting to come what could possibly go awry?
Nobby the Nobster, went for one dreaming of Hebridean beauty and nothing less. Horner (VP no2) in black joggers, cracked 58 off 49 with eight 4s and two sixes showing the way. Hurrah!
Alex Van Dyke impressed with 38 off 34, but fell to Collem. Tom Liley then made 11 with one big six into the field.
Steve Liley then batted on undefeated for 28* as 5 wickets fell around him. Mike Harding made 8, but only Jamie Liley at the end carried his bat as well for 3. Morris took 4 wickets towards the death as Travellers secured a good win.
So another lose, but that’s cricket. Did anyone care? Of course they did, but Chris H lost his credit card and that put it all in perspective. As the final drinks were slurped, the weather closed in and the day ended with rain driving in. A lachrymal response from the heavens in response to the Bays’ capitulation.
Travellers 285/7
West 52
Sharma V 104
Liley T 8/0/47/2
Liley S 2 stumpings
Liley T & Pierce A 1 catch
Bayshill 174/9
Horner 58/49 8&2
Van Dyke A 38/49 6&1
Liley S 28*/73 3&0
Morris 8/1/36/4