On a glorious summer’s afternoon at the Mid, our Club XI took on the might of Calthorpe in a thoroughly enjoyable day of cricket in perfect conditions. With the usual Saturday night selection issues of having only nine available players, a few late night draftings were recruited after a few pints and some polite arm twistings. The team make up though had somehow ballooned to twelve on Sunday morning, only for it to be brought back to the bare eleven just before the match started.

Pre-match ground preparations meant there was no time for the customary Bradman Half before the warm up, but this was cast aside as skipper Bootsy calmly won the toss and sent them in, with the logic of having a field, then a nice feed at tea, then batting the game out for a comfortable win. The warm up talk on a very balmy summer’s afternoon centred around never having been beaten by Calthorpe and not letting this being the first time it ever happens.

Opening up was Rajib, as always in his off-white whites, and partnering him with the new ball was Fifteen-year-old Jake Williams, playing in only his second ever adult match. The pair bowled beautifully, especially the youngster, who showed lots of class and character producing maiden after maiden and troubling the far more experienced batsmen with fantastic line and length with a bit of swing thrown in. But it was the ever-reliable Rajib who made the breakthrough, removing the stoic left-handed opener, while his batting partner stuck around, looking to play more expansive shots.

After Jake’s entertaining, yet unluckily unfruitful spell, fellow colt Elliot Lowe came into the attack and immediately unsettled the Calthorpe first drop’s stumps, with the ball then continuing on and crashing into the third man boundary, such was the pace on it. Some inspired captaincy from skipper, Bootsy, then brought the guile and charm of Doug Teesdale into the attack with his fizzing and darting and looping leg spinners who, true to his name, teased the batsmen with his variety of loop, length and turn.

Some solid batting though from the opener and the number 4 then took them along to 57, but the introduction into the attack of ‘Colonel’ Mustard from the Southern End almost brought immediate results, with a difficult catch being put down in the slips from his first over. But it was Mustard’s second over which bamboozled the batsmen and brought the game alive. A mis-timed pull shot resulted in a top edge which flew away to the short fine leg area and the über-athletic Rob Kent running from first slip almost pulled off one of the catches of the season. Another one of Mustard’s fine left armers again found an edge, but this time it flew tantalisingly between the slips for a few, followed by an unconvincing push, which narrowly evaded the desperate finger tip grasps of Mark Grundy at short cover.

After a warm twenty over session in the field, the well-needed iced squash was brought out with the away side on 72 runs with two back in the hutch. The home team was now looking to push for further wickets and, after his brilliant opening spell, Jake was brought back on and immediately was on the spot, his free flowing long hair blowing in the breeze on his gracefully run in to the wicket.

The solid middle order pairing though was finally broken by a great piece of fielding by Rajib at short fine leg, who made a beautiful stop from a ball which was turned to leg, then a perfect throw over the stumps to the keeper, Sam, had the gutsy number 4 on his way back to the pavilion. Calthorpe’s remaining opener was next to go, as Doug’s nagging spinners got the better of the batsman’s patience and had him bowled for a well compiled 28. A decent partnership then developed between a tall lad who looked like he was about to cut loose, but never really did, and a guy who looked like a bit of a throwback to the 70s complete with and old time cricket hat and sweat band, but this was soon snuffed out by Rajib’s second run out, this time an amazing direct hit at the bowler’s end, again from short fine leg.

70’s throwback man was soon on his way giving Doug his second wicket as he charged down the pitch and was easily stumped by the efficient keeping of Sammy Little, who was standing up at the stumps for most of the match.

Two wickets in his final over gave Jake the fine figures of 2 wickets for 10 runs from 10 overs, leaving it for Elliott to clean up the tail and finish with two wickets himself. Some tidy bowling at the end from the always under-bowled Robbie Kent topped off the day in the field. A great fielding effort was shown by our boys especially from Rajib, Anant, Jake and Mark Grundy, leaving us to bed down for our fine tea with the prospect of knocking off the required 152 runs from 40 overs.

With some well-credentialed first team spectators looking on, Sam Little and Anant walked out to open, with Sam immediate taking to the bowling with his aggressive style, taking eight from the first over from two well timed fours. It didn’t stop there as Sam continued his onslaught and with Anant providing worthy back up, they took the score to 80 for no loss, before Anant played a ball in the air to cover, to depart for a well complied 15.  The 4th and 3rd XI skippers, Pistol and Robbie then fell quickly, before Sammy brought up his elegant fifty with a clean blow to backward square. He and Mark Grundy then took the team perilously close to the target, before both lost their wickets in the same over, Sam skying and attempted slog-sweep to fall for a classy, and seemingly effortless 77 and Mark chipping to cover for 15.

With the ever-reliable Mustard stretched out on the Crouch End grass with a bulbous knee and a massive purple bruise on his thigh from the previous day, it was left to Elliott and Douggie to knock off the remaining 10 or so needed runs to give North Mid the victory, leaving both Bootsy and Rajib padded up on the sideline, each of them complaining that they are always left with their pads on and never get a bat!

A thoroughly enjoyable match was finished off with hearty handshakes, traditional pints of lager and dissections of the match with the opposition in the Pavilion until well into the night.

Report:    Pistol