Blenheim Park CC, Blenheim Palace South Lawn, 35 overs. Each May, since time immemorial, as the wisteria blooms hang full and heavy on the vine, eleven Bodley men, good and true, make the journey north up the Woodstock Road there to play cricket on the broad expanse of the south lawn of that stateliest of homes, Blenheim Palace. To cross the vast courtyard, through and around the milling throng of gawping tourists, then traversing the splendour of the Italianate water terraces and on to the sunlit uplands of the majestic cricket field, all the while burdened down with the weighty paraphernalia of the summer sportsman, is as second nature to the seasoned Bodleian cricketer. Onward, across the Duke’s back lawn, we make for the modest woodman's hut hidden in the clump of trees that serves as pavilion for the game. In the dark interior plans are hatched. Let them bat first says the captain for the pitch has never really been to the liking of Bodley’s finest. The toss is made, the captain calls it and Bodleian CC get set to snap into their fielding drills. Just one problem. Not all of the eleven are here yet. But look over yonder! Here comes Tim Saunders, and Ross, and Iain, and Phil and then finally the elegant figure of David Shackleton appears. Sustainable cricketers all, cycling here in a Bodleian CC peloton from the metropolis. Those of us who have driven by car can only look on in awe. Out in the field the team take up their positions. Tim Saunders keeps wicket with two slips and a gulley standing sentinel. Nigel sprints in from what those in the know call the “Walker End”. Like a well-tuned vintage Bentley motor car Nigel doesn't disappoint on his home turf. It's a maiden - of course it is. Phil takes the second over from what we must call the “Woodman's Hut End”. Bowling to off stump he probes and teases the batsman. Then in his second over he strikes as the Blenheim opener misjudges a shot to midwicket and Ross takes a fine catch. Advantage Bodley. The pugnacious Blenheim number threes struts to the crease and takes an ostentatious guard. Nigel is finding the edge. One flies to point but falls tantalisingly short. Another flies sharply to the keeper's right. It’s in the glove, and then it's not. Close! Disaster then strikes the Bodley cause. Rob, vigorously chasing down a ball in the outfield, pulls up in agony. A strained calf muscle means he must leave the field. Come forward Tim Philipson, Bodleian’s 12th man, who like the good scout has come prepared. Immaculate in whites he prowls in the covers. Phil takes out the second opener. Clean bowled, a wicket maiden. Then it's time for Leigh to have a bowl. It takes an over to hit a rhythm. Then he too is posing questions to the batsmen. But Blenheim’s chirpy number three starts to open his shoulders and is hitting both decent balls or not around the park and over the boundary rope. It’s starting to run away from us and we need a wicket. Iain, bowling some cunning mixed length stuff takes one courtesy of Nigel's assured catch at mid-off. However, the belligerent number three remains. More destructive biffing from him, accompanied by yet more chirping put Bodleian on the back foot. Then his century is up. Bodleian heads drop. This could run away from us. Up steps brave Sir Gavin of Eynsham. The combative centurion awaits at his mark. Gav thunders to the popping crease … Clean bowled him! Back in the hutch he goes! Robinson, the swerve-master, Robinson the meister-swinger is back. It's as if winter never happened and was nought but a bad dream. Summer is this noble one's season and the greensward his natural habitat: now he was back with a vengeance. In his seven over spell five Blenheim wickets fall to his guile and craft. Watch and learn youngsters, watch and learn. David, now bowling from the Woodsman’s Hut End, gives away little for the Blenheim batsmen to score off. His accuracy and admirable parsimony is rewarded in his final over with a wicket as Phil pouches the catch at deep point. Then back on to bowl comes Phil and swiftly wraps up the Blenheim innings as the number eleven offers up a catch to Ross. Blenheim are all out for 192 in the 34th over. Then it’s over to the hut in the woods for tea. A good array of tempting fare is laid before us: sandwiches of course, pork pie too, scotch eggs, scones with jam and cream, fresh fruit is helpfully provided for those on a diet. Tea taken, it’s back out to the field of play. The captain has marshalled his troops and pulled together a rare assemblage of Bodley batting talent. Some of our number have made themselves unavailable for this fixture: the siren call of the “Wood” festival in the remotest far Chiltern Hills has claimed James and Stu both. Gareth is tramping the lonely grouse moor in the furthest reaches of Caledonia. Matthew has tennis to play. No matter. With the firepower of Bharat, David, Tim Saunders, Ross, Leigh and Iain at the top of the order we have batting talent aplenty. 193 is a decent total but we feel we are up to the task. Bharat and David are our chosen opening partnership and take guard. Blenheim’s bowlers, one of whom is the aptly named Spearman and our nemesis in previous encounters, are both accurate and wily. They know the pitch well and give away few loose deliveries for our batsmen to score off. Nine overs pass. We haven’t lost a wicket, Bharat and David have not looked troubled, but we haven’t scored many runs either. In the hunt but with work to do. Then, in the tenth over, David falls. Bowled by Master Cox, the young seamer, for 7. Huge disappointment for the travelling Shackleton supporters’ group picnicking on the long-off boundary. Oh well, back to the bubbly. Bodleian are 20 for one off 10 overs. Tim Saunders joins Bharat at the crease. A short partnership as Bharat is bowled, as so many Bodleian batsmen have been down the years, for a useful 23 by the wily Spearman. 32 for 2 in the 13th over. Ross Quest now strides forth to join Tim. Much is expected of these two. Who can forget Tim’s entertaining batsmanship on tour in the rolling hills of Hampshire or his heroics against the Authors XI at Warborough? A farcical run-out means there will be no reprise of that at the Palace. Tim sets off for a quick single, Ross declines it and Tim is stranded midwicket. 37 for 3 after 15 overs. Now comes the partnership of the innings as Iain joins the left-handed Ross. Iain starts to get the measure of the Blenheim change bowlers and blasts them down the ground. Some lusty free-swinging blows and the Bodleian run rate begins to climb. Ross the quieter of the pair is playing himself in, biding his time. Then he too finds his range and starts to plunder the bowling. There follows some wonderful big-hitting to gladden the hearts of the Bodleian CC faithful. Fours and sixes begin to rain down on the Blenheim outfield. The hundred is up in the 23rd over and all to play for. Iain, bowled for a fine 26, by the Blenheim captain Canham now makes way for Leigh. Marston’s finest is not there long: bowled for 5, another victim of their skipper. Milner tarries for an even shorter stay. Canham strikes again and off goes our Captain Courageous for a resounding nought. Thank goodness for the stout-hearted Ross at the other end. He continues to go about his work, making light of all that is thrown at him and now ably supported by another stout-heart, Sir Gav of Eynsham, they push on. The pair have together put the Bodleian in with a shout of victory but the overs are counting down. Will we have enough time to get the runs? Two overs left, 178 on the board for the loss of six wickets. Ross brings up his century and the crowd erupts. The tension is unbearable. Gav departs the scene as Canham strikes again for his fourth wicket. One over is left, ten to win, and Cox senior is the bowler. All the Blenheim fielders are posted, in a ring, on the boundary rope. Four runs are scrambled off the first five balls and two Bodleian wickets are sacrificed in the chase: Phil run out and Nigel caught going for glory. Tim Philipson is there for our final stand. Last ball and six runs for victory. Ross swings, misses and two byes are taken as the Blenheim keeper races to retrieve the ball. All over. We close on 189 for 9 with Ross scoring a magnificent 106 not out. Doubtless we’ll be back next year, like the blooming wisteria, to put ourselves through it all over again. AM
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Isis CC, Queen's College Ground, 40 overs A mixed bag of an afternoon from Bodley saw them attempt to reverse the result from their opening fixture last week, and avenge the final over loss suffered last season. Playing friendly local team Isis CC at the picturesque Queen's College ground overlooked by the sedate college boathouses, the afternoon started well when Captain Ackland won the toss and elected to bat. That would be one of the few things that went well for the team for a couple of hours... Openers Shackleton and Neely started well. Shackleton took on the bowlers while Neely played with care, looking to get his eye in. Regrettably however, he fell for a duck when caught by Mo (who is in fact his dentist - at point). This brought McKiernan to the crease, who sought to make mayhem with the bowlers. He did this by playing across to the line at anything that was fed to him, while finding time to engage in an embarrassing run out with Shackleton, with discussions about whose fault it was taking up much of the afternoon. Milner came to the crease and engaged in some beautiful classicism while McKiernan was caught on the boundary, possibly in an attempt to hit the ball all the way to Berkshire. At that point, with Jones at the crease, everyone settled in for some Chris Tavare-style inaction. This was no bad thing as there was most of the innings still to play. Eventually both players started to hit the ball but to little avail as both also fell cheaply. Returnee Wright picked up the second duck of the innings and while Phillipson played with refreshing positivity he could only scored seven before being caught. Ackland then attempted to sum up the entire innings in one brilliant moment. He sought to play the ball down the leg side, before stopping himself out of fear of hitting the keeper and nudged the bails from the stump with his arse. MacKinnon finally did what the middle order hadn't quite, and took to smashing his way to double figures - a fine knock given the circumstances. The fall of Jones’ wicket brought Busby to the crease, and an attempt to spread the field saw him return back to the pavilion quite quickly, leaving Paton to hold up one end while MacKinnon sought to take some quick runs. Sadly, quick runs were not to be found as he holed out shortly afterwards. The Bodley innings managed to be an improvement on the first match of the season, if only because there were half as many ducks - Hilda would be pleased. While trying to defend insufficient runs in a push for victory was a fool’s errand, nobody told the bowlers. McKiernan and Neely particularly impressed, bowling with pace and excellent line and length, each of them picking up a wicket. While Milner was unlucky to be hoicked around, he responded with a modified approach- bowling around the wicket and getting a brilliant caught in the outfield when McKinnon pouched their handy number four. The skipper finally dragged himself on to bowl at this point, and after a leg side comedy ball that almost did for the keeper's hamstrings, settled into a groove and showed off his new, stutter-free run-up (we miss the dust clouds - Ed). Proving the value of practice in the off-season ('practice' being making full use of the generous dimensions of the Map room), his line and length were almost McGrathian in their accuracy and earned him a deserved wicket when he bowled middle stump out the ground. Ultimately it was futile and it was probably appropriate that the winning run was a bye off third-change bowler Philipson’s when Jones just sort of gave up trying to gather it when it passed leg stump. Thus it was that our first long game was lost with enough time left to play (and lose, narrowly) a 10 over thrash - the equivalent of medals for everyone at school sports day. This gave Phillipson a chance to do his astounding Bubba Watson impression again, as a fine six sailed over the boundary and numerous fours pierced the field. Jones, opening the batting and in some discomfort after a memorable somersault in the field earlier, proceeded to balance the Bubba hitting with some gentle putting on the green, eventually retiring knackered to everyone's great relief. Sadly a still dazed Shackleton couldn't quite get the runs to win - back to the nets for you David! So much to improve upon for our next game, but another reminder that our bowling is looking seriously good this season. AP, GJ Pretty sure I wasn’t the only Bodley player wondering what the hell we were doing playing against a team of post-grads from Balliol, most of whom were in the nets already when we arrived. The piss-poor start to the season hadn’t given the team a great deal of confidence going into the match but the usual optimism, banter and excitement created by too many people in too small a changing room soon got people in the right frame of mind. The team was a strong one for Bod, looking round it was hard to see how all those who could bowl would get the chance.
Balliol bat first. Their ground is right next to Manny Rd and slightly higher, which meant that those fielding on the far-side to the pavilion could watch the JC match in-between deliveries. Bod start well with the ball, both James Shaw and Phil Burnett bowling quickly and accurately with James getting wickets. Phil deserved more from his spell, and should have got at least a catch off the one really dangerous batsman in Balliol. Noticing he had a tendency to hit straight back past the bowler fielders were placed at deepish mid-on and off, your reporter being one of them, and sure enough the ball was spooned gently up straight towards him. Not reading the flight at all well left the hapless fielder in no-mans land, kicking himself afterwards for not going for what would have been a regulation catch. After a good start Balliol are pegged back with the Bod taking wickets on a regular basis. Leigh takes a sharp catch at mid-on getting rid of a dangerous looking player while Tom Dale picks up a number with quick accurate deliveries. Matthew does well behind the stumps and Leigh picks up useful wickets towards the end of the innings. A brief flurry of runs at the end see Balliol to 99 off 20, a score that a good Bod side should be able to manage but is one that we’ve failed to get anywhere near close too in the two games so far. Matthew and David open, facing bowling which is sometimes accurate, sometimes not, and take advantage of the bad balls. Matthew looks to work the ball down leg when he can while David is the usually mixture of safety and attack, finding the gaps with seeming ease. Both look set to reach the retirement figure of 30 before Matthew is bowled for 25 and David is given out caught behind for 29, a clear edge in both sound and deviation from bat obvious to umpire and bowler. James follows Matthew and after a scratchy start soon finds the middle of the bat. Leigh joins him and attacks from the start, nearly getting caught off the first ball but then regularly finding the boundary. Bodley win in 17 overs by 8 wickets. A marvellous turn round considering the start to the season. While we have to be cautious in that the opposition were of mixed ability –while umpiring at square leg one of the fielders told me that a few of the oppo hadn’t started playing until well into their 20’s –the bowling again was superb, and finally the batting clicked into gear. Hopefully we can take this form into Blenheim on Sunday. SA St Clements Strollers, Magdalen College cricket ground, twenty overs (in theory). Hilda Ogden, star of mid-70s Coronation Street, had a mural on her wall which was famous for her flying ducks. She only had 3 though. Bodleys first game of the season improved on that, we had 6. So, proof, if proof were needed, that even though we’re not as good as the St Clements Strollers we are better than Hilda. It’s a bloody awful game, cricket. Why do we do it? All the enthusiasm that builds up during the winter, enthusiasm that builds in the run up to the game when you look at the team and think that’s not bad at all soon gets deflated like a cheap balloon at a kids party, with an equivalent amount of disappointment. More so when it is such a gorgeous evening for cricket, against opposition that have been the traditional openers to the season since 2006 but has recently been blighted by poor weather. Bodley go into the game with two new players, Tom Dale from the Social Sciences and Phil Burnett from Music, both bowlers who have impressed in the nets, and not just for bothering to turn up. Bodley win the toss and decide to bat, mindful that it can get dark towards the end of the second innings, working on the assumption of course that there will be 20 overs in each innings. The Strollers are a mixed bunch, always friendly but with a wide range in ages. One young player this time and the rest of the team made up of players our age or older. When are we going to remember that with age comes great experience? The youngster opens the bowling, and proves to be one of the best bowlers we’ve faced for a long time. Balls just off the off-stump cut back in at a good pace, his two wickets come from unplayable balls and the fact that out of the ten wickets to fall he only got these two is a poor reflection on the way the rest of us gifted our wickets away cheaply. The Strollers other bowlers were a canny mix of various speeds, all having pretty much a perfect idea what a good length was and all bowling the type of ball that makes the batsman think yippee until they hole out, get stumped charging down the wicket, bowled by swinging wildly or, in my case trying to be clever and get David back on strike only to run himself out after turning back mid-wicket, slipping on his arse and watching as the keeper calmly takes the bails off. After the Authors at the end of last season I’m now on a hat-trick of getting dismissed while lying down. I’ve said it before in Bodley reports, there’s nothing like cricket to make the foolish look even more foolish. The fact that we managae to dribble on to a score of 52 is down to David Shackleton, whose middle order knock of 27 is full of the usual calm while all others sink around him. No one else bothers with a double score. As is usually the case the bowling and fielding is another matter. James strikes in the first over, getting rid of a player who has scored well against us in the past. New player Phil from the other end does well and is unlucky not to get any reward though does take a smart catch off Tom’s bowling. Tom is genuinely fast, something we’ve not had for a while and with Phil and him in the attack Bodley have a good bowling line-up, just a shame we have to do the batting part as well. Suffice to say, Strollers win in 15 overs, Bodley look to a hard game against Isis on Sunday to try and recover some pride. Another season, same as the last. SA |
Note from the Ed.Generally always written late on the night of the game. Any accuracy or sparkling prose is purely accidental. Archives
September 2016
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