How is that one!!!!!!

Bit of a mixed weekend for NCC this week, 1s and 2s got thoroughly humbled by Sunderland on the Saturday but the 2’s recovered to topple the mighty Chester le St on the Sunday in the League Cup Semi to set up a final on Sunday at the Home of Cricket. (Jesmond, not Lords.) On Saturday we had to travel to the dark place over in Hicksville on Wear, with traffic chaos predicted because of the Sunderland Air Show. (The Air Show itself is actually just a commercial Easyjet flight heading out of Newcastle towards Amsterdam, however the people of Sunderland are still living in the dark ages to such an extent that a flying aeroplane draws them out of their shacks to gasp in wonder once a year.) To be fair to Sunderland CC, their 2’s are a top side who will probably win the league as they have good batting strength, a varied bowling attack and are expertly marshaled by former Durham and England bowler Simon Brown.  We were beset by cry offs and first team intervention, and travelled very much in hope rather than expectation.

SCC won the toss and decided to bat, eventually declaring on 225-7 off 50 overs. I was pretty pleased with our bowling efforts, as our side included a copuple of juniors inexperienced at this level. Peter Hirst (@only1hirsty) manfully toiled through 15 overs picking up 2 wickets with long hops, one of which was hit like an exocet at your correspondent at mid wicket where he took a fine athletic catch that belied his portly exterior. John Dawson should what could be achieved if he didn’t turn up hungover every week by bowling a good hostile and accurate spell, thoroughly deserving his 3 wickets. My own performance of 7-1-27-0 was a fair reflection of how I bowled, some good stuff but ultimately too many bad balls against competent batsman, though there was the issue of a dropped catch and a (tricky) missed stumping off consecutive balls. When we batted we were never really in the hunt and lost wickets at regular intervals. Will Allen (@whaa) (52) continued his recent upsurge in form and James Carr chipped in with 25 before an uncharacteristically loose drive. I stuck around for a bit and plundered 18 almost exclusively through extra cover as per usual before being fooled royally by a slower ball. We were eventually dismissed for 175, no shame there given the side we had out. The 1’s got humped by a rampant Sunderland side who I fully expect to have a big say in the title shake up, despite a battling 60 from 2^nd teamer Sam Malpass they were 110 all out in reply to SCC 270-9. With a tough 2 games coming up we need some big performances to maintain our early season position, but with league leading scorer Michael Richardson and batsman Jamie Atkinson back this weekend hopefully things can be improved.

On Sunday the 2’s hosted the mighty Chester le St, current league leaders in the League Cup Semi Final. Nobody really gave us a prayer. However, a brief bit of reconnaissance pre game showed me that their side wasn’t as strong as usual (their 1’s had some Mickey Mouse National Knockout QF against Northern which apparently ‘took precedent’) and I felt that we had a better than fighting chance. After 23 overs CLS were 123-0 and I felt that fighting chance was dust. I was fully prepared to be chasing 280+ and felt we were staring down the barrel. But we bowled and fielded excellently, particularly 17 year old Rob Howarth (@robhowarth93) (9-1-31-2) who removed both openers and wily veteran David Covell (9-2-29-1). Chester finished the 45 overs on 233-7, a remarkable turnaround. At this stage it should be pointed out that Jesmond is a very small ground and the wicket is a road, so 233 is possibly 20-30 runs below par. At tea, I was quietly confident. 

The run chase got out to a fantastic start when soon to be tattoo’d opener Alex Nicholson (@alnicho) was bowled first ball. I’d also had some sort of stroke at tea and allowed Peter Hirst to bat 3, and he was shortly out for 4 leaving us 12-2. At this point I remarked that we would simply win the game the opposite was CLS had set the target, by virtue of our batting depth. Jonny Richardson (44) batted sublimely before his second controversial LB Jeffery Dujon of the weekend (off the same umpire – more later) but James Carr (80) and Will Allen got us within 40 with about 8 overs to go. At this point Carr succumbed to fatigue and chipped to midwicket, leaving the Skipper to stride out in a pressure situation. Sickening. Pressure was alleviated slightly when Skipper chipped Berryman back over his head for 6 (I made such poor contact that I spent most of the arc of the ball shouting ‘Get over him’ in reference to their long on.) Will Allen was then the recipient of 5 wides the following over, and 2 balls later I was beamed which also went to the boundary for 5 wides. 11 off 1 ball. Useful. We were within 232 for 5 when Allen snicked behind for a fine 60, Dan Humble coming in and leveling the scores. I then get a top edge to a cut and was caught at fly slip who’d been brought up to protect the win. However, in the next over Dan got the 1 needed for victory, sparking jubilant scenes on the balcony. Possibly my greatest win as captain, I was extremely proud of all players involved – even Nicho. 

This week we were lucky enough on Saturday to be umpired by Ian Blackwell of Durham CCC, who is in training to be a first class umpire. Given the current trend to fast track First Class players onto the Panel I was very curious to see how good Mr Blackwell would be, there have been several very good cricketers who have turned into poor umpires in my short time playing senior cricket alone. I am delighted to report that I felt Ian was excellent, as well as being personable and encouraging with our young players he got every decision right, and was happy to discuss his decisions with captain and bowler on the pitch. I felt all rationales were excellent and it was refreshing to play in a game where the umpire has a complete grasp of the decision making mechanism. He even paused for polite consideration before giving out Peter Hirst, who was as plum as I have ever seen anyone. (Ian recreated the pose for Graham Onions so I can bring it to my readers, cheers Bunny.) I also felt that Ian understood and had a feel for the game of cricket, many Umpires we have can not be faulted for knowledge of the laws but sometimes their interpretation or application of them lacks common sense I feel. For example, on Sunday I was told that any drinks break we organized would cut into our allotted time allowance for bowling our 45 overs. Given how hot it was I felt this was unnecessary, if both captains agreed to have a drinks there is no sense by disallowing them. In our 3^rd team game on Sunday we had a farcical situation where both captains agreed to play with 10 men if necessary unless a scorer could be found (one was found in the bar) as the Umpire said the game could not proceed without both sides having one, despite a promise that batting players would do the oppositions. In 3^rd team games it can be hard enough to get a side out, and my understanding is that the umpires reluctance was based on the fact that he’d have to fill a form in. I was also informed on Sunday that if CLS had appealed when I’d pleaded ‘Get over him’ to the cricket ball in the SF, that I would have been given out for obstruction.

Our opposition had a lot to say about the Umpire on Sunday, I feel that the majority of the decisions were correct and I would stress that in general I consider the standard of umpiring in the League to be excellent. Certainly the umpires make a lot less mistakes than the players, but I occasionally wish the old buggers would remember that they were players once and show a little give and take. ‘Zero tolerance’ as one umpire has lectured me, should not be the way forward I feel – a bit of give and take is required.

I’m going on tour next week, and hope to be reunited with my smartphone prior to departure in order that I might offer live cricket updates on the progress of the Northumberland Nomads CC. The lads have all been warned, what goes on tour… goes in the Blog!!

All the best, PH.