Full Fixture Information

Result Descriptiom

Won by 9 wickets

Man of the Match

Oli Atkinson - 75 sparking runs

Champagne Moment

Aaron showing us how to catch

Teddy Bear Moment

Tim Lawrence's Catching (or lack of) (again)

Full Match Report

And so, as the equinox tips us gently into autumn and the sun crosses the celestial equator, the cricket season ends and the gentle rhythm of the summer pulls up its stumps and moves us inexorably towards shortening days and longer nights.

24 matches from the 12th April to the 20th September, 31 players, three debutants, eight hundreds, five five-fers, five wicket-keepers, three captains, three cap-days and a new tour to Warwick has made for a great season.

Some personal milestones have been met, some have been missed, but through it all there?s been an excellent spirit, a desire to do well but play the game in the right way and, I hope, everyone feels at some point in the season that they played their part, made the best of their abilities and found that small moment of personal joy that cricket can bring.

Catches were taken, catches weren?t taken, ducks a-plenty (27 of them, with more than half the squad registering at least one), balls were brilliantly stopped on the boundary, and abjectly shepherded over the boundary, resolute blocking and defence to save matches was mirrored by some dreadful shot selection and nonsensical game-awareness, it was the same last season, and I?m sure will be the same next season.

Sunday was our final fixture against Pyestock ? they?ve blown hot and cold over the years, we?ve been heavily beaten and overwhelmingly successful ? with more of the latter than the former in recent years. After last week?s debacle of 95 all out I hoped our backbone would improve and our players would step up to the mark and see out the season in triumph.

And overall, it was a pretty triumphant day, I won the toss and put them in, it felt like a pitch to find out what a good total was and then chase it. Aaron and Wayne opened the bowling and Aaron was immediately in a good rhythm, finding the right line and length and should have had a wicket-maiden first up but, unfortunately, I couldn?t hold on to a shot drilled to me at mid-off.

Was it going to be one of those days? Ali and Oli seemed to think so.

A couple of overs later and Aaron bowled their other opener with a lovely yorker. Their number three came in and was immediately aggressive, hitting a run-a-ball 20 before taking one great swing too many off Wayne, and the ball gently ballooned to Oli at slip.

Wayne (5-1-25-1) was replaced by Tim who immediately struck when their number four took a huge swing at the ball sending it miles into the atmosphere and, somehow, I made the required ground and held on at mid-on. To a man my teammates declared that there was no way they thought I?d hold it, which either shows their lack of faith in me, or that it was a supremely difficult catch that only the sharpest of fielders would hold on to ? I?m hopeful it was the latter, but I wouldn?t bet on it.

Meanwhile, the opener was dropped again off Aaron, this time at mid-on by Tom and to make matters worse for the bowler he also managed to get the number five to play on but with such soft impact the ball struck the stumps but the bails stayed intact. Probably should just bowl a bit faster.

Aaron (7-0-34-1) was replaced by Matt Stickland.

Tim (6-1-28-2) picked up another wicket bowling their number five and was replaced by Tom Walters. Matt bowled another mixture of interesting deliveries. The best of them had their opener (the one dropped on 0) somehow not really moving bat nor feet and being bowled for 52 to most of our surprise.

His brother came in and hit two big sixes and a four before being caught off a full toss smashed to Aaron on the mid-wicket boundary. Not the best ball of the season, but as with many loose deliveries one that picked up a wicket. Matt was further rewarded with an LBW and finished with figures of 6-1-34-3, on paper the pick of the bowlers, but I?m not quite sure he was!

130 odd for 7 at this point, and sensing some cheap wickets, I replaced Matt and ended up with 2-9 off four overs (both bowled) and Tom 5-1-20-1 bowled their skipper for 17 and they were all out for 154. Not before Tim L had contrived to deny (in successive overs) Tom a wicket with a ball that looped gently to him at cover and me a wicket with a ball hit harder to him at mid-wicket. Not a good look, but not an expensive pair of drops as it turned out. Six bowlers used, all of them taking at least one wicket, a nice way to share the bowling in our last match.

And for the sake of full disclosure, catches dropped by me (Andrew), two for Tom (one off his own bowling), two for Tim as above, and one for Oli at slip and a couple of other edges that were missed by the keeper.

Tea was great ? plenty of supporters to help eat it and plenty of tea to go around.

It was then time to think about chasing the runs, Ali and Ian opened up. Their opener came in off a very long run with six men from gully to the keeper. And he bowled fast. The first ball whistled to the boundary for four byes, Ali, who faced most of his first four overs, then managed to steer, hit, deflect, glance, but definitely not edge, his first 7 scoring strokes to the boundary, the wagon wheel being more of a trivial pursuit piece than a 360 degree circle, but every four was along the ground and the faster the ball the less chance any of the slips or the back-stop or third man had of reaching it. What a lovely way to start the innings.

At the other end there was a slow bowler, accurate and on a good length, the kind of slow bowler that when there?s a speed merchant at the other end can sometimes benefit from the release the batsman feel when facing him. But apart from Ian?s first shot to get off the mark which lobbed gently towards square leg before being dropped, our openers were wise to this and were happy to defend and nudge their way through his overs.

It was something of a surprise when Ian was finally out LBW for 2 in the 9th over with the score on 35. Two may not be many runs in the scheme of things, but openers have different jobs to do and I think Ian can be quietly pleased with getting through the first 8 overs without too much bother.

This brought Oli to the crease, who started slowly, 6 singles before it was time to open his shoulders and up the pace.

In truth Oli and Ali looked very comfortable, Pyestock didn?t really seem to think they could take a wicket, five of them kept wicket, and Oli got to his fifty first and ended up on 75 not out before Ali hit the winning runs with a four through the covers to bring up his own 50. We?d won by nine wickets.

Rupert Smith had looked good in his pads ready to come in at number four, but wasn?t needed.

Fines, as usual, was a personally expensive affair, but actually it?d have been a pretty boring match if I?d caught their opener for 0 and they?d all been out for 70-odd.

AGM on the 19th October in the Pavillion ? look out for the minutes and the agenda.

And see you all next season.