BACKIn the absence of the Devon tour this year because of the tenth anniversary cricket week we embarked on a “mini tour” to Portsmouth. The first fixture was the established match against the United Services in Portsmouth.
The tone for the tour was set early on by standing outside a pub on Sunday morning waiting for it to open and the usual hearty lunch that everyone immediately regrets when they arrive at the ground and are reminded of the size of the outfield; although the boundaries did seem to have been brought in a bit this year.
James won the toss and explicitly elected to chase. So it was the T&T team took to the field and it was Bob and the Colt that opened the bowling. In this fixture last year the batting had been opened for United Services by Charles Coventry, an international player with Zimbabwe, and he had despatched the bowling to all parts. Coventry has now returned to Zimbabwe and the United Services innings therefore got off to a very different start. Dore went early when he edged the Colt in to the gully and there was then a period of patient consolidation by Hurst and Lewis.
In reality this period of consolidation went on for too long and at the half way point of a 40 overs a side game United Services had only made it to 65; this on a pitch where a score of 250 is probably no more than par in forty overs. The dismissal of Lewis brought former US captain Martin Claydon to the crease who sought to increase the run rate and in the last twenty overs 120 were added but in reality this was still not enough.
James and Rog opened up the T&T reply and James in particular was fluent off the back foot early on. Credit must be given to Lewis for bowling an excellent opening spell in which he had no luck; this extended to having Spike umpiring at his end and who was in a Dicko like mood when it came to signalling wides. Needless to say he was fined for this later on.
92 was put on for the first wicket (we think, at one point Rags had the two batsman’s totals exceeding the total on the scoreboard so we can’t be certain) before Rog finally succeeded in giving a catch to short third man. James soon followed and it looked like US might work their way back in to the game. However, Dopey and Sunil were soon in to their stride and it looked like they would carry us to victory. However, Sunil was bowled by the left arm spin of Lewis and it was left to Dopey and Speedo to see us across the winning line with plenty to spare.
We then retired to the bar for the usual tour activities; the heaviest fine for the day being reserved for Rog who had not only stolen his daughter’s suitcase for the trip but had emptied out the clothes she had already put in it for her school trip later in the week. The fine not so much for having done it but telling us he had done it. After a good evening out we returned to the hotel; Bob, Rags and Aygz excelling themselves by managing to get lost during a two mile taxi journey back to the hotel.
The Monday morning was golf morning in Southsea which Rags managed to win by apparently playing pretty well. I would have won but for being distracted by an event on the seventh green, I went to pick up what I thought was a small piece of gravel on the line of my putt only to find out when picking it up it was a small piece of bird pooh. Needless to say I then two putted from close range and got a five on the next hole.
We’d had breakfast immediately prior to the golf which most of us enjoyed and found to be a substantial meal. Meady was the exception and following his vegetarian cooked breakfast had to top up with some sausage rolls he’d got in the car.
It was then off to Romsey for the afternoon game. We arrived in Romsey in plenty of time for lunch prior to the game, or so we thought. It seems that you have to do fifteen laps of Romsey before you are allowed in to park and as it was we only just made it in to the pub in time to see England wrap up the game against the West Indies.
To say we were on one side of the square for the match at Romsey would be an understatement; the boundary to one side was 30-40 yards, the boundary the other way no-one knows as no ball ever went far enough on that side of the ground for anyone to see it.
The Romsey side that was arriving at the ground looked inexperienced to say the least so it was decided we would bat first on what looked an excellent batting surface and mix up the batting order a bit. Spike as skipper showed his inexperience by tossing the coin himself out in the middle, something he paid for later, but made up for this to some extent by inviting me to open the batting and I thought here was a chance to get some time in the middle; alas a third ball duck followed as did most of the rest of the top order. When Rog was fifth out for 46 the score was only at 67 and we were very reliant on James and Speedo to get us up to a decent total.
Fortunately they took the score in to three figures and later the Colt joined Speedo in a unbroken partnership of 83 for the eighth wicket to take the score past 200; towards the end of his innings Speedo was playing as well as he has for most of the season which is saying something considering the form he has been in.
The Romsey reply was one that ebbed and flowed to say the least. If the United Services openers had treated the bowling with too much respect the Romsey openers seemed determined to make up for this and the innings got off to a flying start. However, both Mogg and Flack went with the score on 60 and when Mills and Eley soon followed there was a relaxed air amongst the T&T players. Smith and Wood soon set about changing this as they got stuck in to the bowling of Aygz and Fingers in particular.
The introduction of Crofty in to the attack seemed to bring matters back under control as he took two quick wickets and Dicko and Fingers chipped in with one apiece. Things were sufficiently under control for Spike to give Speedo the nod to bowl the penultimate over. However, when Dicko’s last over, the 38th of the innings, disappeared for plenty Spike must have been having second thoughts but he stuck to his guns; Speedo’s over went for a dozen which left 15 needed off the last over and the short boundary on the leg side looking shorter than ever. It was time to bring Crofty back in to the attack; nine off the first five balls meant a six off the last ball would tie the game but fortunately Crofty held his nerve and bowled Fulford to secure victory.
This turned out to be an excellent game and it would appear that the future for Romsey looks pretty good with the youngsters who played in this game.
After the game we returned to Romsey town centre for a meal and settled on a Chinese restaurant for dinner. After the orders had been placed the waiter was coming round asking people if they wanted a plate or bowl from which to eat. The waiter was somewhat surprised when Rog’s response to the “plate or bowl” question was along the lines of “yes we had played this afternoon, it was quite a close game…”
We then returned to the hotel for a couple of late drinks and as sometimes happens on tour the conversation headed off in a strange direction. We finally ended up trying to think of a second vegetable based cake other than carrot cake. This challenge is now extended to anyone else who wants to take it up assuming they agree with the touring party that James’ suggestion of apple cake didn’t quite meet the criteria.
After a very lazy morning it was off to the very rural location of Farley for the final game. Farley very kindly gave us the opportunity to bat first but there was a mood for getting the fielding out the way so we declined and took to the field. The Colt got the early wicket of Redding but there then followed a fluent and large partnership between Trenell and Colvill. The ball after he had passed fifty Trenell was lbw to Rags and when he went past fifty Colvill also seemed to be determined to get out; it says something about our state in the field that he made it to sixty-nine before he found someone who could catch.
The innings then turned around completely as wickets started to fall regularly and Dicko came on to mop up the tail in no time and finish as the tour leading wicket taker. When a score at one stage of 280 had looked possible 184 all out represented a very good recovery.
When James went off like a train at the start of the reply it looked like we would be in for an early finish. However, when he had reached 37 and the total 46 Ramsey speared a ball down the leg side that ricocheted off the ‘keeper’s pads and back on to the stumps to leave James out stumped for the first time in his career. Wickets started to fall regularly before the score reached 100-4. At this point we showed Farley how a proper collapse should be done as the next five wickets were lost without a single run being scored; it was only a set of five wides that finally got the runs part of the scoreboard moving again. The last wicket soon fell with the score on 111 to give Farley a comfortable victory.
After a drink in the bar and invitation to return next year, notably from Mr Ramsey after his 6-17, it was back to Reading for some much needed sleep.