Week 4

Hemyock – Home

What a week of cricket I have just had, some highs, and some lows and some rain! I must admit the Countryfile forecast was spot on a the previous Sunday, they said the weather will be changeable, and they couldn’t accurately forecast the end of the week, so they left it as changeable – now surely any forecaster can do that, but who am I to criticise Countryfile? 

Right, back to the highs, lows etc….. 

The highs:

• I had cricket nearly every day of the week last week.
• Somerset hammered County Champions Durham in the County Championship, lifting them to second in the Division One, with a game in hand.
• Marcus Trescothick smashed a ton in the second inning to lead the way to victory by seven wickets – despite a first baller in the first inning.

The lows:

• Somerset losing to Kent in the T20, in fact they got smashed. Well I had a few ciders to soften the blow somewhat.
• More corruption in cricket
• England all out for 99 – see above – just saying, did anyone check the colour of the batting handles when England batted? Or is it every time Ravi Bopara plays you know England are going to lose.

The rain:

• Which meant: no play fro the mighty Over Stowey 2^nd XI against Hemyock.
• Which also meant: I didn’t have to do any umpiring for the 2^nd XI again.

So four weeks of the cricket season has now passed, and I have yet to do any Saturday cricket umpiring, two games because of the rain, and the other two games I was away. Anyway, I watched Countryfile again last night, for the forecast of course, nothing to do with Ellie, and by the end of the week it is going to be “scorchio!” So Stoke St Mary, who are the visitors to Over Stowey on Saturday, you will be my first victims of the 2014 campaign.

I have now put all the fixtures in my diary for the rest of Over Stowey’s campaign, and I am gutted. There are three weekends I am unavailable, and out of the three, two games I am absolutely gutted about, Crowcombe away and Fitzhead away. Two nice away trips, two clubs’s who play the game in the right spirit, and two cracking pubs to go back after the game. Oh well, at least I have Brompton Ralph away to look forward too.

Ok, time for a Thatchers or two I think.

Week 3

Kilve – Away

Countryfile on Sunday evening is a must see programme, nothing to do with Helen Skelton, Julia Bradbury or Ellie Harrison (but they do help), it is about the weekly weather forecast at about 45 minutes in to the programme.

Why is this significant, especially in the summer? Well isn’t it obvious, it gives you an early, and accurate, indication of the likely weather for the end of the week and the weekend. In other words will the weather be ok for cricket?

This particular broadcast certainly took my eye, again nothing to do with Helen...etc. but to do with the expected heat wave coming across the country from Thursday onwards, and hopefully staying put for at least the next four months.

So as the week goes on, the forecasters gave a more accurate forecast and it looked good for Saturday, in fact the whole weekend. Good news for Stowey and Somerset.

So then a decision had to be made by myself, whether to do the trip to Kilve with the 2^nd XI, umpire part of the game and then bugger off to watch the FA Cup Final, or forget the final completely as I have a hunch that Arsenal will muck it up again and umpire the whole Kilve v Stowey game or just embrace the whole FA Cup ritual, watch FA Cup Mastermind, It’s a Knockout etc. Decisions, decisions, hmm, what to do?

The only thing nagging me was that we are over half way through May and I haven’t done a bit of umpiring so far this season. I have promised both 2^nd XI Skipper Carl and Under 15’s manager Tina I would be available to help, but so far have done absolutely nothing.

Carl even sent me a text to remind me, but to be fair he did subtly mentioned football in the text. I think I did reply, but I did have my nose stuck in the Umpire’s Bible, my new edition of Tom Smith’s. Need to be reminded in the rules now and again - I think counting to six is the hardest thing!

Cricket began in earnest on Friday, Somerset played Gloucestershire away at Bristol in their first T20 game and won. Stowey Under 11’s played North Curry away. Both of which I was unable to attend, as I went to a party on Friday somewhere in South Gloucestershire. Stowey 1^st XI were at home against Bagborough, and the 2^nd XI played Kilve away on the Saturday. And on Sunday the under 15’s were at home as well as Somerset where Surrey (Batty, Smith etc) were the visitors.

Ok, mind made up, FA Cup final on Saturday (might watch the 1^st XI for a bit), umpire the Under 15’s on Sunday and then a trip to Taunton for T20 cricket. Oh how I love the sunshine, cider and cricket. I did contemplate going to Kilve, hoping that Stowey would be batting first and thus the game could be over by kick-off. So I could still do a bit of umpiring, watch the FA Cup Final and have all day Sunday to do umpiring and watch Somerset. In other words I still hadn’t made up my mind.

So what happened was.....

Saturday:

·         Went to watch FA Cup Final Question of Sport – wasn’t on, and nor was the overhead helicopter which would normally film the teams leaving their hotel going to Wembley via the team coach .

·         Went to Stogursey May Fair – not much there.

·         Went to watch the 1^st XI for a while– not much going on there either.

·         Watched the FA Cup Final – I wished I was at Kilve, especially after the first 10 minutes.

·         Drank cider before, during and after the cup final. 

Sunday:

·         As this is about the 2^nd XI Grand Tour of the West Somerset Cricket League I was trying to find out what happened, well as Carl summed it up as an ‘unmitigated disaster’ and was somewhat reluctant to talk about it.

·         Umpired the Under 15’s – well some of it anyway

·         Went to watch Somerset – Jade Denbach is a bigger idiot than last time I wrote about him. One thing for sure he is just a bog standard County bowler and will never make the grade at International level. 

Eventually I found out what happened to the super two’s, they got hammered, Kilve batted first and hit 212-7, Stowey replied with 73 all out. Carl said that he had planned to bat first if he won the toss, and what happened, he won the toss and put Kilve in to bat. Last time he is going to do that.

However he did go on to say that the youngsters done well, Stephen Miller and Lee Rich taking five wickets between them. Apparently Stephen is a bit worried that when he bats he is turning in to a Mark Sortwell; can you bat like a snail instead, that is much faster.

Something really annoying also happened over the week; I missed an Over Stowey friendly against a Les Biffen XI on the Wednesday evening. A clue was ll the cars in the ground as I drove passed that evening, me think it was the youth playing a cup game.

So when I consulted the fixture card, which I designed and should of know there was a friendly going on, I found to my annoyance that it was the Les Biffen match, a match which usually involves cider before, during and after the game... drat and double drat!

Anyway, as a footnote, while watching Somerset in a recent home game against Nottinghamshire, I was sat with Simon Pickard and Mark Sortwell. We were talking all things cricket and we started to compare the Somerset skipper, Marcus Trescothick, with Stowey’s influential batsman, Phil Rich. We came to this conclusion:

·         They both deal only in boundaries

·         They both are reluctant to run a second

·         They are both not the fastest between the wickets

·         They both field in the slips or close in on the square

·         They are both very knowledgeable about the game

·         And they both like sausages

Oh, by the way, I missed Countryfile on Sunday, sorry Helen, Julia and Ellie, something to do with sun, cider and cricket!

Week 2

Milverton – Home

My first game of the season as umpire, how excited was I, having missed the previous week due to duck race commitments. And with great disappointment the game was called off at about 11am, after a horrendous down poor making the ground completely unplayable.

 

The text message from Carl meant I had to find something do Saturday afternoon, and by looking at social media a lot of games succumbed to the weather, so I couldn’t even find a game to watch or even help officiate. And to make things worse there isn’t any kid’s cricket on Sunday to officiate.

I suppose cancelling the game was no great surprise, but it gave me chance to reflect on some infamous cancellations Over Stowey have been involved in. A couple of games (or non games) spring to mind quite easily.

The penultimate match of the summer in 1998, and the 2^nd XI, under the captaincy of Mike Fowler, had a chance in winning Division Four of the West Somerset League. A win in this match, away to Corfe, would set thing up nicely for the final game of the season.

Corfe played their home games at Blackbrook in Taunton, and with the football season already in full swing the playing area had been transformed into football pitches and the cricket square had been completely immersed in the penalty area of one of the football pitches.

So the pitch was completely unplayable, with the council taking full blame from both sides, secretly Stowey were onto a winner as maximum points would be awarded to Stowey as Corfe couldn’t fulfil this fixture. The game was thus called off at about 3pm, so what to do for the afternoon, shopping in Taunton perhaps? Not on your nelly, straight down to nearest pub for a pint, perhaps two and then go back to Stowey.

Well two lead to another, then on to a different pub, then a couple more would be consumed, and before you knew it, it was about 5pm. Time to get back to Stowey, the only sensible people were the drivers, and arriving back the ground the 1^st XI game was still on, in which some barracking from us 2^nd XI players ensued. This did not go down to well, especially with the opposition, as Stowey ran out winners.

Back up the Social Club after more ale was consumed, and some players left early, couldn’t understand why, but they did.

Later that week, I found out that at least one player, who shall remain nameless, told his wife that they had played and won, in which she enquired in why his kit was still folded up neatly the way she packed it - now that is a bit embarrassing.

Another occasion was a 1^st XI match away at Stoodleigh. Now for those who do not know where Stoodleigh is, well it is near Tiverton, meaning a 60 minute drive to their ground. When we left Stowey it was sunny, by the time we arrived at Stoodleigh it was throwing it down, and the game was off. At least we didn’t have to put up with low-flying bi-planes that afternoon.

This was the era before mobile phones, so they couldn’t get hold of us to say don’t bother travelling as we had already left. How many pubs between Stoodleigh and Stowey if you go via Raleigh’s Cross,? Well quite a few and I think we tried nearly all of them out, even stopping at Stogumber CC and having a pint in their bar, which went down quite well. I believe we stayed in Carew Arms at Crowcombe for quite a period, even having a skittle, which was quite amusing to say the least.

 

So looks as if I have to wait until week three for my first umpiring duties of the season, and it is FA Cup Final day, I wonder if George Pike will be playing next Saturday?

Time for some Thatchers me thinks.....!

Week 1

Buckland St Mary – Away 

 

Traditionally this game is called off due to a water logged outfield, so it was to skipper Carl Woodley’s surprise the game was on, no questions asked.

Now according to some sources I have in the 2^nd XI the outfield still had puddles, the grass was long and the wicket was under prepared, but the game still went ahead. 

Over Stowey batted first, with Dan Butson promoted to open the innings. Now looking back at last season, yes he has improved on the previous season, so promotion was well in order. I am led to believe Rhys Satchell would off opened, but he was nursing a quite severe hang over from Bridgwater and Albion Rugby Club’s end of season presentation evening and didn’t quite make the game, so Dan opened with Tom Davison instead. I am also led to believe Rhys is sporting a beard, in the style of WG Grace perhaps? Well we will soon find out. 

 

The batting went well for a while, to about 2.35 (start time 2.30), the wicket started to tumble. The skipper had the honour of hitting the first six of the Stowey summer. Unfortunately this was not enough, as the 2^nd XI succumbed to 70 all out.

Carl took some positives from the batting performance, saying that they are on the board, with one point for the season. With the home side chasing 70, I think Carl was being realistic and one point was all they were going to achieve on the opening day of the 2014 season.

The home side took no time in knocking off the runs required, with Lee Rich claiming the only wicket to fall. Thus only one point achieved.

With the game over quicker than usual the 2^nd XI travelled back to headquarters to watch the end of the 1^st XI game to see what they can learn from them. But instead the 1^st XI suffered also suffered defeat, but in different circumstances, losing by 19 runs. But they did drop 13 catches!

So it seems that practice this week will be all about the three fundamental things about cricket, batting, bowling and fielding. 

Speaking to Carl at the Social Club after, he did say that they had one more point then this time last season, and he hopes to have more players available for next weeks’ game against Milverton. Me included? I don’t think so; I will just concentrate on my umpiring, scoring and cider – my three fundamental things.

 

Here's to next week then, cheers!