Mystics versus Erratics at Dunsford, 31st July 2010
It wasn't a strong Mystics team that met at the Royal Oak that lunch time, but it was certainly an authentic one. Late arriving on tour for this game were three of the old guard from before we started 'touring: Adi, Dan and Kev. Three more - me, Duncan and Graham - had been Mystics since the 1980s. We had a cricketing debutant in Olga Sidoryk (the scorebook says Tom Hurles, but that kind of mistake can happen with identical twins); we had youth in Fraser and withered old age (at least it feels like it after a week on tour) in Chirpy, Jimmy Ton and Sean. It was almost the perfect team, with Sid and the Chairman himself probably the only ones missing from the ideal Chairman's Cup eleven. And Duncan really did miss Sid from the moment it dawned on him that he'd have to keep wicket.
Among the opposition there were also some familiar faces, not least three who'd been on tour with us: Sam, Chris and the Erratics captain, my dad. An imaginary coin had been tossed during that morning's drive back from Cornwall, and the Mystics would bat first. It wasn't an easy batting order to assemble. I had to nurture Duncan and Adi, my likely scorers of big runs, and save Jimmy Ton for the pre-tea onslaught. The rest of us were much of a muchness, and so, faute de mieux, me and Graham opened the batting. Graham, out to the 11th ball of the day, didn't make much of a fist of protecting Duncan; and I rather overplayed my hand, making Adi wait until the 24th over for his chance. In just eight minutes, Adi made a belligerent 19 out of a 23-run partnership before getting over-ambitious with a full delivery from Simon Orpen and having his off stump bent gently backwards.
Dan Shepherd's return was brief, and it was 90 for four when Jimmy Ton joined Duncan. They put on 22 before Duncan - on 49 and realising that after a week on tour there was no way he could afford a jug - spooned up a catch to Alan Peacock at deepish mid on. Again Simon Orpen had been the destroyer, and he was to finish with the impressive figures of three for 43 (43% of the wickets taken and 28% of the runs conceded - quite an impact considering that the Erratics used nine bowlers). Olga only lasted three balls, and it was left to Fraser and Jimmy Ton to get us to the sort of score that our bowlers (supported by our battle-weary fielders) might have a chance of defending. The game rested on Fraser's narrow shoulders and Jim's broad belly. As it turned out, it couldn't have found a better place to rest. Fraser looked unperturbed (though it's not always easy to spot perturbation under a batting helmet) as he blocked and nurdled his way to an excellent five, only falling when his dastardly grandfather brought his dastardlier Uncle Chris on to bowl. And even then it needed a good diving catch by Peacock to complete the dismissal. Jim matched resolute defence with well-timed aggression, hitting three fours and two sixes in a superb 44 - he didn't just deserve a fifty for that knock, he deserved a bloody knighthood.
I was happy with 160, especially given the fragile look to the home team's batting order. Guy Clarke (not the Texan country singer) can strike the ball well, and he's made runs against us in the past, but Sean found the edge of his bat and Adi took the slip catch comfortably. By the time that Sean had bowled Penny Price and Graham had dismissed Andrew McRae raucously LBW, the Erratics were wobbling at 28 for three. Jonathan Kirby joined Sam Cook (who'd already hit a couple of fours and was looking ominous), and the two of them proceeded to take the game away from us.
At first Kirby outscored Sam, hitting his first 19 runs off just 13 balls. Kev and then Chirpy came into the attack, and Sam began to move through the batting gears. The last 20 overs started with the Erratics well-placed at 92 for three. But having scored a smooth 61, Sam played around a straight one from Chirpy and Alan Peacock was in, his range of likely strokes limited by a bad shoulder initially caused by his bowling (he got me out) and then exacerbated by his catch to end Fraser's resistance (not much sympathy from this quarter, then).
I told Jimmy Ton that he had to get Kirby out - this was the game in a nutshell, our strike bowler bowling to the last man who, I thought, could win it for them. After four overs of Kirby steering him to third man, I'd had enough and told Jim that he had one more over. The sixth ball of that over sneaked under the Kirby bat and hit enough wood to disturb a bail. At the very end, Jim had done what was needed. Sun Tzu or Machiavelli would probably have realised this would happen and have brought him on for just that one over. Friendly captaincy, it's never easy.
At five down, even though only 20 runs were needed, we were still in with a shout. Chris Squire was the next man in, and he'd struggled for runs on tour (a total of seven in the three innings running up to this game). At the other end, the damaged Peacock was looking anything but fluent, and the batting to come was of exactly the quality that any self-respecting hunter of cheap wickets would relish. I brought myself on. What followed has been replayed in my mind any number of times. I was confident that I had the psychological edge and that Chris's nerves or his duty to the Mystic team and the Thomson family would be his undoing. But he took a calm single off the first ball and then hit Sean for two fours and another single before administering the coup de grace with the winning boundary off the first ball of my second over. Chris had scored 14 off five balls, without a dot or a false shot among them. The three fours were hit along the ground: on the leg side, perhaps, but proper cricket shots nonetheless. Maybe the secret to Chris's future development as a cricketer is always to play against the Mystics.
Anyway, the Erratics had regained the Chairman's Cup, their first win since Simon Orpen's fifty had led the charge to a 47-run victory at Plymtree in 2003. As ever with this fixture, though, cricket was the real winner, cricket and the landlord of whichever pub we find ourselves in after the game. It was a beautiful sunny evening and as well the presentation of the Cup, there were fines to pay and old friendships to renew. If only Sid and Deke had been there, it would have been the perfect post-match.