As Fast reaches Speedy


"This is cricket writing of the future, don't change a thing" (M. Sharland, 2012).


Mystics versus Pencarrow at Pencarrow House, 1st August 2011

As we arrived, the morning conversations on whether we were going to play today had vanished, all the other side were in their kit and Hayder called "I'm opening!" eager to go out to bat with Duncan. Donna sat down to score, bottle in hand and orange neon pen in the other. The beers were open before any of the Mystics got their whites on and then my Dad went out to sell ice-cream ... I mean umpire with his hands in his pockets.

Mystics 1st innings
Fraser shouted to Jim to stop paddling and put some shoes on but the attention turned to the cricket. Dunc hit a shot labelled by my co-scorer Sean as "almost agricultural." Jim, still in bare feet said, "It's a good day for sliding" as a fielder knee-slid a couple of metres to stop the ball. Hayder ran a quick single before he was stumped the next ball, out for four. Sam joined Duncan, starting with a great shot and an easy four. 24 at the end of 6 overs. Play was held up by Annie taking photos. Then an amazing shot by Duncan, the first Mystic six of the tour. Listening to the chatter, Rita said, "Whoever's got Duncan in their team is doing really well!" Immediately Duncan was out for 22. Sam was then caught at deep cover for 16. Tenth over and Chris Ferro went out for his first game of the tour. Before long Chirpy was caught at midwicket for two, and his brother kindly filmed his departure. With daunting clouds overhead, Sean and I moved inside; however it seemed just slightly ironic that we were looking through a palm tree in order to see the game. A few tension-building shots followed, but no real outcome. Last over and Chris F swept for two more runs and we finished on 95 for 5 wickets. We ended on a delightful dot ball with no bat for Graham or Fraser. There was to be no tea until the other team has done twenty. Jim stated that "We are making such a mess of the wicket." All ears to the radio in the break for more cricket!

Pencarrow 1st innings
Mystics fielded, and Graham prepared to bowl after his warm-up involving a few ballet moves. While the first over finished, the talk was of the cricket on the radio rather than the game we could see. Fraser opened the bowling and Jim performed a slide dive but missed the ball. Then off Fraser, Dad got his first catch of the season. There was a body block to stop a four from Sam, before he checked to see if he had any grass marks on his shirt. He failed to notice his grassy back. After almost every ball Jim demonstrated how to dry up when cleaning the ball from grass. Dad came on to bowl and with his second ball grabbed a wicket for Peter to stump. Fraser sped up the action and bowled out another. A Pencarrower said from behind me that number 11 should get padded up soon, but a few more 4s came out of the next batsman. The 11th over started at 48/5. A while later after some standard cricket shots, another one was caught by Hayder. The 9th batsmen stepped in with a blue sky looking promising. Now the score was 73 and the chatty batsmen continued as much as ever. With 4 overs left Jim bowled his second ball ... a wicket. The victim came back raging that "Their tricks will run out." Sam slid to save a four, cleaning his hands on a tree. Dunc bowled and Sean pointed to a round thing in the sky that might just resemble the sun. Soon after, someone hit a six but another batsman was bowled by Duncan.

Pencarrow's 1st innings was over with a score of 105 for 8 wickets.

Mystics 2nd innings
Matt and Sam Cook opened the batting. Sam was out for 3 and replaced by Chris S. The score of 101 was after 2 overs. It would have been impressive if it wasn't the second innings. Matt was caught. Chris F joined Chris S again. To be honest at this point the spectators including myself got bored and nobody shouted "Good shot" for at least another 20 minutes. While munching chocolate raisins, Chris coughs up some uplifting fours more often, despite the never really arrived sun out of sight. Ellie pulled me inside once more because she was cold and tried to block my view out the window. Ellie was not keen to watch the game at all, as is her yearly contribution. She added that my "match report thing can't be useful or interesting." Tenth over up and the score 157 for 2 wickets. Graham replaced Chris Squire with the innings finishing at 15 overs and the Mystics on 185 runs.

Pencarrow 2nd innings
Sam Cook and Fraser bowled. Pencarrow were scoring fast, including a well shot six. The mention of tea lifted a few from their seats and the first wicket was a catch from Chirpy. Soon after Sam and Graham each bowled another out. Before another player comes walking off the pitch. So after a slow start there were four wickets in 10 minutes. Chirpy got a second catch with a run, dive and roll type of technique. As fast reaches speedy another wicket is taken by Jim, boosting us up to 7 wickets. As you can see I am getting whiplash while writing because as soon as I mark one down another player is out, this time stumped by Sean. But a couple more wickets later the game ends. 182 off 14 overs for 9 wickets. Pencarrow won despite great fielding from the Mystics and Uncle Graham taking five wickets.



Chloe Sharland


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