Report by Cam Petrie:
This was one of those frustrating afternoons where we had 22 more or less eager cricketers ready at game time, Andy lost the toss (again), we were asked to bowl (which we would have chosen anyway), and we started "relatively" well before the weather decided to tease us and then ultimately deny us the chance to complete, let alone win, a game of cricket.
The weather report suggested that there would be some rain, but how much and for how long, wasn't clear. Our opening bowlers Adi Vaidyanathan (1/25 off 8 overs) and Stephan van Eeden (2/50 off 8 overs) started well, and Adi took a sharp return catch in his second over, and from there the bowling fairly remained tight. Although the few loose balls were dispatched by the Madingley 2 and 3 (the former being Qaiser Ahmed - familiar to many of us from Remnants CC), we kept Madingley to around 3 runs an over before the gloomy grey clouds opened up - leaving them at 1/43 after 13.2 overs. Frustratingly, we could have been in a substantially better position, as by this point we had already dropped four catches - in order, these were difficult chances at 'keeper (edged ball deflected from waist to shoulder height), slip (ditto), gully/point (sharp edge coming at an awkward solar plexus height), and short cover (hit hard above head height) - two chances for each of the batsmen.
We swapped sitting around watching the rain for a languorous early tea, and after a two-hour delay we restarted at 16:38 - more or less at the time that we would normally have the change of innings. There had been much debate about whether we could shorten the game, but it became clear that once the game had started with an agreed number of overs, it needs to be finished within that remit - no Duckworth-Lewis-Stern modified scores for Junior 3 West.
When we restarted, the Madingley 2 and 3 got the measure of our medium pacers and proceeded to nudge their scoring rate up to 4 an over by the 20th. Andy Owen (0/14 off 4 overs at this stage), Stephan (0/18 off 2 overs) and Romsey debutant Kabir Khwaja (0/29 off 6 overs) all suffered from a lot of nurdling combined with energetic running and occasional boundaries. There was another chance of a catch at mid-off, but this only resulted in a bruised right hand for Tim Cannings, who had returned from the Edinburgh leagues to play for us for one game. The only answer seemed to be to take almost all of the pace off the ball, and Catherine Owen (1/25 off 8 overs) came on and bowled in tandem with Huw Davies (0/19 off 4 overs). While Huw managed a nice line outside off stump and suffered from a surplus of nurdling, Catherine bowled brilliantly and had Qaiser bamboozled for 8 overs, floating the ball onto a perfect length, and drawing three more dropped catches (another at mid-off where an attempted left handed catch due to the aforementioned bruised hand was shelled, and two at mid-on - with one swirling overhead and the other swirling too short), and a missed stumping (where the ball collection trajectory resulting from the ‘keeper staying low meant that his hands caught the ball but missed the bails on the way through?!). Thankfully in her seventh over Catherine drew one more edge that was caught behind, and Cam stumped the batsman just to be sure, and this breeched the dam. Coming on for his third spell, Stephan managed to collect and throw one to Cam on his follow-through to get a run out. Andy then got one through the gate to finish on 1/22 off 6 overs, and in the last over Stephan managed to bowl Qaiser (for an epic 81 off 95 balls spread over 147 minutes of batting time + 128 minutes of rain delay), and then earn us another bowling point via a blinder when a new Madingley bat hit a hard flick toward short mid-wicket only to have it stick in the outstretched hand of Aditya Jain, who had been moved into that position the ball before. Amusingly (for us at least), Adi (no. 2) was playing for us as his team had 12 and asked for a volunteer not to play, and were not best pleased when Adi put his hand up!
Although we ended strongly, we probably should have dismissed Madingley well before the end of the 40th over which was bowled through at 18:22 in the gloomy evening. Nonetheless we trotted into the change rooms and Cam Petrie (8* off 13 balls) and Adi Jain (7* off 4 balls) soon emerged for what turned out to be a very truncated stay in the middle. The Madingley opening bowlers served us up a range of full tosses, wides, no balls and away swingers that were (frustratingly) driven straight to mid-off. We were well and truly going at 0/18 off three completed over before the rain returned. Having been asked not to put the covers on, Cam literally “upped stumps” and helped the captains make the decision to call time on the game at 18:45. Even without the second rain delay, there had been little to no chance of being able to complete our allotted overs before dark, so this was probably the best way of stopping us vainly trying to play until there was no more light.
Using his handy Duckworth-Lewis app, Russ had us comfortably winning after our three overs, but there are no accepted minimum number of overs for 40-over games, and we hadn't even hit the 5 overs required for a 20 over game, let alone the 20 overs required for a 50 over game, so we had to settle for divying up the points and hitting the Red Bull for our now regular drinks and pizzas.
Report by Russell Woolf:
After a quite wonderful week of sunny weather the weekend approaches with dull overcast conditions . . . great if you are a bowler . . . but not so great was the 98% chance of rain at 3pm according to the BBC weather app.
So it was a case of turning up and see how the game progressed or not with the support crew increased by the presence of Remnants president Geoff Hales operating the scoreboard. For the record Madingley won the toss and decided to bat the match started at 13.42 and the Madingley openers were the wonderfully named Owen O'Loan(a1st xi player) and one Quaser Ahmed a known quantity as he has played for Remnants on several occasions this season. With regular opening bowler Daniel Mortlock not playing Romsey turned to Adi Vaidyanathan to start the proceedings which he did successfully with what turned out to be the only maiden of the day and with his next over sent O'Loan(2)back to the pavilion with a ct&bowled effort getting his fingers underneath the ball before it hit the ground. 6-1 and an early breakthrough promised much but this brought another 1st xi player Owen Howell to the crease. Wearing a shirt with ROGER 8 on the back and the Madingley scorer and captain bellowing well batted Roger every time he hit the ball,I was totally confused until it was explained that Roger was his nickname and he didn't like running 3's. (who does) Fair enough but he looked more like a Dave than a Roger to me. Madingley's batsmen batted well but did have luck on their side with both being dropped and any lofted ball falling between fielders. With the score at 44-1 after 13.1 overs and time of 14.30 the promised rain came 30 mins early so the covers were hastily brought on and an early tea taken. With the rain stopping and starting and after a few inspections play restarted at 16.38 a rain delay of 128. Because the match had started the rules prevented a reduced over game. Madingley resumed accumulating runs and Romsey toiled in the field without success. I asked the Madingley skipper if it was within the rules for him to declare setting a target and allowing him a better opportunity timewise to bowl Romsey out and collect a full 20 points for a win. He replied it was possible but he was not prepared to do this because it would give Romsey the full 5 bowling points available. It was only after a 138 run partnership that Catherine Owen achieved the breakthrough in the 34th over with "Roger/Dave" nicking the ball to wicket keeper Cam Petrie for 55 off XX balls score is now 144-2. But Quaser "Q" Ahmed was as the New England Patriot slogan goes "still here". But the good news for Romsey was that the wickets started to fall including Madingley II 3rd 1st teamer Tim White(4).Not for the first time this season(Milton) we had the misfortune of playing a club whose first team didn't have a fixture that day or is it a C.C.A conspiracy against little old Romsey. However "Q" eventually succumbs for 81 runs from XX balls. Going into the final over of the innings Romsey had taken only 4 wickets a wicket with Stephan Van Eeden's first ball and with the final ball the Madingley batsman blasts the ball and all eyes are looking towards the boundary but where's the ball... It's in the hands of Adita Jain our A.P player for the day and another with Remnants connections who has taken a very sharp catch close in. Romsey have succeeded in getting 3 bowling points. Madingley's innings closes on 180-6 and have accumulated 4 batting points.
The rest of the day doesn't last long... Romsey score 18-0 in 3 overs and 10 minutes in reply before the rain brings a halt to the proceedings at 18.45. Romsey Town 8 pts Madingley 9pts.