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There
are several village teams near us who all play in Hampshire Cricket League
Regional Division One. A couple of them we get on well with, and share players
for nets, friendlies, Wednesday night cricket, and indoor winter leagues.
When
the Saturday league fixtures are published in January, it’s these you check
first, warming your feet by the crackling fire in the pub, daydreaming of long
summer days, and even longer winter bragging rights.
Saturday
was Damerham v Godshill. It’s a big one. My good friend and drinking buddy
Clive plays for Godshill. As does his eldest, Ross, while his younger one, Ben,
plays for us. Several other Godzillas have become mates off the field too.
On
the field it’s all so intertwined that there was only one guy in the side we
played against on Saturday that has not been a team mate of mine at some point in
a Wednesday, indoor or friendly game.
Of
course this lends the Saturday league derby a level of expectation that can
only possibly result in disappointment. And this it duly delivered. In spades.
Ben
had a post-A-level blowout with his mates, Joel had a dirty weekend, Al had a
broken thumb, Andy had an anniversary, Pards had to work, Mark’s nipper had a
football tournament. It went on. We did scrape 11 together eventually, Crispin
valiantly hobbling out of retirement, and Gary roping in two fireman colleagues
to rescue us, but it’s fair to say that it wasn’t our strongest side.
Speaking
of strong sides, the other ‘Big Game’ on Saturday was the MCC vs ROW match celebrating
200 years of cricket at Lord’s. Few games this year can have had more hype and
publicity, and the line up of legends was indeed impressive. Though I was at a
loss to understand why it was laced with current internationals. Is there
really a shortage of ex-players? Anyone knock on Sky’s door? Or were they
worried the legends wouldn’t manage 50 overs without assistance?
They
promised very different games, Lord’s and Godshill, but both were pretty much guaranteed
to be a let down, for almost entirely opposite reasons.
The
Lord’s game was needlessly overstaffed, and no one gave a monkey’s who won. The
Godshill game was catastrophically understaffed, and we probably cared a little
bit too much about who won.
The
Lord’s game was ruined by Saeed Ajmal, the best ODI bowler in the world, with
an inconvenient spell of 4-5, and Aaron Finch, one of the international game’s
hottest young batsman, smashing 181*.
Ours
was ruined by a complete and total absence of Saeed Ajmal for us, and imperious
knocks of 159* and 90* from Coops and Chris for Godshill.
But
in our game at least, no one broke anyone’s hand with a beamer, and no one called
a former team mate an effing c-word. That kind of stuff is best left to the
pros.
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