Saturday started with the now oft exploited and written about trip to West London to oggle at SJM and participate in Cricket AM. I thoroughly enjoyed it , particularly meeting Dirty Dirk Nannes. What a cracking guy, I imagine he would be highly entertaining on an all day session, preferably in his native Amsterdam.
So, what of Shipton? Are they better than us? Can we beat confident, capable, experienced sides?
We didn't make them work hard enough, that is for sure. I believe that Didcot on top form are a better side, and certainly well capable of beating teams like Shipton; full of experience and talent and most importantly confidence.
The weather was like Chester le Street on Saturday, the pitch straight outta Chennai. What has happened to the bouncy, pacey square of a few years ago? The only danger was playing shots too early in an innings, once you get the measure of the pace you could bat for a week and not see a ball spin or seam. The new league balls lose any hardness after about 7 overs and cannot be shined for love nor money. Who'd be a bowler?
Shipton racked up 257 for 5, pacing their innings beautifully, had we not dropped their skipper on 13 (twice) we may have restricted them to 30 less or so. He went on to make 98 not out, batting nearly 50 overs. We toiled, heavy with fatigue and post stardom blues. I think we actually did reasonably well all things considered.
Our run chase never quite gained the momentum we needed to seriously threaten Shipton. Skipper Gates was torn between playing safe and not letting Shipton open up a points gap by beating us. With hindsight perhaps we should have played more aggressively. Last weeks capitulation to Banbury was still playing on my mind and I didn't want us to lose two on the Jonathan.
The real positive was Crab Hands return to form. The best he has looked for a couple of years, welcome back Matt, let's hope the form continues. The big stride and effortless push through extra cover was back, as was the on drive and whip to midwicket. Brockett batted beautifully also, never looking in trouble once he got his feet moving and ended with a tidy 42 not out.
So, what did we learn?
Enough sleep and lack of distractions before the start are important. That three an over for the first 30 overs is fine, so long as you have wickets in hand. Catches win matches (again). Don't hit the ball to the one fielder in the deep when you have an ocean of space around him.
A big game next week at table topping Tew awaits us. I will be getting an early night on Friday, getting up focused and arriving at Tew in plenty of time for a decent warm up.
What about you?
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