Fulmer (A) – 18.8.12

Fulmer 206-4 dec
Stewart 2-32, Zia 1-40

RUASCC 110 all out
Zia 82, Dip 11

RUASCC lost by 96 runs

On this baking hot Saturday afternoon in mid-August RUASCC were given a cricketing lesson for the second year in a row by Fulmer CC, just north of Slough. With only ten fielders we put in a decent shift but still got carted for over 200 in 41 overs, but with the bat everyone with the exception of Zia had their arses well and truly handed to them. It is fair to say that we missed the steadying influence of Ian Carpenter who didn’t quite manage to turn up on the right day.

Last season Fulmer scored 244-3 thanks largely to an unbeaten century by Field; this year Field opened again and scored another unbeaten century. I’m wondering if he shouldn’t perhaps change his name to “Bat”.

After Withers and Zia each opened with a maiden the runs started to flow and the score had reached 37 when Withers trapped Kuman LBW with a slower ball that may or may not have been hitting the stumps. This proved to be a mistake as it brought Ali to the wicket and he hit three of the remaining balls of Withers’ over to the boundary. Ali continued to thrash it around before he was eventually caught by Jagesh off Zia for 49.

The pace slowed somewhat after that as the two batsmen nudged the ball around taking long, slow singles in the energy-sapping heat. Jagesh and Ashman each had a spell without reward so Eagle turned to his breakthrough bowler Pensioner Ken Stewart. This worked almost straight away – Jagesh accepted another catch to finally end the 87-run partnership and King was bowled for 0 in the same over.

Fulmer carried on just long enough for Field to reach three figures then declared moments before Withers would have returned to clean up the tail.

The feeling in the RUASCC dressing room was that if we were to win the game then Zia would have to score a century. So Zia went out to open the batting with Eagle and before long we realised that if we were to win the game Zia would probably have to score a double-century.

While Zia took the bowling apart with some blistering strokes the rest of the batting line-up simply crumpled. The statistics are staggering: Dip and Extras were joint second top scorers on 11, then Eagle third with 5. The other seven batsmen contributed just ONE run between them. Six ducks, all clean bowled. And what makes it even worse – that one run was scored by Ken Stewart who remained not out.

Zia had already hit three fours and a six by the time Eagle was caught behind for the first wicket, then both Dersh and Rahul were bowled for 0 to leave us 28-3. Dip provided valuable support as the onslaught continued: Zia brought up his fifty with his tenth four then hit three more fours and a six to move to 70 - he was prepared to win the thing on his own until a leg injury severely hampered his running.

Sure enough the partnership was soon ended by a run out – but in fact it was Dip who failed to make his ground, beaten by a direct hit from the impressive Ali to end a partnership of 78. With Zia at the crease we still had hope, but the strength had deserted him and he offered two catching chances in successive balls, the second one taken at gully to end a quite brilliant innings of 82.

There was nothing left for RUASCC – when we lost Zia we lost the game. In just half an hour 106-3 became 110 all out as Fulmer finished the job with 16 overs to spare.

RUASCC Highlight: It was quite funny when Dip took a Zia drive directly in the chest at the non-striker’s end. Although possibly not for Dip.

RUASCC Man of the Match: Oh I don’t know really.

RUASCC Team: Zia, Eagle (capt), Dersh, Rahul, Dip (wkt), Scarr, Jagesh, Stewart, Withers, Ashman

RUASCC Apologies: Carpenter

Wargrave (H) – 5.8.12

Wargrave 174-6 dec
Stewart 3-46, Withers 1-9

RUASCC 94-9
Carpenter 23, Weeks 13

Match drawn

I don’t feel like wasting too many words on this one as it follows a very similar pattern to the Braywood game the week before: RUASCC bowl first and do a reasonably OK job, drop a few catches, then have a bat and fall a long way short of the mark but cling on for a draw. The game was at least notable for being our first this season at our “home” ground at Reading University.

Withers opened with a wicket maiden, bowling the left-handed Drew through the gate, and followed up with three more consecutive maidens from the tennis court end. Meanwhile the batsmen were taking six an over from Jagesh at the other end so Carpenter was brought on to calm things down a bit. Withers completed a ten-over spell conceding just nine runs but despite this the second-wicket partnership added 92 before they were eventually separated by that man Ken Stewart again – Eagle taking the catch.

Poor old Ken should have had six wickets in this match but he didn’t have much luck: Jagesh spilled two straightforward chances at mid-on and Wardy failed to hold on when diving to his left at square leg – all off the same batsman! Fittingly the two chastened fielders later combined to run the man out but by then he’d scored 72.

Stewart did earn an LBW to remove Davies for 20 before French was run out for 4 as RUASCC rallied. Then Chan’s superb fielding directly led to another wicket: angry at picking out Chan at short mid-off the ball before, Clark Junior came dancing down the wicket to Ken and was stumped by a couple of yards. The final wicket to fall came from an unlikely source as Mike Ward’s occasional slow ones gave another catch to Captain Eagle at mid-off, and it’s fair to say that Wardy would have had a second wicket but for Dip’s grotesque manhandling of another stumping chance.

RUASCC would usually feel confident of topping 174 on the university wicket and the opening batsmen survived the first ten overs before Eagle was caught behind for nine and Ward gave catching practice to slip for just six. Carpenter set off confidently and got the scoreboard going while Gehlot (3) was run out and we reached drinks needing 117 from the final 20 overs with seven wickets in hand.

Our hopes largely depended on Carpenter but he scooped the first ball after the break straight to point and a promising innings was ended on 23. Dip (3) was dismissed in the next over, closely followed by Chan (0) and Stewart (1). We do love a good collapse and from 58-3 we were suddenly 66-7 with 15 overs remaining.

Having already dropped two catches Jagesh was having a bit of a special day and it didn’t get a whole lot better when he was given run out for five when he looked suspiciously safe. Poor old Jagesh made his way back to the pavilion where he crossed a black cat, walked into a door and stumbled backwards onto a rake which sprung up and hit him in the back of the head, pushing him face first into a wheelbarrow full of manure in the style of Biff Tannen from Back to the Future.

Tom Weeks became only the second RUASCC batsman to reach double figures before he was bowled for 13 and his departure meant Withers and Ashman had to see out eight more overs to earn a draw. Facing increasing tetchiness from the growing ring of close fielders the two ever-reliable blockers put together a painfully slow partnership against innocuous slow bowling – both men quietly wondering why Wargrave didn’t bring the quicks back on to finish the job.

Withers saw off the final over without difficulty and we finished the match just 80 runs behind.

RUASCC Highlight: Chan’s diving stops at short mid-off.

RUASCC Man of the Match: Jagesh.

RUASCC Team: Ward, Eagle (capt), Gehlot, Carpenter, Dip (wkt), Malde, Weeks, Stewart, Jagesh, Withers, Ashman

Braywood (A) – 29.7.12

Braywood 151-8 dec
Zia 4-19, Withers 3-43

RUASCC 92-6
Eagle 17 not out, Ward 16, Zia 16

Match drawn

Match drawn! Are there any two words more warming to the RUASCC soul? Seven hours in a wet field, two rain delays, a very decent tea and that glorious result: “match drawn”. We couldn’t quite reach 100 runs but it hardly matters - after two consecutive defeats we were back to drawing ways.

The pitch, we were told, had been under water the week before and with rain falling all morning it was a miracle the game got underway at all. Braywood won the toss and opted to bat with dark thunderclouds looming on three sides of the ground and we’d only managed three overs before we were forced off by a heavy shower. At the resumption Withers, who was having no luck bowling straight, was forced to rely on two half volleys way outside leg stump for his first two wickets – leading edges caught by Zia at mid-on and Jagesh at short fine-leg.

In fact, this was generally an encouraging bowling and fielding performance from RUASCC: Andy Ashman bowled his longest spell for a while (nine overs) and took one wicket thanks to a sharp catch at the wicket by Tom Weeks, while Pensioner Ken Stewart bowled eight overs for just 20 runs and took a good catch in the covers to give Withers his third wicket.

Braywood reached 118-4 and the course of the innings remained very much in the balance when Zia was introduced to bowl the 32nd over. Ten overs later the home side had added 31 runs for the loss of four wickets – all to Zia – thanks partly to catches from Ward and Withers on the leg-side boundary. At 5.15pm, with the fall of the eighth wicket, the declaration came.

Ward and Carpenter opened the innings, allowing Dr Eagle to drop down the order, and the two batsmen began cautiously on the wet pitch against slow, accurate bowling. Carpenter was bowled for nine to bring Zia in, but despite getting off the mark with a boundary the new batsman had every bit as much difficulty getting the ball away and the score ticked along at a little under three per over. Ward was next to go, then Zia was stumped dancing down the wicket before Malde followed almost immediately, caught at short leg. 44-1 had turned into 49-4 and RUASCC needed 103 to win in 20 overs with six wickets in hand, although a quick glance at the long tail suggested victory was unlikely.

Weeks hit seven before offering a simple return catch to the bowler and his dismissal brought Tranter to the crease to join Dr Eagle. These two men, the backbone of RUASCC in the 21st century, soon put an end to any thoughts we may have had about victory or, to be fair, defeat. Over the course of the next twelve overs the pair added 27 runs, six of them from one ball that Eagle long-armed over deep square leg, while those who were left in the pavilion relaxed, safe in the knowledge that we weren’t going to lose. However mind-numbingly tedious it may have seemed at the time.

But then, perhaps just to give the spectators something to cheer about, Tranter set off for a second run that Eagle didn’t want and was out by the length of the pitch. We couldn’t quite make out what was said between the two as Tranter left the field but someone thought they heard the word “cretin” hover in the air. Anyway, not to worry: Jagesh helped Eagle see out the last few overs and RUASCC finished nowhere near the target, but also nowhere near being bowled out. 92 runs in 41 overs – match drawn!

RUASCC Highlight: No, not really.

RUASCC Man of the Match: Zia

RUASCC Team: Ward, Carpenter, Zia, Eagle (capt), Malde, Weeks (wkt), Tranter, Jagesh, Stewart, Withers, Ashman

Peppard (A) – 15.7.12

RUASCC 127-9 dec
Ward 29, Dip 18

Peppard 128-5
Withers 3-51, Jagesh 1-16

RUASCC lost by 5 wickets

As everyone is well aware it had been raining constantly for six weeks leading up to this match and it certainly had an effect on the Peppard wicket which Dr Eagle referred to as being “worse than Highmoor” and “like a chocolate torte”. So you can imagine our delight when the skipper lost the toss and we were told to bat on it.

Openers Ward and Eagle were quick to notice that the ball wasn’t travelling well over the outfield, on the rare occasions that they got the damn thing off the square, so even when Wardy middled a couple of straight drives they still had to run threes. Dr Eagle refused to work in these conditions and got himself out, as did several more RUSACC batsmen - including Zia who was half-way through walking what should have been an easy leg bye when a fielder’s throw flew back over his head and hit the stumps at the non-striker’s end.

Ward showed impressive levels of concentration to reach 29 in 29 overs but following a change of bowling his eyes lit up and he chipped a dreadful long hop to square leg. Debutant Dale Partridge showed plenty of enthusiasm and a good eye as he made 10 but once he was dismissed RUASCC were eight wickets down with barely a hundred on the board. Jagesh gave it some welly in the last few overs, supported by the ever-watchful Withers, but when Tim Vines brought himself back on to give us some easy runs (deliberately, I mean) Jagesh slapped his first ball straight to mid-on and it was time for tea.

In the same fixture last year Peppard chased down a similar total for the loss of just two wickets with an imperious unbeaten half-century from opener Legg. Well, they dropped Legg for this match to give one of the youngsters a chance and as it turned out they almost gave RUASCC a chance too.

New boy Partridge was given the gloves and he got to use them straight away – Withers finding the edge with the fourth ball of the first over. Soon afterwards Jagesh somehow got one to spin through the gate for the second wicket before Withers followed that with a double wicket maiden, removing Vines for a duck three balls after Carpenter took a neat low catch at slip. Peppard were 16-4, Withers had 3-6 and suddenly we had a game on our hands.

Unfortunately RUASCC couldn’t turn that early dominance into more wickets. The two new batsmen stuck around, the sun shone, the ground dried out and conditions became easier for playing shots. Withers bowled another 11 overs without success and it was only when Zia reacted quickly to run out Chard Junior that we managed to break through.

As usual a couple of catching chances went down and Eagle told a few people to go and field at “sort of um… there-ish” but ultimately, mostly due to the squelchy conditions early on, we didn’t have enough runs to protect and Peppard reached the total with time to spare. Good tea though.

RUASCC Highlight: The opening burst from Withers (3-6 from 4 overs) that left Peppard struggling on 16-4.

RUASCC Man of the Match: In conditions that were decidedly anti-batsmen Mike Ward played a welcome and unusually patient innings.

RUASCC Team: Ward, Eagle (capt), Carpenter, Dip, Zia, Stewart, Tranter, Partridge (wkt), Withers, Jagesh, Ashman