Mortimer West End (A) – 28.4.13

Mortimer 215-3 (40 overs)

Withers 1-25, Zia 1-26

RUASCC 122 all out (30.3 overs)

Carpenter 58, Zia 23

RUASCC lost by 93 runs

The key to a happy life is to look on the bright side.  Yes, bad things will happen; people drop catches or get out to hideous, hideous shots, but if you look closely enough there are always positives to draw from any situation.  Take last Sunday: it was a freezing cold day and we were absolutely hammered by a far better side… BUT we won the toss, didn’t we.

Prime example: in the second over of the match Withers found a leading edge that went several hundred metres into the air.  The bowler called confidently for the catch, got himself in the perfect position and then dropped it very embarrassingly indeed.  So the chance of an early wicket was wasted, but on the bright side we knew that if we kept plugging away more chances would come - and sure enough a few overs later the same batsman presented an almost identical chance to Ken Stewart who, as it happened, failed to even get a hand on it.  Imagine how joyful we all felt when a mere two and a half hours later the same opening batsman completed an entertaining unbeaten hundred.

Greenhalf was getting hit for 14 per over, but on the bright side he got injured before he’d finished his second.  Yes, we only took three wickets in 40 overs, but one of them was a great catch by Eagle.  And yes, it felt like the longest, coldest, most soul-destroying miserable time we’ve ever spent in a field, but afterwards we got a lovely cup of tea.

So, 216 to win, and looking purely at the scorecard you might fall into the trap of thinking that there’s nothing good to say about the batting - but again, you’d be wrong.  Yes, Ward got himself out for a duck playing an awful shot, but at least Eagle can take solace in the fact that, for the first time in three RUASCC matches, he hadn’t run out his opening partner.

Zia entertained with some good clean hitting right up until the moment he caught one on the toe of the bat and lobbed it to backward point.  But the real highlight of the batting was the return of Ian Carpenter who hit a six and nine fours in a powerful 58.  Having failed to post a half-century in the whole of 2012, he achieved it with his first knock of the new season.

In truth after Zia’s dismissal RUASCC rarely looked like threatening the target, but on the plus side everyone got to have a bat and we were all done ten overs before the scheduled finish so we could retreat to the warm bar.

See, there’s always a bright side.

RUASCC Highlight:  Winning the toss.

RUASCC Man of the Match:   Carpenter.

RUASCC Team:  Ward, Eagle (capt), Zia, Carpenter, Dip (wkt), Malde, Greenhalf, Main, Tranter, Stewart, Withers