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

Highmoor (A) – 24.6.12

RUASCC 74-9 declared
Baker 16, Law 14 not out

Highmoor 75-5
Waqar 3-38, Law 2-22

RUASCC lost by 5 wickets

Before we begin I should probably point out that I didn’t play in this game; in fact I wasn’t even there. I don’t say that to absolve myself of any of the blame for the hugely embarrassing and demoralising defeat (although it certainly helps) but rather to explain any factual inaccuracies that may potentially sneak into the report.

I arrived home on Sunday evening after a lovely weekend in Dorset and immediately asked Dr Eagle how the match had gone. He said it had gone badly. He said we lost the toss and we were bowled out for 74 on a wet, slow, sticky pitch with a puddle outside off stump. I was forced to agree that yes, it did indeed sound like it gone badly.

But it’s really only now, with the benefit of seeing the scorebook, that I can begin to understand the full crippling extent of the badness to which Dr Eagle was alluding. It looks, I have to say, very bad indeed. But then I suppose any team, even one with the strength in depth that RUASCC possesses, would struggle without the trio of Zia, Ward and Withers – you simply can’t replace sportsmen of that calibre.

That’s not to say there aren’t positives to be taken from the batting performance, and some of these statistics do give reason for optimism:

• Yes, we only scored 74 – but we managed it in just 48 overs! That’s an impressive run rate of more than 1.5 per over. 
• Not just one, not just two, but an incredible THREE partnerships got into double figures!
• We weren’t bowled out! Law and Ashman put together a beautifully crafted unbroken stand of nine before the rather sporting declaration.
• None of the opposition bowlers got a five-for. Yes, Guyan took 4-15 from 13 overs but that doesn’t get you on the honours board, does it.

There’s not much more to say about the scorecard except that with scores of 0, 1, 3, 16, 1, 14, 2, 7 and 2 RUASCC’s batsmen curiously managed to spell out the phone number of a car rental station in Kirkcaldy where Ken Stewart used to work as a toilet brush.

The home side certainly didn’t have it all their own way in the run chase as five batsmen fell to the opening pair of Waqar and Dave Law for a total of just nine runs. Waqar’s line and length bowling evidently proved difficult to get away while Law, playing in his first RUASCC game of the season, frequently touched 90mph in an 11-over spell of raw hostility. Which oddly included a stumping. But anyway, in the end RUASCC’s 74-9 proved to be not quite competitive enough, possibly 10-20 runs short of a decent total, and Highmoor sealed the victory in the 24th over.

RUASCC Highlight: Feeding the ducks in the pond outside off stump.

RUASCC Man of the Match: Might be going out on a limb here but I would suggest it was one of the bowlers.

RUASCC Team: Eagle (capt), Dersh, Carpenter, Baker, Dip (wkt), Chan, Law, Waqar, Tranter, Jagesh, Ashman

Farley Hill (A) – 17.6.12

Farley Hill 118 all out
Withers 3-14, Carpenter 2-8

RUASCC 119-6
Zia 33 not out, Dersh 18

RUASCC won by 4 wickets

Allow me to begin by apologising for the unacceptable delay in posting this match report. In my defence it’s taken me six weeks to get over the shock of RUASCC winning a cricket match.

Eagle made three good calls early on: he won the toss, he put the home side into bat and he gave the new ball to brothers Zia and Waqar who repaid his faith by conceding 46 runs in ten overs before Zia eventually stopped bowling his slower balls and removed Jalil for 17. Waqar removed the other opener in the very next over at which point Eagle took pity on the batting team and threw the ball to Withers.

But Withers, possibly affronted by being relegated to first change, unleashed the beast within and took a wicket in each of his first two overs (one bowled, one LBW). From 46-0 Farley Hill were now 58-4 and Withers, unplayable in this sort of form had 2-2.

Jagesh came on to replace Waqar and he too picked up a wicket, then Carpenter got in on the act, starting with two maidens before finding an edge to Dip and an LBW to leave Farley Hill 91-7. Jagesh grabbed his second of the day (another clean bowled) to finish with 2-22 before making way for Tranter who quickly settled into his line and length peppering the square leg umpire and any low-flying pigeons. But, as Eagle correctly predicted, the third legitimate ball of the over rapped the pads in front of middle stump and the ninth wicket went down.

A snarling Withers was brought back on to finish the job and he only needed two balls before Harvey slashed at a wide one and was brilliantly caught by Jagesh diving to his right at fly slip. 118 all out, and it was a decent performance from the well-honed, disciplined, athletic fielding unit.

The RUASCC response lacked fluency, and although the required run rate never became an issue the regular clatter of wickets was a worrying sight at times. Ward was first to go, mis-timing a drive to mid-on for 9, before Eagle was bowled for 15. Dersh and Carpenter added 29 but were both dismissed by Harvey to leave RUASCC 80-4 with sixteen overs remaining.

Zia and Dip put together the most important partnership, although a brutal drive from Zia nearly put an end to Umpire Sewell as the ball ricocheted off the stumps at the non-strikers end and hit the startled Professor squarely in the shoulder. Sewell was escorted from the pitch and encouraged to rest while Eagle went inside to fetch a cup of tea but, unable to find a teabag, Eagle instead returned with a Twix. At first Sewell was visibly unsettled by the shiny wrapper but, once inside, he was pleased with the parallel nature of the high-energy snack bars and wolfed them down, making a mental note to add them to his next Ocado shopping order.

Meanwhile on the pitch RUASCC passed 100 and so needed only 19 to win with ten overs remaining. Easy, you might think, but Dip was too eager to get the job done and got himself out with the score on 116. He was followed first ball by Turley but just when we were starting to wonder if we could pull off a most inexplicable collapse the winning run was given to us with a no ball.

Zia finished unbeaten on 33; Sewell finished slightly beaten but soon regained use of his legs.

RUASCC Highlight: Jagesh’s flying catch at fly slip.

RUASCC Man of the Match: Prof Sewell

RUASCC Team: Ward, Eagle (capt), Dersh, Carpenter, Zia, Dip (wkt), Turley, Waqar, Tranter, Jagesh, Withers

Wargrave (A) – 10.6.12

RUASCC 167 all out
Carpenter 47, Ward 20

Wargrave 168-5
Waqar 2-38, Jagesh 1-27

RUASCC lost by 5 wickets

We were promised rain, lots of rain – indeed we were led to believe that there was supposed to be some kind of monsoon on Sunday afternoon. Once we arrived in cool, grey, breezy Wargrave at 1.30pm we were expecting to either bat or bowl for a couple of hours and then call the whole thing off. But no, the rain didn’t come. And then we lost. I’ll never trust the BBC Weather website again.

Suspecting rain, the captains agreed a 35-over match and Eagle opted to bat first almost certainly hoping to reach 20 not out and boost the old average. A big swish across the line in the sixth over put an end to that as the skipper was bowled for 10. Carpenter got off the mark with a boundary and with opener Ward added 35 in six overs before the left-hander fell LBW to Moss in the youngster’s first over. When Chan was bowled second ball by Owen RUASCC were 59-3 but with Zia joining Carpenter at the crease there was still reason to be optimistic.

Zia creamed a straight four off Moss while Carpenter took a few more from the other end but with the partnership building nicely Zia (12) mistimed one straight to mid-on. Then Waqar (4) attempted an unlikely second run and was found wanting before the fall of the big wicket, Carpenter caught and bowled for 47. With 12 overs still to bat RUASCC were 105-6.

Waseem and Obaid added a useful 28, including the only six of the RUASCC innings, but both batsmen were dismissed in their attempts to force the pace against the slower bowlers. Jagesh and Withers were given the task of trying to push the score past 150 and they managed to achieve it in their own leisurely fashion before Jagesh skied a full toss to the wicketkeeper with four balls of the innings remaining. Dr Ashman contributed three runs from the first two deliveries before Withers finished things off nicely by first hitting a boundary and then by running out Dr Ashman.

With the rain still holding off the teams grabbed a quick tea and RUASCC were suddenly faced with the very real possibility of having to actually defend 167, a total that didn’t feel quite enough – slightly disappointing that of the five partnerships that reached 23 none got any higher than 35.

Withers sprayed it all over the place against the left-handed Drew and was despatched for 14 in one over – entirely the fault of the rain that didn’t arrive when it was supposed to – and was hauled off very quickly to be replaced by the dependable Waqar. The switch worked immediately as Drew was trapped LBW for 39 (from the opening stand of 48).

Zia struck soon after, then Waqar induced a false stroke from Davies but Withers dropped a fairly simple chance at long-on, something which wouldn’t have happened had we been forced back into the pavilion because of the rain that didn’t exist. A Malde stumping gave Waqar his second wicket and another inspired bowling change brought success in Jagesh’s first over: 74-4 in the 16th and the match was still in the balance.

Not for long though. 30 runs were added in the next five overs by Moss (a grown-up) and Woods (a small boy); 40 runs were added in the five overs after that. The batsmen were seeing it like a football, hugely aided by the excellent visibility provided by the lack of rain, and looked to be cruising to the victory total when a calling mix-up and quick work by Zia led to the senior partner being run out on 49. It proved only a temporary setback as Woods hit the winning boundary in the very next over. AND STILL THERE WAS NO RAIN!

So a second consecutive defeat and back home to the regular Sunday night job of putting the bins out. Took one step outside my front door and suddenly it’s pissing it down.

RUASCC Highlight: The lovely weather.

RUASCC Man of the Match: Carpo.

RUASCC Team: Ward, Eagle (capt), Carpenter, Malde (wkt), Zia, Waqar, Abbas, Obaid, Jagesh, Withers, Ashman

Tilehurst & Theale (A) – 27.5.12

Tilehurst & Theale 216-6
Zia 2-35, Waqar 2-43

RUASCC 211 all out
Dip 58, Eagle 32

RUASCC lost by 5 runs

Click here for the wonderful Tilehurst & Theale match report.  It’s The Boss.

After last year’s award winning* (*not really award winning) musical-based match reports it seems a new tradition has begun: any sports journalist wishing to describe the action in a RUASCC v Tilehurst & Theale match must be hamstrung by trying to shoehorn song titles into the write-up. This inevitably leads to tortured prose, exaggeration, outright lies and dreadful puns, but fortunately for the Keiwit Blog no one has yet been able to notice the difference. Anyway, to celebrate the return of the nerdy-piano-rock combo to the UK later this year, I have included in this report all 17 songs from the album Ben Folds Live. If you haven’t, you really should.

Part 1

On another very warm afternoon Eagle won the toss, took a long look at his batting line-up and decided to field first; Withers opened with a maiden and the home side were one down in the sixth over when Zia bowled White for 5. In the face of this formidable* (*not really formidable) bowling attack left-hander Cooke was struggling to get the drive working with the result that all his scoring shots were flying over the army of slip fielders. When a man was placed in a catching position at short third man Cooke tried to play a shot to the leg side instead, but the strain of doing so appeared to dislocate the young man’s shoulder and he was forced to retire hurt.

The score passed 50 before Withers eventually picked up a wicket, Zia taking the catch at mid-on, and when Jagesh bowled Puri in his third over Tilehurst were 75-3. This brought Osborn to the crease and it wasn’t long before we figured out his batting philosophy: hit it very hard and don’t run too much – the only problem was we couldn’t do anything to stop it.

Jagesh (1-32) was replaced by Dr Ashman and Osborn clearly decided he was going to rock this bitch* (*not really a bitch) as more punishing drives disappeared over the hedge and into the silver street beyond. Over the next very long hour Osborn and Blake added 100 runs in about 17 overs before Waqar removed them both. Waqar, this season’s leading wicket-taker, bowled 12 overs of consistent emaline and length in another highly impressive spell. After that there was just enough time for Zia to take his second wicket (a Dip stumping) as T&T finished on 216-6.

At this point the match sponsors would like to wish a very happy 25th wedding anniversary to Jane and Fred Jones.

Part 2

Eagle followed up his fifty at Greys with more runs, setting off at a decent pace as he comfortably outscored Ward in their opening partnership of 51. He did survive one chance when he cut straight to the man at gully (lending more weight to Wardy’s theory that Eagle is the luckiest batsman he’s ever seen) but neither looked in much trouble before Ward (18) dozed off in the middle of a pull shot and ended up chipping the ball straight to square leg. Then Eagle suffered a similar spell of narcolepsy while attempting a defensive stroke and was given LBW on the back leg for 32.

Carpenter once again looked in good touch before playing on for 18 and Zia hit two boundaries but was then caught in the covers for 8. Shortly afterwards Weeks was bowled for 9 but by now Dip was starting to play the sort of innings we know he’s capable of because he does it precisely once a year. From 100-5 he was supported by Waqar (14) and Jagesh (7) and the diminutive Dip was running the show, using his feet well like a tiny dancer and belting the ball to all parts of the boundary. He passed fifty with his eighth four but then on 58 he was bowled with RUASCC just 19 runs short of the target. He was one angry dwarf, and 200 solemn faces looked on from the boundary, aware that the last of the recognised batsmen was gone.

Tranter and Ashman pushed the score past 200 and RUASCC willed the partnership to carry on for just a couple more overs, especially Withers, bricking it at the prospect of having to bat. But with six runs still needed Tranter (14) found the man at extra cover when looking to hit over the top. I went to join Dr Ashman for the last polka, still intent on winning the game, but for one full over I did the best imitation of myself trying to bat out for a draw. With the field in tight and neither batsman able to get it off the square, eventually Ashman had to go for it but he belted the ball straight back to bowler Osborn who followed up his 77 runs with figures of 3-9 and the winning catch.

So after a very enjoyable weekend of cricket we played two full games in glorious sunshine, posted two scores of 200+ and didn’t win either of them. But we got more runs than Greys, and against Tilehurst we were only 5 runs away so that’s basically the same as two wins* (*not the same).

RUASCC Highlight: Ward took a very good catch running forward from mid-on, and let’s face it any RUASCC catch is worth celebrating.

RUASCC Man of the Match: Has to be shared between Waqar’s bowling and Dip’s batting.

RUASCC Team: Ward, Eagle (capt), Carpenter, Zia, Dip (wkt), Weeks, Waqar, Jagesh, Tranter, Ashman, Withers, Zak and Sara