Warborough (A) – 12.5.13

RUASCC 136-9 dec

Eagle 46, Zia 30

Warborough 82 all out

Zia 5-33, Withers 4-7

RUASCC won by 54 runs

The second match of the weekend saw a RUASCC team with seven changes from the previous day; only Ward, Eagle, Zia and Withers played in both games.  On losing the toss we were asked to bat first in steady rain (that barely stopped all day), and the openers started quietly before Ward was bowled by a full toss in the seventh over.  Carpenter got off the mark with a boundary but was soon bowled by Tilley’s first ball, 29-2.

Zia played himself in against the accurate bowling but then found his range and hit consecutive fours off Tilley.  Then a few overs later he hit three consecutive boundaries to move to 30 but fell to a decent catch at mid-on without further addition.  Meanwhile Eagle was playing the sort of innings that prompts people to say he’s not scoring quickly enough, or talk about all his runs going through the slips, but then when you look at the scorecard at the end of the match you realise he’s far outscored anyone else.

Waqar, the batting hero at Blewbury, was promoted to number five and he made 10 before being trapped LBW.  The run rate slowed and wickets fell frequently as Weeks (7), Malde (3) and Singh (6) tried and failed to push the score along.  Eagle eventually fell to a weak chip into the covers and the innings somewhat petered out, eventually culminating in an amusing run out featuring Ken Stewart and Dr Ashman.  Not the first time Dr Ashman has been involved in a run out on this ground, is it Dr Ashman?  IS IT DR ASHMAN?  NO IT IS NOT, DR ASHMAN.

Ahem, where was I?  So RUASCC made 136 in 40 overs and it was one of those pitches where you had to see both sides bat before you could determine how good a score that was.  As it turned out, it was plenty, even though we decided to have one of our “dropping” days in the field…

Eagle made the sound decision to ask brothers Zia and Waqar to open the bowling.  Zia struck immediately for the first wicket, and Waqar would have done too except that Withers put down a simple chance at mid-on.  One of RUASCC’s most reliable fielders he may be, but he’s catching like a blind seal so far this year.

Then RUASCC got the big breakthrough: Warborough’s captain and best batsman Bradshaw given LBW to Waqar for just 5.  Zia followed it up straight away with his second wicket (clean bowled again) to leave the home side 25-3.

Several of the remaining batsmen were young lads with excellent techniques, and RUASCC spent the rest of the match deriving new and exciting ways not to catch them out.  The preferred method off Withers’ bowling was to put down the edges in the slips, while the unfortunate Waqar saw another simple chance go down at mid-off (Eagle) and Zia saw an uppish cut parried, and ultimately dropped, at point.  The bowlers soon learned that the only way to take wickets was to bowl straight and hope they miss it.

With the score on 68, still needing another 69 to win, Withers bowled left-hander Owen for 17 and the run chase started to grind to a halt.  From then on it was all about taking wickets, and Withers bagged two more in consecutive overs (one bowled, one LBW) while Zia returned from the other end to take his fifth wicket.  Of the nine wickets to fall six had been bowled and three LBW.

With four overs remaining Withers finally broke the catching hoodoo, holding onto a simple return chance to end the innings on 82 and seal victory by a decent margin.

So that’s three consecutive wins for RUASCC following the disappointment of defeats at Farley Hill and Mortimer, and there’s some reason for optimism for the rest of the season – although we might not get away with dropping quite that many chances in our other games!

RUASCC Highlight:  Whenever it stopped raining for five goddamn minutes.

RUASCC Man of the Match:  Zia.

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

BBC Caversham (A) – 11.5.13

BBC Caversham 112 all out

Main 3-15, Withers 3-16

RUASCC 114-3

Ward 32 not out, Eagle 31

RUASCC won by 7 wickets

For the fourth game in a row RUASCC fielded first and a decent performance began with Zia taking a wicket with the opening ball of the match.  After just 13 runs were scored from the first 10 overs Withers was replaced by Tranter who, despite lobbing in the odd high full-toss, did manage to find a decent line and length and had a strong LBW appeal turned down before he castled Castle for 11.

Tranter was also involved in the next two wickets: firstly when Main found an edge that deflected off the keeper and spooned gently to him at first slip, then a superb diving stop from Ward pushed the ball to Tranter who threw down the stumps to add a direct hit run out to his wicket and catch, thus wrapping up the man of the match award with barely two hours gone.

Ward’s first ball went for six over long-on as Bennett looked to counter-attack, but the return of Withers (bowling with four slips and two gullies “like Dennis Lillee”) put an end to that and BBC collapsed from 74-3 to 84-8 under the onslaught of Withers and Main who shared six wickets for 31 runs in 23 overs. 

Smith, perhaps batting a bit low at number nine, hit 20 from one over to push the score past 100 but he soon ran out of partners when some dubious calling saw his partner run out by several yards.

A few years ago on this ground RUASCC failed to chase down 117 to win, and the batsmen knew they had to contend with a difficult pitch and a slow outfield.  What we needed was an innings of real control and substance, and somewhat surprisingly that innings came from Mike Ward who defended patiently against accurate bowling from Smith while Eagle scored the bulk of the runs in their opening partnership of 42.

The first bowling change saw the end of Eagle, LBW for the second game in a row, and Dersh soon followed, bowled by Smith who by this point had 1-13 from 10 overs.  It was another bowling change that did for Loader (9) and Zia very nearly went first ball when he skied a chance to mid-off, but in attempting to catch the ball the fielder somehow almost managed to rip his thumb off instead.  The fielder played no further part in the match and Zia recovered his composure to hit a six and two fours on his way to 27 not out.

In the 31^st over Ward finally recorded his first boundary and in the very next over Zia took a single to allow the opener to hit the winning runs.  A comfortable win by seven wickets with plenty of overs to spare.

RUASCC Highlight:  Tranter’s direct-hit run out, set up by Ward’s diving stop.

RUASCC Man of the Match:  Tranter.

RUASCC Team:  Ward (wkt2), Eagle (capt), Dersh, Loader, Zia, Dip (wkt1), Greenhalf, Main, Tranter, Rahul, Withers

Blewbury (A) – 5.5.13

Blewbury 187-6 dec

Waqar 2-38, Withers 2-52

RUASCC 188-9

Zia 49, Eagle 26

RUASCC won by 1 wicket

RUASCC matches can become rather predictable; I often find myself writing the same report each week.  In this respect last Sunday’s match was all going to plan, it was everything we have come to expect:

• Fielding first – check
• Economical but wicketless spells from Zia and Withers – check
• A few dropped catches – check
• Ken Stewart falling down a rabbit hole – check
• Eagle giving unfathomable instructions to fielders (“push to the point”) – check
• Audible chuntering and moaning at every little setback – check
• Opposition batsman easing past fifty with plenty of assistance from a series of leg-side half-trackers – check, check, checkity, check.

The high points of the fielding performance were mostly provided by Chan Malde who confidently held two difficult catches and saved countless runs at short mid-off.  The artificial wicket gave little help to the bowlers but Waqar, playing his first game of the season, removed both openers early in his spell.  Withers’ figures were only rescued by two wickets in his 11^th and final over while Fawaz bowled three tight overs at the death to help restrict the home side to 187-6.

Eagle and Fawaz, who last batted together at Theale last September and put on 104, opened and scored at a healthy rate of four runs per over before Fawaz was caught for 25.  From this point the RUASCC innings had a familiar feel to it:

• Zia scattered the field hitting eight fours and a six to put RUASCC in a winning position, before skewing a slower ball into the covers on 49.
• Eagle batted patiently for 24 overs before taking his eye off the ball and triggering a huge collapse.
• RUASCC slipped from 111-1 to 123-6.

With more than 50 runs still needed Dip and Tranter put together a very useful partnership of 29, and after Tranter was bowled Dip still looked intent on taking us over the finish line.  But with 17 runs still needed he edged behind for the eighth wicket.  Withers irresponsibly fell in near-identical fashion the very next ball ball leaving Waqar and Ken Stewart as the last pair.

Stewart defended staunchly while Waqar took control, blasting three boundaries in one over to leave RUASCC five runs from victory.  With four overs to go Stewart saw out another maiden, then when Waqar took a single from the first ball of the following over poor Kenny had to block out another five balls.

With tension rising both in the middle and on the boundary edge, Waqar picked his moment to end the match with an audacious reverse paddle, finding the gap down at third man to guide his team to an unlikely win by one wicket.  It was a sensational finish to a match we perhaps should have won a lot more easily, and it gave us an unlikely batting hero in Waqar, who finished 22 not out.

The season is up and running!

RUASCC Highlight:  Undoubtedly Waqar hitting the winning runs.

RUASCC Man of the Match:  Waqar.

RUASCC Team:  Eagle (capt), Fawaz, Zia, Malde, Dip (wkt), Taimour, Greenhalf, Tranter, Waqar, Withers, Stewart

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

Farley Hill (A) – 21.4.13

Farley Hill 145 all out (34.3 overs)

Withers 4-8, Zia 2-8

RUASCC 137-9 (40 overs)

Zia 22, Taimour 22, Tranter 21 not out

RUASCC lost by 8 runs

At the end of a week containing every type of possible weather, and the longest, coldest, wettest winter since ooh… the last one, the bareness of the trees and the greenness of the pitch owed more to mid-February than late April, and when asked to bowl first RUASCC made full use of the conditions to reduce the home side to 21-5 in the first hour.

Withers, seemingly unhampered by his recent wedding, opened with a wicket-maiden, bowling Jalil off a huge inside edge, and followed up with another when Greenhalf took a diving catch at square leg.  Yet another maiden and half an hour into the season RUASCC’s premier strike bowler (really?) had two wickets at an average of zero.  Then Zia removed the dangerous Ditchburn thanks to a sharp catch at the wicket by Dip, before Withers dismissed Dudding and Clacey in the same over to finish his six-over spell with 4-8.

At first change Longfield began to play himself in and kept deep-backward-square-leg busy as Pensioner Ken Stewart struggled for a full length.  Greenhalf bowled with good pace but the sixth wicket pair stood firm until Taimour found an edge that flew high to first slip.  Ashman reacted quickly and reached to the sky but if I’m honest most of us were looking down to third-man before we realised the ball had stuck.

Having given a startling impression of cricketing competence early on, RUASCC faded in the second half of the innings.  The fielding lost a bit of discipline and Longfield looked untroubled, hitting the bulk of the runs as he passed 50 on the way to dragging Farley Hill past 100.  Ashman bowled tidily for three overs before Longfield went on the attack, and a couple of leg-side full tosses from Tranter were helped over the fence for maximums.

The last four wickets were shared by Greenhalf, Zia and Stewart (2), who finally dismissed Longfield for exactly 100 out of the Farley Hill total of 145 all out.

RUASCC should not have been daunted by the prospect of chasing 146 to win at fewer than four runs per over, and when Ward hit the third ball of the innings to the square-leg boundary it all seemed to be going well.  But in the fourth over Captain Eagle nudged into the offside and called a single – Ward responded but failed to beat a competent throw from the cover fielder and was run out for 5.  Ward didn’t look too pleased as he returned to the pavilion and left the ground, possibly for an early dinner appointment.  No one has seen him since.

Eagle and Zia hit a couple of boundaries apiece from the next two overs to set the innings back on track before both were clean bowled by Shaw.  Malde was quickly given LBW and RUASCC were 47-4, needing 99 to win, still at fewer than four per over.

Taimour got off the mark with a four and Dip went even bigger, hitting Clacey for six in his first over.  Subsequently the two batsmen settled in and scored at a decent rate, adding 42 in 11 overs before Taimour offered Jalil a return catch.  Soon Dip was bowled attempting a slog and Jalil ran riot through RUASCC’s tail as lower-order batsmen with varying degrees of senility came and went.

Greenhalf skied one to the wicketkeeper and Withers played back when he should have gone forward (and, perhaps more importantly, missed a straight one), leaving Tranter and Stewart to chase down the last 40 runs in eight overs.  And to be fair, they made a better fist of it than several before them.   Tranter, beginning his 40^th season for the club, showed some clean hitting and Stewart even managed to club one boundary before Jalil did for him too, taking his fifth wicket in the process.

Needing 16 from the final over, Tranter hit seven from the first three balls but Dr Ashman couldn’t lay bat on ball and the innings ended on 137-9, defeat by eight runs.  On the plus side, Ashman finished on his favourite score of 0 not out.

RUASCC Highlight:  Ashman’s superb reflex catch at first slip.

RUASCC Man of the Match:  In the end it had little impact on the game, but Withers’ opening spell was a welcome relief for everyone who has had to suffer watching how he usually bowls.

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

RUASCC Season Review 2012

This will hardly go down as one of the club’s most successful seasons, with only four wins in five months, instead it will more likely be remembered for the huge part played by the weather: 11 games were cancelled, two were abandoned for rain and another handful were played on wet, sticky pitches that made batting in particular very tricky.

We only made 200+ on two occasions, in five games we posted less than 100 and only two of our batsmen averaged more than 20 this year. Every player made a contribution - there were just too few games when we all pulled it together at the same time.  There were, however, two wins from two on a very successful tour in Cheltenham.

With thanks to Dr Eagle for providing the statistics, here is the essential Keiwit Blog guide to the key players this season.

Andy Eagle (Captain)
Played 17
335 runs at 23.93
7 catches

Opening batsman Andy Eagle bookended the season with fifties against Greys Green (51) and Mandarins (61), and enjoyed success in the two games against Tilehurst & Theale with scores of 32 and 47. For the rest of the season he scored practically nothing at all.

This season saw Eagle add to his responsibilities as Fixture Secretary and Team Secretary by replacing Richard Tranter as Club Captain. He ends the season with a negative win:loss record but a positive coin toss record.

In the field he is liable to instruct people to field at “sort of thereish” and “on the point… no, not at point, ON THE POINT” but he concentrated hard enough to claim a total of seven catches, mostly from a mid-onny sort of place.

Mike Ward
Played 12
207 runs at 18.82
2 wickets at 19.5
2 catches

Wardy’s reward for not missing tour with a poorly-timed holiday this year was a top score of 46 against Aldsworth – an innings during which he was accused of only having one shot by the team who nevertheless continued to feed it for the best part of an hour.

A patient and steady 29 on the stodgy wicket at Peppard was another useful contribution and a breezy 27 against Hambleden came as a welcome respite from all the times he offered catching practice to slip or played around a straight one early on.

His two wickets came at an impressive strike rate (he only bowled six overs all season) but perhaps his finest moment came as umpire when he gave Kenny out LBW against Greys Green just at the point when everyone was about to kill themselves.

Ian Carpenter
Played 16
251 runs at 16.73
4 wickets at 22.75
2 catches

A new streamlined Carpo was by far our most consistent batsman in 2012, and by that I mean he consistently reached double figures before spooning a simple catch into the covers.

To his evident frustration he was unable to post a really substantial score this season, but 47 at Wargrave and 44 against Aldsworth helped him pass the milestone of 3,000 runs for the club, while he also reached 150 wickets thanks to a menacing spell of 2-8 from five overs at Farley Hill.

Chan Malde
Played 12
141 runs at 12.82
3 wickets at 12
1 catch and 1 stumping

One of the undoubted highlights of 2012 was the opening stand of 135 in the 20-20 game against Birdlip on tour in which Chan amassed 55. It was an innings of flair and power and was typical of a batsman who has now played 200 matches for RUASCC and scored 3,610 runs.

That said, it was not typical of Chan this season. Too many innings simply failed to get started, although
useful runs in the abandoned match at Hambleden contributed to our competitive total.

His exceptional work in the field saved countless runs and also contributed to a wicket against Wargrave when his diving stop at short mid-off frustrated the batsman into getting stumped from the next ball. Two wickets came in his short spell at Aldsworth as he proved he’s not actually a bad bowler either.

Dip Patel
Played 12
131 runs at 11.91
3 catches and 6 stumpings

Dip’s stand-out batting performance this year was the 58 he scored against Tilehurst & Theale which, had it been a 65 or 70, would probably have won us the game. It was the sort of knock that makes you wonder how he only managed to score a total of 73 runs in his other ten innings.

In the game at Fulmer Dip was loosely involved in a 78-run stand with Zia in which he scored 11, took a full-blooded drive straight in the chest at the non-striker’s end and was eventually run out.

And even though his wicketkeeping sometimes resembles a drunken toddler playing table tennis he did manage to take three catches and six stumpings along the way.

Zia Ul-Haq
Played 15
386 runs at 35.09
29 wickets at 15.59
3 catches

In another useful season from the 2011 Player of the Year, Zia’s top score was an unbeaten 103 at Greys Green but his most remarkable innings came at Fulmer where he smashed an incredible 82 in a team total of just 110 all out. On tour he hammered Birdlip for 62 before retiring to give someone else a go.

On those occasions when his concentration wavers he is still prone to getting himself out – most notably being run out when strolling what should have been an easy leg bye at Peppard – but often is batting is so imperious that it seems no one else is capable of dismissing him.

Zia once again finished top wicket-taker and his most remarkable feat with the ball was at Frieth where his spell of four wickets in four balls almost won us the match. He finished with 6-15 that day (the only five-wicket haul by any RUASCC bowler this year) and also took four against Braywood and Tilehurst & Theale.

Zia has now played more than 100 games for the club, taken over 200 wickets and scored over 2,000 runs. To very little complaint he was named RUASCC Player of the Year 2012.

Richard Tranter
Played 13
60 runs at 10
5 wickets at 26
1 catch

RUASCC’s all-time record holder for appearances (729) has 1,150 club wickets and is slowly closing in on 5,000 runs, so a few more trips up the order next season wouldn’t go amiss.

This was a quiet season for the Chairman who only bowled 20 overs, taking five wickets with those “shock & awe” straight ones he throws in from time to time. He was however afforded the appropriate respect by Aldsworth, where he bowled his full allocation of seven overs while the batting team agreed they just needed to “see off the old boy” as they couldn’t get him off the square.

Other notable highlights included the moment at Braywood when, after a long and uninspiring partnership, Tranter was run out by his own captain, and that sensational one-handed catch at slip against Mandarins.

Ken Stewart
Played 11
38 runs at 9.5
11 wickets at 16.82
3 catches

Kenny began the season with an unplayable spell on a damp pitch at Farley Hill, finishing with figures of 4-13. The following week he took 1-1.

In the home game against Wargrave later in the season he could have had six wickets but for some inept catching from his teammates. Kenny’s strike rate is excellent, he is undoubtedly a partnership breaker and he remains a safe catcher as long as the ball goes directly to him.

But the batting! Oh my god, the batting! It’s painful. Honestly, people have slipped into a coma waiting for him to play a shot - it’s like watching Withers in slow motion. He’s like a fourth stump. I’ve seen the fielding team try to declare while he’s in. Please, for the love of all that is holy, MAKE IT STOP!

Waqar Ul-Haq
Played 7
33 runs at 8.25
15 wickets at 14.4
2 catches

Waqar only played seven matches but finished third highest wicket taker, with the best official average. A superb start to the season saw him take 3-5 against Shedfield, 3-42 against Greys Green and 3-38 in a long spell at Highmoor. His accurate and at times deadly left-arm spin caused good batsmen problems and wreaked havoc against lesser teams.

He provides a useful variation and is able to tie down an end, a skill that we lacked with his absence in the second half of the season.

Andy Ashman
Played 13
22 runs at 4.4
1 wicket at 209
1 catch

Andy Ashman has now played more than 300 matches for the club and has probably done at least 20 overs umpiring in every single one.

With limited opportunities to bowl a proper spell he only took one wicket this season, unless you count the beer match at Frieth (which we don’t). He did however show scintillating form with the bat: for the first time that I can remember he reached double figures twice.

Keith Withers
Played 17
50 runs at 16.67
27 wickets at 19.48
5 catches

After two quite awful seasons with the ball Withers returned to some kind of form in 2012, possibly helped by the same conditions that made life so hard for our batsmen. He particularly enjoyed the two matches against Greys Green, taking four wickets in each, and continues to perform well in our rare home games – his season’s best figures of 4-30 against Mandarins and a miserly spell of 1-9 from ten overs against Wargrave suggest he would appreciate more games at the university.

Other highlights included 3-14 at Farley Hill followed by an opening burst of 3-4 from four overs at Peppard. It is also perhaps worth noting that two of his catches were off his own bowling while all five that he dropped were off other people’s bowling.

Withers continues to be a solid but ultimately useless batsman – in his ten innings he was only dismissed three times but with a top score of only 15 not out he is still considered number eleven material.

Other notable contributions:

Dersh Patel: Only played in five matches this year; 60 of his 79 runs came in a third wicket stand of 110 against Mandarins.

Bruce Main: Missed much of the season through injury but made a triumphant return on tour taking three wickets against Birdlip. Some powerful hitting at Hambleden, where he scored 37, reminded us how useful he can be sometimes. Passed 1,000 runs for the club.

Tom Weeks: Played six games this season, averaging 12.5 with the bat. His one wicket came against Aldsworth on tour and he also contributed a couple of catches. Nice chap.

Jagesh Navik: Played nine matches and some entertaining hitting saw him involved in the season’s highest partnerships for both 8th and 9th wickets. Struggled with the ball and took only four wickets at an average of 51, but helped out with four catches.

Merry Christmas everyone, see you next year!

Mandarins (H) – 15.9.12

RUASCC 182-6
Eagle 61, Dersh 60

Mandarins 154-8
Withers 4-36, Main 2-28

Match drawn

Having been bowled out for 67 on our home pitch just seven days earlier it was pleasing to see a competitive RUASCC batting performance against the Mandarins on Saturday. Mind you, any side that can afford to keep RB Tranter hidden down at number ten should definitely be making some runs.

Eagle won the toss and chose to bat first, a decision that was welcomed by Carpenter right up to the moment in the seventh over when Eagle ran him out. Carpenter pushed the ball into the off-side and called a single but Eagle said “no” leaving Carpenter halfway down the track with no hope of salvation. There are two camps here: the one who think it was Carpo’s call and if Eagle had been backing up properly then a single was a formality, and the other who thinks the ball was headed straight for a fielder and the single was never on. I can confidently state that one of these views is absolutely correct.

Rupert Loader was next in and for a couple of overs he concentrated on trying to lay bat on ball while his partner obsessed about the run out. After a few careful singles Loader found the boundary twice but after this promising start he was trapped LBW for 13 to leave RUASCC 42-2.

Then, for the second week in a row, Eagle was involved in a century partnership for the third wicket – this time with Dersh who used the first few overs of his innings as net practice before growing in confidence and driving smoothly just like in the old days. The run rate didn’t really get going until after the drinks break at which point we had just 59 on the board from 23 overs - the pair doubled that in the next nine.

The two batsmen reached fifties in consecutive deliveries to warm applause from the rest of the RUASCC team in front of the pavilion – except Carpenter who’d gone for a long walk. Then the Mandarins brought on a new bowler, Porter, who clean bowled Eagle in his second over and Dersh in his third. This brought about a mini-collapse as Dip and Chan went cheaply while looking to score quickly, but Bruce Main thumped an unbeaten 15 from about six balls to boost the total up to 182-6.

Withers and Main opened the bowling and both were quickly among the wickets: Withers took a sharp return catch and also removed Porter who’d looked in good touch while Main got an LBW decision from our own umpire then clean bowled a four-year-old boy – not that the history books will make any kind of distinction, of course.

Chan Malde picked up a wicket in his first over, thanks to a good catch by Main running in at mid-off, and set up a fascinating duel between bowler Ben Loader and guest batsman Danny Loader. Almost everyone on the field was praying for a

Loader      c Loader      b Loader

dismissal but young Dan played beautifully for nine runs before he was eventually bowled by his brother.

Mandarins still needed 76 runs from the final eight overs and Frostick was giving it a damn good go - the number three eased to fifty then started hitting out and brought the visitors to within 45 runs of the target. With four overs remaining Withers returned to the attack and Frostick, looking to smear everything now, came down the track and got a top edge that would have flown through the slip area had it not been for the lightning fast reflexes of Tranter. There’s a scene in Superman where he catches a speeding bullet – it was like that. While everyone else was looking down to third man, Tranter plucked the ball out of the air and held it aloft in celebration of the most remarkable catch of the season.

With Frostick gone RUASCC could concentrate on winning the match, and Withers claimed another scalp to set up the final over showdown with Bruce Main needing one more wicket for victory. Alas, despite a ring of close fielders and failing light, the batsman resisted and RUASCC ended up in the position we’re much more used to putting other teams in: so close, but match drawn.

And now, with winter seemingly approaching again, it looks like this might have been the last game of the season. With a decent RUASCC performance and a dramatic finale, it was a thoroughly enjoyable match to end the year.

Except perhaps for Carpo.

RUASCC Highlight: The highlight of this match, this season, and possibly any other season, was undoubtedly Tranter’s remarkable pouch at slip that could have won us the game.

RUASCC Man of the Match: Trant.

RUASCC Team: Carpenter, Eagle (capt), R Loader, Dersh, Dip (wkt), Malde, Weeks, Main, B Loader, Tranter, Withers