Old Hurstjohnians 262-3 dec, Buccaneers 228
Report by Rob Rydon
Cudda, Wudda, Shudda against the OHJs
The day dawned bright (not really but at least it wasn’t raining) and the skipper had 11 players so he was happy.
Won the toss and stuck’em in. Rydon R (mid 40s) down the hill on a pretty flat pitch (or perhaps he’s slowing down). Bugge D (late 40s) clutched one of the best slip catches in the last 30 years of Buccs cricket, swooping low to his left after the keeper had thrown him a dummy. Was this the start of a collapse? Not. Although Rydon A (14) also down the hill induced a tickle to Mann J (mid 40s) behind the stumps. After various assotments from Wyartt (40) and McIntosh (late 20s), a very tidy spell from Mann H (16) and a great spell from Graves B (14) with plenty of flight and occasional turn the OHJs lunched at 130-2.
After lunch Graves B took a well-deserved wicket but Semence M chalked up yet another hundred against us and following a fair bit of leather chasing a generous declaration set us a target of 263 with plenty of time to reach it.
After Ohlson R (early 50s) had removed some of the shine from the new ball, AtwellB (mid 30s) smashed it around to take us to 90-1 at tea. Easy peasy from here the skipper thought. Sadly the egg sarnies and ginger cake proved our downfall as Atwell (after a stylish sixty) and Steele (for a flirty thirty) fell soon after tea.
No worries, though. Plenty of batting to come. Mann J played forcefully for his 60 but the midle order couldn’t keep him company. With 90 needed off the last 20 and only 5 wickets down we could have won it and we would have if Rydon R had not missed a straight one. After the youth policy and Wyartt had gone down fighting, the captain was left to rue – durin g his 5 hour drive to Cornwall – that we should have won it.