Match Report
North Weald Sunday 17th May at Memorial Ground
Crusaders managed to resist a late onslaught from North Weald to return from Essex with a well earned draw. Gajinder Singh was drafted in as a late replacement, for the injured Sam Singh and there was also a debut for John Rana.
Wajih won the toss and elected to take first knock, on a pitch that appeared firm, but proved rather like Damon, to have a soft under-belly. Spud was again offered the ‘poisoned chalice’ of opening and accompanied by Gajinder they laid the foundations of what should have been a decent total. Spud was largely a spectator, during an opening partnership that was dominated by some lusty hitting from Gajinder, as North Weald’s opening bowlers were put to the sword.
North Weald finally turned to spin and almost immediately got their reward. With the score on 78, Spud wafted at a wide delivery and was smartly stumped down the leg-side for a turgid 16. Gajinder had by this time reached a very entertaining maiden fifty and went on to make 66, in an innings that contained twelve boundaries including a maximum. When he was out, with the score on 99, Crusaders rather lost their way, with the North Weald slow pairing of Jagai and Elby dominant.
Some audible quacking greeted Johnny Grrs brief stay at the crease and our cause was further dented by the incapacitation of Damon with a back injury. For those that were not aware Damon has lost a considerable amount of weight recently. It appears this has freed some nerves from within the fatty tissue of our Tubby Keeper and enabled them to become trapped elsewhere – let that be a lesson to all.
The middle order vanished without trace and only an IPL inspired cameo from Jony Singh remained to entertain the crowd. Right or left handed, this maverick of the cricketing world gave a demonstration of most of the shots in his armoury – to say that North Weald had no answer to him is probably untrue. Brief knocks from John Rana and Harpreet pushed the score up to a modest 158, with Elby, pick of the bowlers, claiming his fifth wicket to demonstrate the virtue of bowling straight.
Mahmud Riyed and Harpreet were entrusted with opening the bowling, with the North Weald batsmen content to survive the opening onslaught and build a base. Replacement keeper Spud had a torrid time behind the stumps, scrambling around on the floor, dropping a sitter off Riyed and generally looking just like the ‘normal keeper’, much to the amusement of the normal keeper. Wajih rang the changes, introducing Chand and Jason to the attack and it was the latter that made the breakthrough. Taunted by overhead geese, while he desperately tried to find some semblance of line, length or anything vaguely associated with bowling, Jason eventually provoked a leading edge from Ginn, which was well caught by Harpreet at mid-off.
When drinks were taken, North Weald required 84 to win from the final twenty overs with nine wickets in hand. Spud removed the pads and joined Wajih in the attack and together they kept the scoring in check, with Spud claiming two wickets and Wajih removing the other opener with help from a tumbling, grimacing White at slip. A period when not a lot happened ensued, with North Weald accumulating runs without ever having a really big couple of overs. They did however have the advantage of wickets intact, which meant that the only positive result for Crusaders would be the draw.
With thirty required from the final three overs, North Weald made their charge. Some suicidal running was countered with two run outs from Riyed and one run out that was ‘missed’ by the square leg official, whose only reason for not giving it was that ‘he wasn’t really paying attention’. Twelve were required from the final over and some tight bowling from Mahmud ensured that North Weald remained four runs short of the target.
Damon’s favourite pub The King’s Head had no gas and hence no beer, so we bade a quick farewell to the ‘friendly’ locals.
