Match Report
After almost relentless rain put paid to any possibility of play in our first four fixtures, Crusaders finally took to the field at North Weald to open their 2012 campaign. Captaincy for the day fell to Pommie and he was first to the ground for an early pitch inspection.
Meanwhile the remainder of the side had assembled in The Kings Head, to sample the delights of fine ale and buxom wench. Alas, the latter was absent. An anxious skipper finally called at 1.45 to find out where his players were and also to report that the pitch 'was like chocolate cake'. This turned out to be the only full sentence uttered all day by our inspirational leader, as he reverted to single word responses, favouring 'good', 'indeed' and 'yes' to cover the majority of questions asked of him.
With Noah and full compliment of animals only vacating the area on Saturday night, there had been no possibility of cutting the outfield and only some brief groundwork on Sunday morning had been completed. Pommie called correctly and elected to put our hosts in - probably the only decent piece of captaincy performed that day.
Crusaders gave a debut to Harry Singh, which took the Singhquota to six for the match. Ravi was late draft for the eleventh spot.
For the second successive season, Moysey seemed none the worse for avoiding pre-season nets, immediately probing away on a good length and also getting some in-swing.
The closed season had seen various optical adjustments made.Moysey was resplendent in new glasses. Ravi had gone one better opting for laser surgery and Nita had been the beneficiary of completely new eyes - unfortunately they were Ravi's. An early indication of success was witnessed with both Moysey and Ravi able to clearly see, Nita not being able to see and dropping an early chance.
It was soon apparent that this was to be no run feast, as anything hit along the floor ran little further than the edge of the square. Sam made the initial breakthrough, with the North Weald opener pushing a ball that held up in the pitch, straight back to the bowler for a straight-forward return catch. Moysey added the next two, both removed by in-swingers and he completed a fine eight over spell for just ten runs.
Harry had a fair bit of trouble finding range,line,length and any other words to describe decent bowling, but when he finally realised he wasn't a fast bowler, he took his maiden Crusaders wicket.
Ravi was a revelation with the ball, picking up two wickets, including a caught and bowled (last season he would have barely noticed the ball coming back towards him).
Spud and Upkar rattled out the tail, with neither Flopsy, Mopsy nor Cottontail able to resist for long.
The North Weald innings tailed off, with the last six wickets adding only nine runs, setting Crusaders what appeared a comfortable 65 for victory.
After a good tea Johnny G rallied the side, sensibly stating that if everyone got ten we would win comfortably. With that simple target in mind, what could go wrong.
Hats off to 'Nine Lives Nita' (13) and Ravi (14) for achieving the prescribed target. Alas the rest fell short, due to a combination of poor shot selection, impatience and a verrrry slow pitch.
With Jagdesh and the G-Man back in the pavilion with only four on the board it was looking bleak. Nita managed to launch one huge six straight down the ground, intermingled with three shots up in the air, that were charitably dropped, until his luck finally ran out when he was trapped in front lbw for 13.
Damon was the first of three run outs, charging down the wicket until he realised 'mid-cake' that his shot had come down next to him and that Pommie was leaning on his bat at the non-strikers end. There was to be only one winner between ball and bulk.
Pommie played a couple of nice drives for two, then decided he was established at the crease and promptly wafted the next ball to point for a simple catch.
Recovery came through Upkar, Sam and Ravi, with Upkar doing well to ignore some un-necessary sledging from North Weald's wicket-keeper.
Eventually Spud joined Ravi and they took the score to 63-8 and victory in sight. One large heave from Ravi, that passed under the bat and bounced over middle stump was met with a brief exchange of calming words in mid-wicket from Spud. The next ball was exquisitely defended, afterall we did'nt need to do anything silly. Ravi was clean bowled from the last ball of the over as he tried to send the ball into Hertfordshire.
Spud was joined by Harry and they managed to scramble a single to level the scores. Harry survived the one ball he had to face and victory was achieved from a squeaky bye.
