After the interesting meteorological week, the OUP wicket
could, if anything, be described as muddy but, thankfully, playable and Tim had
no hesitation in asking the nine men of
Stanton
to bat.
Lewis and Lee opened the attack, both of them finding
varying bounce. With reasonable line and
length from both ends, Stanton
found it hard to make much progress. Lewis produced a jaffa of jaffas to clip
the top of off stump and then induced a catch to mid-off which Mark took as if
a very great deal depended on it. Lee could equally easily have claimed wickets
but luck did not run with him on this day.
The captain’s second strings were Kamran and Andy H who
proved almost impossible to get away. For a time things stagnated. Benny took
to appealing every time he took the ball cleanly and everybody else took to
dropping catches (again.) Finally Kamran decided that clipping off stump was
easier than taking c&bs – several of which had already eluded him - and
Andy engineered another catch towards the day’s only safe pair of hands. Mark
accepted it comfortably.
When backward point dropped yet another, The Ratt swooped on
the fallen ball and, for the third time this year, produced a run out at the
bowler’s end.
Stanton subsided
to 129 all out at such an early stage of the day that there was time for three
overs before tea. With the aid of fourteen wides, the score shot up so that we
reached the wondrous chocolate cake with strawberries with all wickets intact.
Some questioned the captain’s wisdom in piling up his plate while his innings
was yet in its infancy, but those with deeper understanding accepted that his
plan to see out the innings would need a sufficiency of fuel.
In fact, Steve and Tim, realising the extreme frailty of
those to come after, set about things with much determination. Both bats
profited from the occasional full toss as Stanton
ran through their hand looking for bowlers who could at least land it on the
pitch. A Green Woodpecker called as Tim drove imperiously through cover. It was
really quite a surprise when Steve got a leading edge and looped up an easy
catch.
72-1 was already looking commanding.
Mark showed every intention of finishing the game early and
took a series of quick fours before playing all round a slow, or even slower,
straight ball and Benny strode to the crease. His first shot was a most typical
A. Benson first shot. But he missed it. After that he middled things so firmly
and so frequently that he caused fielders to give up the attempt and showed
signs of catching the captain up.
We finished on 132 – 2 with Benny on 31 and Tim on 38.
And our umpire was heard to offer the League Chairman a
drink.
