Far From The MCC
~ Est. in 1998 ~
“Double Historic Double Notched
(P.S Jude Lose)”
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Sunday 17th
September 2000 |
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Result: Lost by 7 Wkts |
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Venue: |
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35 overs |
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Jude The Obscure |
84 ao |
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A. Fisher 44 |
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85 - 3 |
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The season’s final game.
Set the scene: the first tinge of burnished yellow in the horse chestnuts, a
friendly nip to the morning air, rain squalls on the windscreen, cricket
pants hauled on one last time. At a tree-ringed field beyond Keep setting the scene: The
Jude’s captain, L. Phillips, noble of bearing and calm of demeanour,
approaches the Willows squat leader, who is pawing at the ground with an
animal fascination. The coin is tossed, and the feral thing’s eyes dance and
laugh. He cackles as the bright bauble spins in the air and bounces once,
twice on the pitch. The Willows captain leaps and screeches - he has won the
toss, and, arms swinging low to the ground, he scampers back to his misshapen
comrades. The Jude’s captain walks from the ground with measured step. Time
to pad up, lads.
One of the opening Facing the unruly Willows
bowlers proved to be no easy task. They galloped in, arms akimbo, muttering
foul imprecations, in such an hypnotic and distracting manner that The Jude’s
batsmen were forced to draw upon all their formidable reserves of willpower
and determination. Ultimately, it was to no avail. L. Phillips (3) had soon
departed to the delighted shrieks of the surrounding fielders, and although
A. Mann (10) and H. Jones (11) put up some resistance, few other batsmen
troubled the scorers more than momentarily. Only Jude irregular A. Fisher
(44), steely-eyed and sure, was impervious to the harsh cries resounding from
fine leg and mid off, and his impressive total proved to be over half The
Jude’s final, meagre tally of 84. As it had been at the
crease, so it was in the field. Elegant and imposing, The Jude’s attack had
no answer to the uncouth thrashings and swingings of the Willows top order.
Only L. Davey (46 n.o.) provided a welcome oasis of culture amidst a desert
of vileness, as the rest of the Willows batsthings hunkered at the wicket,
snorting and slathering. For this mob, crude clubs or rough planks would have
done for bats, and yet ultimately their ferocity and cunning won the day, and
it was with a paltry three wickets down that Davey carved the winning runs to
the mid-on boundary. Not for the first time, and not for the last, several
catches were batted down in the field, but this was perhaps partly due to the
disparity in numbers between the two teams. The Jude, with their 11 to The
Willows’ 8, had a much more crowded arena, which made it difficult to judge
the flight of the ball in the air, whereas The Willows with their lower
numbers had much more space to work in. Yet, ultimately, another defeat for
the embattled Judesters, and another victory for the powers of darkness. One
day Sauron would fall, but it would not be today.
One of the fearsome After the game had
finished, those of the Willows team that could drive departed in their cars
to their mean homes and low inns, while several others, as dusk began to
fall, danced off into the night bellowing and howling, to seek out whatever
strange entertainments their kind preferred, thence to find hedgerow or
thicket to afford them shelter for the night. * * * For The Jude, it was another year over, a great year in sum, for at
stumps on the final day, a counting up was made, and it transpired that two
historic doubles had been scored: the first, the double victory recorded over
the Brewersmen, on tour to Weymouth in the summer; the second, unprecedented
in the course of a single season, a double betrothal, with club captain and
team founder E. Lester trusting his heart and soul to team scorer R. Bestwick,
and she hers to him, and, as discovered only that day, Committeesperson and
sometime Jude Captain C. Norris doing likewise with her bloke Julian. Beers
and weddings all round! ‘Blocker’
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