Holland Park
After a fairly lengthy delay in updating the blog I can report that at last Verwood Cricket Club has managed a fantastic win. More on that to follow shortly.
Previously it was reported that Simon Scott Douglas had injured himself at football by tripping over the net dividing three pitches at the six a side football. I don’t know whether that affected the decision but the format has now been changed to two pitches and seven a side as the insurers will not cover the league due to the netting. His suffering may not therefore have been in vain.
The result of the lack of insurance has meant no football for the past two weeks although a resumption is expected tonight. Perhaps it will signal a change in fortune.
Those of you intrigued by the mention of Holland Park will be pleased to know that it is the name of a camp site near Brockenhurst in the New Forest. It was to this destination that some of the cricket team departed on Friday afternoon. Nigel had already been there for some time with Marc following when Nick and I arrived. It was a huge site with plenty of pitches and yet gave the impression of being fairly private. After a 30 minute queue(!) to get in we pitched up at about 7.30 and enjoyed a relaxing evening dodging the showers and having a few drinks. As well as Marc’s two boys, I took Glen and his friend Tom and they were soon playing cricket and football happily in the large empty spaces until a hedgehog invaded their pitch in the gathering gloom.
They were in bed by 11.00 but Tom and Glen pinched the mats meant for lying on in the tent meaning I had to go without which seemed fair as there were only five of them! Glen had three and Tom the other two which was lovely for them. Nigel cooked up a fantastic barbecue for them to enjoy and it was well after 1.00 before any of the adults drifted off to sleep.
The camping expedition followed the successful trip last year which was credited with bringing about victory in a crucial fixture last year. Naturally the run we have had this year of no wins in 6 games meant we were willing to believe anything and so we set off on Saturday morning in the confident expectation of tasting victory once more.
A leisurely lead up in which the weather gradually deteriorated saw us arrive before the main body of the team arrived from Verwood with only 20 minutes to the start of the game. Dan lost the toss and we were put into bat. We have been utterly hopeless in that capacity previously and were concerned about what score would be of any use in the rain that was falling quite heavily. We started very slowly with just 78 for 3 in the first 30 overs before moving on quickly with another 102 runs in the next 12 overs. A total of 180 looked quite good and we had tea in the confident knowledge we would emerge victorious.
I ought to mention that Verwood were already bottom of the league and our opposition, Lymington were immediately above us, neither having won a game. It was a straightforward victory as we managed to restrict them to just 179 runs and slaughtered them by 1 run.
It was unbelievable the way in which so many of the side conspired to turn singles into twos, twos into threes and dropped catches a plenty. You would have thought they wanted to keep it to a tight finish and were enjoying the sense of doom. One their best batsmen hit two fours by smacking them straight up into the sky and close to the boundary. The first time two fielders converged on the plummeting ball and looked likely to collide until one of them bravely put their name to it. Having taken responsibility he promptly left the ball to hit the ground without making any effort whatsoever of trying to catch it! It was incredible. The second time the fielder moved forward confidently to stand beneath the ball. Arms outstretched he realised he had misjudged and the ball flew harmlessly over his head to where had stood in the first place. Little wonder we were bottom of the league. But the camping trip did the trick and we managed to escape with victory which sees us move into at least third from bottom place with lots of momentum.
After a fairly lengthy delay in updating the blog I can report that at last Verwood Cricket Club has managed a fantastic win. More on that to follow shortly.
Previously it was reported that Simon Scott Douglas had injured himself at football by tripping over the net dividing three pitches at the six a side football. I don’t know whether that affected the decision but the format has now been changed to two pitches and seven a side as the insurers will not cover the league due to the netting. His suffering may not therefore have been in vain.
The result of the lack of insurance has meant no football for the past two weeks although a resumption is expected tonight. Perhaps it will signal a change in fortune.
Those of you intrigued by the mention of Holland Park will be pleased to know that it is the name of a camp site near Brockenhurst in the New Forest. It was to this destination that some of the cricket team departed on Friday afternoon. Nigel had already been there for some time with Marc following when Nick and I arrived. It was a huge site with plenty of pitches and yet gave the impression of being fairly private. After a 30 minute queue(!) to get in we pitched up at about 7.30 and enjoyed a relaxing evening dodging the showers and having a few drinks. As well as Marc’s two boys, I took Glen and his friend Tom and they were soon playing cricket and football happily in the large empty spaces until a hedgehog invaded their pitch in the gathering gloom.
They were in bed by 11.00 but Tom and Glen pinched the mats meant for lying on in the tent meaning I had to go without which seemed fair as there were only five of them! Glen had three and Tom the other two which was lovely for them. Nigel cooked up a fantastic barbecue for them to enjoy and it was well after 1.00 before any of the adults drifted off to sleep.
The camping expedition followed the successful trip last year which was credited with bringing about victory in a crucial fixture last year. Naturally the run we have had this year of no wins in 6 games meant we were willing to believe anything and so we set off on Saturday morning in the confident expectation of tasting victory once more.
A leisurely lead up in which the weather gradually deteriorated saw us arrive before the main body of the team arrived from Verwood with only 20 minutes to the start of the game. Dan lost the toss and we were put into bat. We have been utterly hopeless in that capacity previously and were concerned about what score would be of any use in the rain that was falling quite heavily. We started very slowly with just 78 for 3 in the first 30 overs before moving on quickly with another 102 runs in the next 12 overs. A total of 180 looked quite good and we had tea in the confident knowledge we would emerge victorious.
I ought to mention that Verwood were already bottom of the league and our opposition, Lymington were immediately above us, neither having won a game. It was a straightforward victory as we managed to restrict them to just 179 runs and slaughtered them by 1 run.
It was unbelievable the way in which so many of the side conspired to turn singles into twos, twos into threes and dropped catches a plenty. You would have thought they wanted to keep it to a tight finish and were enjoying the sense of doom. One their best batsmen hit two fours by smacking them straight up into the sky and close to the boundary. The first time two fielders converged on the plummeting ball and looked likely to collide until one of them bravely put their name to it. Having taken responsibility he promptly left the ball to hit the ground without making any effort whatsoever of trying to catch it! It was incredible. The second time the fielder moved forward confidently to stand beneath the ball. Arms outstretched he realised he had misjudged and the ball flew harmlessly over his head to where had stood in the first place. Little wonder we were bottom of the league. But the camping trip did the trick and we managed to escape with victory which sees us move into at least third from bottom place with lots of momentum.
