Report by Daniel Mortlock:
More important than the scores, or even the identities of the teams, in the above is one word: Saturday. We hadn't tried to organise a Saturday fixture on the main Cotswolds tour since 2013 and we soon found out why: it was nigh on impossible to get a ground due to all the league matches going on. Eventually Grouty put us in touch with the catchily-named Adlestrop Daylesford & Oddington Cricket Club, who were amenable to us hiring their ground . . . albeit at incredible expense. When queried about the proposed charge their organiser went the full "Arthur Daley" with all sorts of tails ranging from the time taken to prepare the wicket to the lengths they were going to to procure a fridge. Still, it was a seller's market - it was the only ground we found that was even available in principle - so we eventually decided to fork out, diluting the costs by organising a pair of twenty/20 games against two opposition teams: Will Siebert's Exeter Exiles; and Sampford Arundel, a Devon-based side who Dave Kittow used to play for. Unfortunately, SA had to drop out when one of the members of their core family had serious health issues, although several of their lads were still coming for the tour. The end result of all this was that we ended up back in the familiar territory of an afternoon declaration game - albeit against a team we'd never played before in an unfamiliar location.
The first arrivals at Adlestrop were presented with a desolate scene, rather like the Marines exploring the deserted colony complex in Aliens - although rather than having to "run a bypass" to get access we instead used a hidden key. Our explorations eventually took us out to the wicket itself, which had a reasonably hard surface, but which could also moved en masse with a little foot pressure, almost as if there was a peat bog underneath. As the FAS side gradually assembled for the scheduled noon start, the lack of any Exiles was starting to become a concern. Their main contingent arrived at around half-past the hour and the first ball (which we'd had to supply) wasn't bowled until 12:48pm - and then their fielders all came off after just an over: Will had now arrived with their green and white match kit.
From there on the match actually proceeded fairly sensibly, if also dangerously - lots of balls reared up off the pitch and several helmets were dinged during the afternoon. It was thus unsurprising that the Exiles had opted to bowl first; and, largely thanks to their excellent opening bowler J. Hawkins, they completely dominated the early part of the game. After 9 overs we were in deep trouble at 20/4, with only a few proven batters remaining - it was only with extraordinary cajoling that Chris Barras agreed to come in as high as number six.
Fortunately, it was at this point that Will casually announced that the Exiles had twelve players in situ and so they'd be playing rolling subs with eleven to bat and all to bowl. Revelations of this sort are generally made before the start of play, but this suited us perfectly in our current dire predicament: we immedidately polled the Sampford Arundel players to find out who was the best batter; the unanimous answer, Will Crossley, was promptly told he'd be next in if he was padded up in time - and a delighted (or at least less grumpy) Chris went back down to number seven. We then got a superb rescue act as Will joined Jim Streeter to bring us back into the match. After Jim was dismissed (for 45 off 57 balls), Will then took over, racing past his half-century and playing glorious shots all around the ground, highlighted by a six over extra-cover off the now returned Hawkins (who at that point had figures of 5/13). Captain Daniel Mortlock joined Will and at least stopped the flow of wickets . . . although only at the cost of also stemming the flow of runs as he raced to 9* off 34 balls.
Just when everyone was being bored to death - or at least to sleep - we got a flurry of action as Daniel hit consecutive boundaries off Hawkins and started marching off towards the pavilion, having declared the innings closed on 190/7. What had been intended as a power move was instead met with howls of objection from our support crew. The first round of these were on the grounds that Will had been robbed of a century - he had to be content with a superb 87* off 101 balls (=5th highest score on debut for FAS). Next came the suggestions that the declaraion was too "generous", and that a target of 191 wasn't going to be enough given the Exiles would have 40+ overs to chase, an assertion which perhaps had some merit - but which would only be tested after a welcome tea break.
It immediately became clear that the chase at very least was not going to be easy as openers Joe White (1/18 from his first 8-over spell) and Daniel Mortlock (1/16, despite losing both his vertical and horizontal hold) both got plenty of movement off the pitch. While none of the batters ever looked comfortable, we were also a bit erratic, sending down 19 wides, 2 no balls - and contributing to (Chris: look away now) 17 byes. The Exiles hence remained within touching distance of the required rate even though James Wyatt (3/27 in his first 7-over spell), Faruk Kara (1/30) and Ben Kittow (1/15) all made further breakthroughs. While these were obviously in large part due to good bowling, we provided superb support in the field, taking eight catches, equalling the club record. The irony was that probably the critical moment of the game was a missed chance, when the Exiles' best batter, the aformentioned Hawkins, hit Faruk out towards Wyatty on the leg-side boundary in front of the spectators: Predicta himself said that he'd expect to take such a chance "99 times out of 100", but first he lost the ball in the background and then his spikes got stuck in crack; the result was the ball sailing over his head untouched - and lots of instructions from the now Pimms-ified support crew about what he should have done differently.
With 10 overs (of 42) to go the Exiles needed 46 to win - but with just three wickets in hand. Our first priority was to kill off their chase, so we went back to our two tighest bowlers, Joe and James W, who responded in kind by drying up the runs as requested . . . and taking wickets. The second of these - a good catch on the boundary by George Bradford - induced Hawkins to judge the dismissed batter a "cricketing moron" as he departed, obviating the need for us to do any sledging of our own. Now nine down, the Exiles shut up shop and blocked out the last few overs to complete a most entertaining draw.