Report by Daniel Mortlock:
A new and rather surprising opposition for FAS today: Madrid FAST, made up of several British ex-pat families based in, well, Madrid of course. When, a few months ago, Frosty made the astonishing suggestion that he might be able to get a team to come over from the Spanish capital our immediate concerns were for his health - was this some sort of fever dream delusion? It turned out not, and so we had ourselves a game against some cricket-rusty fathers and their eager sons, several of whom are in the Spanish national junior set-up. Given the distance they'd travelled it was imperative to make sure they all got a good game, so we agreed to a twenty/20 "Test" so anyone who got a first-baller would have a second go.
FAS batted first and scored pretty freely throughout, maintaining a rate of about 7 an over - any scoring lulls were covered by the plentiful wides on offer. George Bradford (50* retired off 49 balls) and Tom Hall (35 off 39 balls) did most of the damage, while Dave Kittow (17* off 9 balls) made the most of a wayward final over to take us to an imposing first-innings total of 143/4.
Our new ball bowling plans were immediately rendered ineffective when word reached us that Madrid would be batting in ascending age order. The batters mostly had the technique to deal with our good balls, but didn't have the power to score off the bad ones, the result being some of the most economical bowling spells in FAS history. That Daniel Mortlock (3 overs, 2 maidens 1/5), Joss Dare (4 overs, 1 maiden, 0/8), George Bradford (3 overs, 1 maiden, 2/9) Ben Kittow (3 overs, 1 maiden, 1/9) and Tom Hall (2 oevrs, 1 maiden, 1/9) all managed to concede less than 10 runs in their spells and also managed at least one maiden over in a twenty/20 says it all. This was also due to pitch, which offered up irregular bounce in part because of the clay plugs on a length, the main result of which was 'keeper Dave Kittow having to take lots of balls on the second bounce, including stopping one with his throat. Madrid's eventual total of 92/5 was inflated somewhat as Cliff Dare (0/13) experimented with right-arm off-spin and Hal Dare (0/24) took the clever approach of spraying the ball everywhere in this innings in the hope of reaping the rewards later in the game.
After a brief tea break we enforced the follow-on. With the second innings reduced to 15 overs due to time constraints the scoreboard pressure rather brought the game to life, with the dot balls of the previous innings replaced with boundaries and wickets. Most of the former came off Frosty (3 overs, 0 maidens, 0/51), who possibly regretted his mid-match discovery that he was in fact fit to bowl, as he ended up with the least economical multi-over spell in FAS history. Hal appeared to heading the same way when his first over began +3 O O 4 . 2 6, i.e., 16 runs from 4 legal deliveries; but he then turned this around to take 4/3 from the rest of his spell, finishing up with 3 overs, 1 maiden, 4/19, comfortably his best bowling figures for FAS. Ben (1/8), Dave (1/14, the wicket being his third for FAS, not his first as we thought at the time) and Joss (1/12) also took wickets, thanks in part to some dramatic catches by Ben (diving full-length - quite something) and Frosty (a full-blooded pull slamming into his chest before being gathered) and George (a thin edge bouncing off his gloves onto the back of the stumps and back in to his gloves). And while he didn't take a catch, Joe White, out of action with a slipped disc in his back, heroically fielded at slip for a few overs, bringing us up to eleven for the only time today and marking his 31st consecutive season making an appearance for FAS, a streak bettered only by FAS founding members Cliff and Joss, who today extended their own runs to, respectively, 45 and 36 consecutive seasons.
Faced with a trivial target of 54 to win, openers Daniel Mortlock (11* off 24 balls) and Joss Dare (7 off 19 balls) set about playing some proper long-form cricket, seeing off the two Madrid national squad bowlers while keeping the scoreboard ticking. They were all set to feast off the looser change bowlers when Daniel called for a second run on an overthrow, only for a direct hit to see Joss yards short of his ground. Ben (12 off 11 balls) and then Hal (11* off 5 balls) finished the game off in a succession of big hits, the winning runs coming with the best part of 4 overs to spare.