Twickenham frustrated as bad light deprives Nunes’s men of victory

 

Twickenham    257-9   (C. Nunes 62, J-P Cronje 61, G. Hughes 50 O. Ratcliffe 7-42)

Barnes             114-8   (T. Hawk 28, D. Nicolaides 3-12, J. Scriven 3-42)

 

For the second week running Twickenham CC had much the better of a drawn game in MCCL Division Two.  Solid batting enabled the Ts to post an imposing 257 off 46 overs.  The Barnes innings suffered a poor start and the Lonsdale Roaders’ innings never gained any momentum.  With Barnes way off the pace and Twickenham going all out for victory, the south-west London evening gloom descended and the umpires took the players off 11 overs before the game’s scheduled close leaving Twickenham with four points and Barnes just the one.

 

Quite how the English ever invented cricket is a mystery.  Recent summers have appeared so filled with drizzle, damp and dreariness that it’s hard to imagine any learned English gentleman sitting down to even contemplate coming up with a game requiring sun and fair weather.  The frustrations of playing cricket in England were in ample evidence at Twickenham Green on week 2 of the MCCL season.  In hindsight, it was a minor miracle that 85 overs’ play were possible although, ultimately, Twickenham can feel a little hard done by that the elements ultimately conspired against them …

 

The rain didn’t prevent the cricketing day from starting a mere five minutes late, at 13h05.  As ever, Ts groundsman Tony Bendelow had prepared an excellent track.  It was dry and hard and there could be no complaints about the surface.  The outfield, meanwhile, was a lot wetter and both sides realised that they’d have a hard cricket ball to bowl with for about 20 overs, a sponge for around 15 and then something akin to a bar of soap for the rest of the innings.  Not ideal but, well, such is life in an English summer.

 

Barnes won the toss and opted to bowl.  The Ts, fresh from a belligerent batting display against near-neighbours Richmond the week before, started off in positive fashion.  J-P. Cronje hit the first boundary of the day in the first over, and it wasn’t long before Cronje and Hughes were purring nicely.  The slow pitch prompted Hughes to reel his drive in, although when the ball was over-pitched he wasn’t slow to stroke it straight passed the bowler.  Cronje, as ever, excelled with the flat bat shots and soon the Ts were 45-0 off 7.  That soon became 61-0 off 11 and, much like at Richmond the week before, the Ts were setting their stall out for a big score.

 

Barnes skipper Ed Craig wasn’t slow to recognise this and he began shuffling his bowling pack.  Matt Ewer replaced Pugh from the Pavilion End and his medium pace slowed the rate down a fraction.  Spin, in the form of Ollie Ratcliffe, was introduced from the Staines Road End, but with ten coming off the left armer’s first over it looked like it was unlikely to be his day; not ultimately the case at all …

 

Grant Hughes became the first Ts’ batsman to perish, falling immediately after registering 50 (in 56 balls) leg before to Ratcliffe.   Warwick Paull, batting at three, looked as elegant as ever, but he also perished LBW, this time to the nagging line of Ewer.  Skipper Carlos Nunes came in at four (with the score on 113) and, as is his way, made batting look very easy indeed.  The slow outfield didn’t seem to prevent Nunes from registering a battery of boundaries, as the Ts cruised passed the 150 mark in the 27^th over. 

 

The departure of Cronje for an impetuous 61 (in 64 balls) did little to stem the scoring rate as Nunes and number five Dan Hough continued to find the gaps.  Nunes took a particular liking to skipper Ed Craig’s bowling, smoothly clipping him over mid wicket for a maximum, while Hough concentrated on working the ball into the gaps.  As the score approached 200 the drizzle got a fraction heavier and both batters looked to up the run rate a little.  Hough drove nicely, whilst Nunes cut and pulled with confidence.  The departure of Twickenham’s Secretary for 37 (28 balls) and the first XI captain for 62 (45 balls) saw the run rate slide a little, as Ratcliffe came into his own.  His skiddy left arm spin slowed the Twickenham charge down and his 7-42 were well earned.  The Ts nonetheless found themselves declaring with 257 on the board and only 46 overs gone. 

 

The tea, as ever, was a glorious affair.  The sushi came and went quickly, as did the wide array of cakes and sandwiches.  Again, a straight A – if China ever enters the world of international cricket, then, if Ying Lin’s teas are anything to go by, they’ll be Englishmen queuing up to play out there.

 

Once the feast was over and done with, the Ts set to work on gaining the ten wickets they needed for victory.  Justin Scriven powered in from the Pavilion End, while Mike Vosloo took the new cherry from the Staines Road End.  And it wasn’t long before they were off the mark, Vosloo prompting a false shot from Tom Duff with Mark Ryan taking a simple catch at mid off.  6-1.  Matt Ewer and Ed Craig steadied the ship a little, clipping away nicely off their legs, but it wasn’t long before Scriven cut one back to remove Craig’s (13) off stump before performing a similar job on Ewer (9).  At 24-3 Barnes were struggling.

 

Tom Hawk, batting at four, looked composed enough, but when Ollie Ratcliffe departed – caught behind by Nunes off Scriven for 9 – Barnes were definitely creaking on 39-4.  Hawk and Holmwood, at six, opted to try to steady the ship, taking their time and taking few risks.  Hawk was a little more aggressive on Warwick Paull, who’d come on to replace Vosloo, playing some nice shots off his legs that pushed Barnes passed 50.  A smart bowling change by Nunes soon saw the tables turn firmly back Twickenham’s way.  Dimitri Nicolaides replaced Paull and immediately began to give the ball a bit of shape.  He put the ball in exactly the right areas and all the Barnes batters looked uncomfortable against the left armer.

 

Holmwood was the first to perish, bowled for 22, but he was quickly followed by wicketkeeper Beale – thanks to a truly stunning diving catch by Grant Hughes at first slip – and Pugh, bowled for 4.  With Mark Ryan nipping out the obstinate Hawk, caught behind, for 28 the Ts were going full throttle for victory.  

 

It was at this point, with Barnes on barely 100-8 and way off the pace, that the game took a rather strange turn.  Although the evening gloom was descending, it was highly debatable as to whether the off spin of Cronje (who’d come on at the Pavilion End) and the leg spin of Hughes (who was just about to come on at the Staines Road End) were in any way dangerous to the batsmen.  Most people on Twickenham Green will have certainly played in darker conditions, and most probably with quicker bowlers than Hughes and Cronje bowling.  But, with number ten Rob Craig positively begging the umpires to take the players off for bad light, the two men in charge eventually buckled.  Whilst Craig’s unwillingness to want to bat on was understandable (given Barnes’s position), the fact that Barnes had taken an eternity (around three and a half hours) to bowl their 46 overs, the fact that it was an all-spin attack that they were now facing and the fact that the Ts had to deal with the same damp bowling conditions did make it appear a little rich for the umpires to conclude proceedings in this fashion.  But this they did, and the game finished at 20h15 with no more than a handful of overs left to go.

 

The rather shambolic end should not, however, detract from the fact that both sides gave the game a decent go in what were for the most part difficult conditions.  Twickenham batted positively and deservedly came away with four points.  From their perspective it was a real shame that it wasn’t ten – as a victory would’ve taken them to the top of MCCL Division Two.