Victory in Roehampton
 
A magisterial and perfectly paced unbeaten 76 from De Dazzler steered the Strollers to seven wicket victory over Chudley Ales in furthest Roehampton. Set 143 to win, Haines was there from the first over to the last, with Lucas, S****, Betts and a large number of wides providing manful support. Umpiring decisions regarding those wides were not always appreciated by the home team, and occasioned several lively exchanges of views in the middle.

The Strollers began the day with only 8 men as Boughey, S**** and Ward struggled to get across London in desperate traffic. Departure was also delayed as K***** decided to await the arrival of his skipper outside MacDonalds, despite being having told to wait by Highbury and Islington tube. But Chudley kindly lent the Strollers a couple of players, a sportsmanlike gesture which the Strollers promptly forgot.

Despite several spilled chances, accurate bowling – particularly from openers Lucas and Holmes – prevented any Chudley batsman from really getting going. Several Antipodean accents gave cause for alarm, and on this ground 12 months ago Chudley amassed a sizeable total. But wickets kept falling with regularity before real damage could be done. Jackson took the form shown at the nets into the middle and picked up three wickets among the later middle order batsmen.

Jake was unlucky enough to pick up the most bizarre no ball ever witnessed by most Strollers. After his first ball, the disgruntled West Indian umpire (of whom Boughey had inquired whether the LBW rule was in fact being played, possibly not improving his mood) called a no ball, claiming that he had not been told the bowler’s action and this constituted a breach of the laws.

This called stupefaction all round, and K***** “Barrack Room Lawyer” S**** took particular issue. Words were exchanged, and a quiet determination to give Chudley not an inch spread through the ranks.

For the second time in two games, the Strollers bowled a team all out, a feat which had eluded them until the very last game of the season in 2005. Still, 143 seemed a pretty good score on a unmowed outfield and was, ominously, only two more than we had failed to get against Stumps a month ago before the Great Rains.

Things did not look too good after Georgie was out in the first over to a pretty lively delivery from Clem. The ball was rising sharply from a length and coming through rather more quickly than the Strollers are used to. But Haines and Lucas came though with phlegmatic calm, taking the singles wherever they could. Clem tired and the rest of the bowling was not as good. The score kept rising at the required rate, and when Haines hooked Clem for four in his second spell it all looked good for the Strollers. And they got home, after another two hoisted drives through mid-wicket, with an over and three balls to spare.

Simon Boughey
12.06.06

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