Cricketing manoeuvers in the dark at Ally Pally

The Strollers walked off the pitch at Alexandra Palace on Wednesday evening in near darkness, following a hard fought defeat in their first 20/20 fixture of the season. Having spent the best part of the previous 48 hours on the phone trying to summon up a team following a large number of withdrawals and injuries (the clashing Champions League final notwithstanding), skipper Gav was relieved to finally get a game on at all thanks to the late inclusion of three newcomers to the playing staff: Matt Glickstein (a NLCC coach), young wicketkeeper David Couldrey and wandering minstrel Tariq, spotted lurking around behind the pavilion. The assembled Strollers were further relieved when, at 6.30pm Alexandra Park skipper Adam generously offered them the opportunity to bat first, with several latecomers yet to arrive.

Opening the batting in glorious summer evening sunlight, Graeme and Spencer quickly got down to the business of scoring fast, often behind the wicket, off some accurate bowling on a pitch that offered wildly variable bounce. Scoring at a healthy 7 runs per over things were looking good until, with the total on 29, Spencer was judged out LBW after an unusually brief spell at the crease. Graeme continued to hit out but scoring was hindered as first George and then Julian were dismissed cheaply. Matt arrived in at number five and rightly decided to dig in and stem the flow of wickets until Graeme was unluckily caught in the deep for 20.

Sadly the middle order collapse continued when Gav, trying to get the ball off the square after blocking a couple of overs was bowled and then David was caught on the boundary in a laudable attempt to crack on. Jake was dismissed for a duck but then Tariq stepped up and finally got after the Ally Pally bowling, sending several handsome strokes to the boundary. At the other end Matt decided to open his shoulders but, after a couple of powerful scoring shots, was also caught. Without a full batting lineup available Adam again kindly allowed the Strollers to recycle, so Julian stepped out for a brief encore innings followed by Simon, who had just parked his car! Thankfully the tail was able to support Tariq as he continued to lash out, mercifully taking the Strollers past the 100 mark and then into the last over when he was eventually caught out at long on, closing the innings on 110 all out – a good deal more respectable than how things had looked earlier.

After a quick turnaround and with the early summer light already beginning to dwindle, Ally Pally’s openers Chanaka and McGrath strode out to bat. Jake, still recovering from a bad toe injury, fearlessly tore in to open the attack with Graeme looking for some help from the pitch at the other end. The batsmen kept their cool and took some time to adjust their vision to the dimming conditions and soon began to get the innings moving. With the score passing 35 after 5 overs, Matt was brought on from the Pavilion end for a change of line and soon claimed the first wicket, bowling McGrath for 10.

With the opposition clearly enforcing an early retirement policy, Chanaka left the wicket having made his 25, leaving the opposition’s three and four to push on which they seemed to manage, finding the gaps and luckily surviving a couple of mistimed skied shots. Passing 50 after the seventh over, Ally Pally were seemingly cruising until David sharply spotted Stuart out of his ground after a delivery from Matt and promptly whipped off the bails.

Graeme completed his spell from the Wood Green end and was replaced by vice skip Simon who, having insisted that very morning that bowling was out of the question due to a trapped nerve in his shoulder, had a dramatic change of heart and demanded an assault on the batsmen. However, Blackmore continued to find the boundary despite the darkening conditions and took his side past the 75 mark after 10 overs before he too had to retire.

This brought the woefully named Farti to the wicket who, looking unsure, looped a catch to Matt off Simon’s bowling. Next in at number seven came Gerami who looked to impose with a couple of hard hit fours until he too fell victim to Simon’s bowling with a shot driven to mid on, where Tariq took an excellent reflex catch. At the other end Matt completed his spell with the wicket of the young number six, Steve, so collecting a valuable three-fer on his first Strollers outing. By now the light had all but gone yet despite this and the score being now at 97 off 15 overs, the game was certainly afoot – all results remained possible.

Spencer took over from Matt at the Pavilion end, demonstrating for the first time this season his abilities as a medium pacer and, bowling out of some now very murky foliage behind, first claimed the wicket of captain Adam with a grubber – not an uncommon dismissal on this pitch - and then Nat who was caught cheaply by Jake at mid off, making up for an earlier spilled chance.

With tailenders Burge and Gorman now at the crease, the field closed in. However the two batsmen kept their nerve until scores were level when, with wily opportunism, wicket keeper David ran out Gorman, clearly too eager to claim the winning run. This enforced the return of the retiree Blackmore who, facing Jake in the eighteenth over, prodded a tidy single and claimed victory for his side in the ICC sanctioned gloom.

Clearly the post mortem would record that the Strollers had fallen short of posting a winning total by some twenty or thirty runs but again the bowling attack had made a proper fight of it and, considering that beforehand it was doubtful that a game would even be possible, it was a fine effort especially from the newcomers from whom we look forward to seeing more in the coming weeks.

Gavin Richardson
24.05.07

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