Bristows

5th Jun 2018 - Alexandra Palace
Won by 5 wickets - NRR = 2.39

It was a perfect evening for a game of cricket in North London. The opposition were a little late turning up which afforded a perfectly co-ordinated (everyone with matching shirts and caps) CIPACC some time for pre-match fielding/catching practice. Perhaps this practice paid off as there were no drops in the match which I am assured is not a regular occurrence…

CIPACC were fielding first and so the game got under way with bowling from Chris Milton and Tim Headley. Chris Milton’s two overs were so devastating that he was replaced almost instantly to avoid him from bowling their entire team out. In his two overs, Chris took 3 wickets and conceded only 3 runs, each of which were through third man, which apparently means that they “barely even count” for pace bowlers. Milton even managed to mop up the wicket of our very own Jon Bailey (duck) who had nobly offered to bat for the opposition after they had turned up with only ten men. Jon was treated to a fairly hostile reception when arriving at the crease, which may have influenced his innings somewhat.


Jon was later to also volunteer to be the umpire. Unfortunately for Jon, the heckling remained when umpiring. In particular, when picking up the match ball after a wicket, one CIPACC player was prompted to comment that “that was the closest Jon had got to a ball all day”. I guess that is what you get for being helpful…

After the openers had inflicted damage, the bowlers were rotated to give others a bite at the cherry. George Pidgeon was able to claim a wicket by confusing the batsman with a googly. Mark Dean bowled well as the pressure seemed to mount on the Bristows middle order. Bowling duties were then passed on to Ben Hunter and James Duffy. Ben started well, then after the change of end he bowled to devastating effect claiming three wickets, and proving too quick for the Bristows batsmen to handle.

Perhaps the most memorable moment of the evening happened after the change of ends. The scorebook will show that Tim Headley took a catch. However, there is more to the story than that. Tim was fielding in the gully region and Andy Spurr was in at short fine leg. After the batsman chipped up a ball into a region somewhere between those two positions, both players went for the ball. At the last minute Andy realised a crash was impending and hit the deck in an attempt to avoid a charging Tim. Unfortunately, this did not work and Andy was left with a couple of sizeable gashes in his legs where Tim’s spikes had hit him. It was clear that it was a nasty cut, and that it would be best to keep his leg straight, so Andy was carried off the pitch by the rest of his team before heading to hospital. After a short while, play was resumed with John Hull taking up the mantle of skipper.

Bowling continued from Rob Jackson and Jon Bailey (despite having started that innings as a batsman) before the Bristows innings was finished. Credit to Jon for taking a very delicate run out. The faintest of touches was all it took to steer the batsman’s straight drive onto his team mate’s stumps to run him out.

After this, CIPACC took to the crease with Bruce Torrence and Tom Fraser as openers. Bruce was caught at gully by a marvellous catch. It looked almost certain we were to see a broken nose until the very last second when the fielder’s hands somehow managed to cling on to the ball. A fabulous catch, but a duck nonetheless.

John Hull then came in to bat helped see out the overs from their opening bowlers. After a couple of bowling changes there were a few gifts for Tom and John to dispatch for easy runs. Tom made an unbeaten 25 with a number of delicate/weak singles to third man. Rob Jackson proved to be the third and final duck of the day and was replaced by James Duffy who took a very aggressive approach to batting, and consequently mopped up most of the remaining runs fairly quickly. Mark Dean and Jon Bailey (again) also contributed with the bat. Unfortunately for Jon, he was again dismissed; this time, to a curious quirk of fate – the ball seemed to hit every part of the keeper (except his gloves) before trickling on to the stumps for a stumping/run-out. Tim took to the crease to see the match off. Albeit, he did that my missing a wide and throwing his bat about 30 feet down towards square. A wide nonetheless was enough for CIPACC to take the win.

It was a nice evening for a nice game of cricket, although I am sure most will remember it for the image of Spurr being carried off the field by about 8 other lads.

Report by Tom Fraser

Batting

Player	Runs scored	How Out	4s	6s	SR
Bruce Torrance		Caught	0	0	0
Tom Fraser	25*		4	0	104
John Hull	12	Caught	2	0	100
Rob Jackson		Caught	0	0	0
James Duffy	16*		2	0	76
Mark Dean	2	Bowled	0	0	40
Jon Bailey	1	Stumped	0	0	25
Tim Headley	0*		0	0	-
Chris Milton					-
George Pidgeon					-
Ben Hunter					-
Extras	22				-

CIPA - 78 for 5 off 12.3
Scorebook

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