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My own inability to find the ground remained consistant with my three previous visits to Lullington and meant that on my arrival the score was 90-4 off 27 overs. Chats with Brian Simms and Robin revealed that the Toffs new ball combo of Flash and Hughie had been rampant early on reducing Lullinton to 1-2 in the first two overs. Dong inducing a nick behind and Hugh bowling the other opener with a "nip backer" which he left alone. Details on the other two wickets were not given.
Simsy and Hugh were in operation (I had wanted to see Flash in action, but Robin said he'd been replaced after bowling a couple of half trackers) and bowling tightly against a left hander who clearly wanted to get the rate moving. Eventually he tried a big swipe to midwicket off the skipper only to find his poles down. 100-5. Chatting with Shortie we agreed that from this position the Toffs could end up chasing 150 if they bowled well or 200 if not. I was enjoying chatting to Shortie who was on long on / third man patrol until we were joined by the father of one of the Lullington players who was keen to tell anyone who would listen about how great his lad was (he later acquired the nick name John Antill).
The Toffs bowled brilliantly for the remainder of the innings, the skipper finding turn and bounce, asking questions every ball. Spaff replaced Hugh and bowled a great line finding consistant movement away from the right handers. Lullington could not move the scoreboard along at all and lost a wicket every time they tried. Spaff took two wickets (including the son of John Antill – who immediately told us "shouldn't be playing, he's injured, twice on the same leg!") and Simsy the remaining three to finish the innings on 139 all out in the 45th over. This also took the skipper past 50 wickets for the season – a tremendous effort.
The only blemish in the field was down at fine leg when Flash's tentative long barrier was completely defeated by a ball not travelling very fast at all. From my view it looked as though it went under Flash's hands, but he was adamant that the ball had performed some kind of magical spinning act just as it got to him. A relaxed Duffield side enjoyed a decent tea, and it only took Arch a few minutes to start ribbing Flash with the old malt bread jokes. Arch's mood was significantly less jovial when talk turned to his drop catch against Selston and the abuse that followed from the Spaceman!
The skipper and Rodney opened up in Duffields chase knowing Lullington would come at them hard and before very long Ed's poles were in a mess, the bowler bringing one back through the gate – quite comprehensive.
Rodney and Spaff then took all the sting out of the Lullington attack with a superb partnership of around 70 Rodney playing very sensibly and Kris batting beautifully – no rash shots just picking the bowlers off when strayed even slightly. Some of his leg side boundaries very much in the Mark Waugh style – no great bat speed but just a well timed turn of the wrists resulting in the ball disappearing quickly to the square leg fence. He then took apart the Lullington leg spinner with a combination of cover drives and sweeps. Rodney perished edging behind off a seamer – initially he walked, then stopped to check if the umpire had given him. A strange end to an innings that had set things up nicely. Even this wicket didn't really perk up the bowling side much and the Duffield camp was a very relaxed one at this point.
Jones and Elloit took the score onto 100, the only thing of interest in this period was one over when 5 play and misses from Jonesey resulted in a lot of chat from the keeper "way too good for him" etc. Jonesey them launched the final ball over the bowlers head one bounce for four. Spaff's innings then unexpectedly came to an end with a ton seemingly on the cards – a half cut / half glide ending up in gully's hands. 102-3 and now the Lullington boys seemed to come back to life. Surely too late though?
The quick wickets of Jones and Mills (out in the same way as the skipper) very quickly sent Ed into that stress head mode where he becomes the most annoying person in the world. Now there was a game on and the Lullington skipper brought back the leggie. Hadders had dug in through this collapse and was joined by the hero of last week - Robin. No single's on offer at all, everyone up and no long hops or full tosses on show to release the pressure. Something was going to have to give – and when the leggie tossed one a little higher and wider Robin launched into it with a furious drive, alas it found a thick edge and the ball lobbed tamely to point.
Hadders and Arch together – two good men for a crisis situation. I don't think my attempt to break the tension at this point by offering Shortie £10 if he reversed swept the spinner went down too well with the skipper. The leg spinner's next over was crucial for Lullington. Now confident, he was throwing in a good quicker one / flipper and it was this one that accounted for Hadders, who went back to pull, late on the shot and plumb in front. The first time Hadders had tried to really attack ended his determined effort. Next ball to Hugh again the quicker one but much fuller – stumps everywhere. Momentum very much with Lullington but Duffield still within 20 with two wickets in hand.
Arch and Shortie tried to see Duffield home by nudging and scampering 1's and 2's. This resulted in a very eventful passage of play. Shortie drives the leggie to mid off and sets off – direct hit and even to those watching in the pavilion it looked out. But not to the umpire. However, next over the two batters set off for another tight single, another direct hit, but Arch was much further in than Shortie had been, big appeal and this time the same umpire sent Arch packing. 1-1 on crap decisions. Disaster.
The next two overs were blocked by Flash and Shortie, who seemed as shocked as the rest of us. The leg spinner started another over Duffield 130-9 with 49 gone but 55 to be bowled. I turned to Spaff and said "I honestly can't see where 10 runs are going to come from, losing draw." At this point Shortie played one of the most amazing shots ever – hindsight and a few days to think about it objectively have not changed my opinion of this. A pitched up delivery on leg stump was flicked (with seemingly no effort or bat speed), against the spin over the square leg for six – pure timing. A couple through extra cover and a single had taken the Toffs level with Shortie facing the seamer from the other end. A couple of balls passed without incident then Shortie flicking a shortish ball off his hip caught it high up on the bat and was tragically caught by the short mid wicket.
Shortie was gutted, Flash tried to throw his bat in the air and catch it (but missed and looked a little foolish). Very difficult to describe the mood at the time but the lads bounced back quickly enough and were soon in good spirits and both teams agreed it was a great game of cricket.
Related Links:
Duffield 1st XI - 2003
Duffield 1st XI Fixtures
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