By Grockle
June 15 2002

Richard Johnson returns to the side and gives us what we've been lacking. He takes 10 for 75 in the game and 7 for 43 in the second innings to put Hampshire on the back foot and his side in a winning position....hopefully!

HAMPSHIRE CC1 @ BATH 15 JUNE 2002

DAY ONE

DAY TWO

DAY THREE

DAY FOUR

The return of the Hairy Greek...

What a strange game...No play until after 3:00 on the first day but Hampshire and especially Kendall still managed to get 149 on the board and therefore we had a game to build on.  Richard Johnson looked like he hadn't been away and Matt Bulbeck seemed to enjoy working with him.  Simon Francis was preferred to others as Steffan Jones' replacement but he still looks loose in his first few overs although he did get it sorted later on and took two evening wickets after Johnno got back into his swing with only 6 on the board.  It did not have the feel of a game that was going to go to a result though I'm afraid when I got there on the second day with an hour gone.

However, Matt Bulbeck (with Rod Marsh watching) hit early and 149 for 3 soon became 178 for 6 as he got Johnson and Laney.  Mike Burns also looked dangerous on an unpredictable pitch and after Bulbeck got his third of the morning - the dangerous Kendall - 'George' had Pothas caught behind and Shaun Udal clean bowled.  Mascarenhas is a good player and seems to be getting better every time I see him.  He put up an excellent fight at the end of the visitor innings and seems to have an extra yard of pace from last year.  Nevertheless, Richard J returned and cleared up the Hampshire men with Mascarenhas caught behind and Mullally caught by Ian Blackwell.  19.3 overs, 6 maidens, 32 runs and 3 wickets - not a bad return and just what we need.

Bully returned 3 for 68, Francis came back with 2 for 69 and George is still a force with 2 for 29 off a very pacey 9 overs.  The pitch helped by keeping the batsmen guessing - Robin Smith got a nightmare ball on the evening of the first day which didn't bounce at all!  But it meant we could have a game if we put a big score up quickly.

Not to the script...

We were supposed to get off to a flyer and produce some big partnerships.  The pitch and a strange couple of LBW decisions put paid to that.  Bath is not a picnic for batting.  It is an open secret that Kevin Shine would prefer not to play here and it seems that Mr Cox is of the same opinion.  He certainly was when he was first man out LBW to some Aussie called Mullally with 14 on the board.  He pointedly looked at his bat as he returned to the 'pavilion' although some of us were not so sure that wood had hit leather.  Matt Wood held one end solid while Burns, Parsons and Bowler (who had a much more dubious, very high, LBW decision given against him) came and went.   At 47 for 4 we were hopiing for rain to save us from following on.  Wood went just after the 50 for 25 and we were looking for stability from Rob Turner and Ian Blackwell.  The rain had been floating around all day, it stopped us a couple of times and dark clouds were always present, in the end they closed play at 6:00 when the light got too bad.   We were probably hoping for lots of wet stuff to give us the draw.

Day 3...

Blackwell did not get a big score but he did put some stability in the position.   He was next out for 42 off 47 with 36 of them in fours.  Rob Turner was the stable bat making 33 off 144 balls and allowing our other middle batsmen put a few scores together.  He partnered Blackwell for 49 (100 for 6), Dutch for 41 (141 for 7) and Johnson for 16 (157 for 8), but when he was next out at 161, Jamie called the men in and declared to have a couple of overs at the foe before the end of play.

Massacre...

Hampshire had to face Bulbeck and Johnson for 4 overs.  Surely they'd just block and start for real on Day 4.  Kenway facing Johnson managed to do that for the first ball, but he really shouldn't have hit the ball to Matt Bulbeck because the catch meant that Hampshire were 1 for 0!  White survived the rest of the over and Johnson had started with a wicket maiden.  Kendall faced Bulbeck who also came in bending his back and didn't look any more comfortable against him.  By the end of the second over there was still no score.  So White faced Johnson, but not for long as he snicked one to Turner and Hampshire looked to be going into the fourth day two down with nothing to their name.  Three overs down and Johnson had produced two amazing overs for 0 runs and 2 wickets.  However, the fun was not over.  Matt Bulbeck had Jason Laney LBW first ball - Hampshire were 3 for 3!! So Pothas and Kendall had to get through the last over from Bulbeck.

They didn't - the end of the day came when Bowler took a catch from Kendall of the third ball of Bulbeck's over!  3.3 overs and the visitors end the day on 3 for 4.   Richard Johnson - 2/2/0/2 and Matt Bulbeck - 1.3/0/4/2.  I wonder if Marsh stayed to see that happen!  Cox's declaration started to look inspired.  If we could get them out cheaply and the weather held, we could do this!

Day 4...

Not wonderfully warm and sunny, but it wasn't raining.  I was going to be there but after taking SIX HOURS getting from Bristol to Bicknoller (55 miles) on Friday night I thought I'd stay in bed.  England look like they're going to win the Sri Lanka series and England will probably be facing Brazil while we face the same Sri Lankans next Friday.   Could we go to that game with a good CC1 win?

Johnson started where he left off.  Goodbye to Pothas with the score on 5 - skittled!  They got to double figures before Bulbeck took out Johnson's stumps to get in on the act 16 for 6 was unbelievable.  Robin Smith and that man Mascarenhas looked to stem the panic and nursed the score to 44 before Johnson took his 4th when Cox pouched Mascarenhas.  The five-fer came 15 minutes later with Udal's LBW.  The sixth took a little longer but came to Johnson when he clean bowled Tremlett before Hampshire hit 100.  In fact they didn't hit 100 because Johnson took his tally to 7 for 43 when Mullally was LBW 2 short.  Brilliant stuff and while England were hammering Denmark, we were in with a good shout of getting big points against Smith's men.  Robin Smith was left high and dry having scored almost 45% of his sides second tally....oh what a shame!  Bulbeck supported the Hairy Greek well with 3 for 32 off 11 overs but it really was his day and what a return to the side.  Let's hope its the start of a great season!

Can we get the 188 we need to win?  We've got most of two sessions to do it...should happen shouldn't it? But it didn't. You would have thought that at 118 for 4 needing only 70 off 114 balls we were home and dry. Losing Parsons, Bowler and Turner almost without pause put paid to any chance we had. Bad batting or good bowling? Who knows? In the end we were lucky that Johnson, Bulbeck and Dutch refused to go the same way and we took the points for a draw after surviving 14 overs to record it. How can you do so well and get so little? Still we're unbeaten in the CC1 - let's just hope that the 14 runs we fell short do not come back to haunt us at the end of the season.