The Valley ground looked in absolutely sparkling condition when the teams arrived for this 40-over match, on a cool and overcast day. Ben Larter won the toss for the strong-looking Sydenham Cardinals XI side and batted, with his openers Nick Smithson and Brett (AB) rewarding him with a good opening stand of 48. We then reduced them to 60/3, with our debut players Wade Millar and Richie Mayo sharing the wickets, but Nick kept powering on until he eventually retired for a very good and chanceless 53.
Then the evergreen John Kerrison removed the formidable Ben Larter LBW (the 3rd LBW in a row they sportingly gave), a notable wicket for John as he’d previously also got Ben’s Dad John many years ago! So at drinks, the score was 100/4, but afterward the powerful Jamie Livingstone and Stokesy both hit very good and rapid 50’s, to put the Cardinals well on top – with Jamie hitting the shot of the day, a massive straight drive that nearly cleared the tall trees behind the pavilion! Thanks mainly to their efforts, although their other batsmen kept chipping in well right down to Jimmy Gallagher at 11, they eventually finished with the formidable score of 247/8.
The best of our bowlers were the debut pair of Richie (6 0 28 3) and Wade (6 0 33 2), while Mark Hume (1-30) and Stan Wooliscroft (0-32) also bowled worthily. While Tony Penny was sharp behind the stumps (including with 2 good stumpings) and Hamish Cochran took the catch off the day, a beautifully judged catch on the long-on boundary by the bridge – as although catching the ball over the line, he somehow managed to keep his feet just inside it.
After a good lunch, we obviously needed a good start and initially, Hamish Anderson and Mike Mehaffey provided this, getting us to 33 in good time while they both played some fine shots. But then they were both out in quick succession, Mike bowled by a fine ball from Brad Moore that swung back sharply. Humey then looked in excellent touch and with Wade took the score up to 69, but after picking up sharpish left-armer Jimmy Gallagher for 2 big 6s over square leg Humey tried again, and Brad Moore took a very good catch running round the backward square leg boundary. Then Jamie Livingstone (as if he hadn’t done enough already!) produced a high-quality seam bowling display, with 3 quick wickets that left us reeling at 70/6 at drinks, in a ‘4 wickets for 1 run’ collapse.
Tony Penny looked in fine touch and he and Graham Aveyard (who had earlier fielded very well) then steadied the ship in a stand of 26, before Graham was just run out after a fine bit of fielding by the youngest player on the field – who hit the stumps with a powerful side-on throw from 20 yards! Captain Bert then joined Tony and they put on a further 40 runs before Tony was also narrowly run out by an even more spectacular bit of fielding – when Brad Moore fielding by the tree somehow produced a powerful and accurate backhand flick, with his back to the wicket, that landed in bowler Ben’s hands over the wicket. Tony had made a high-quality 30, with some lovely cuts and sweeps, and his innings was comprised of 9 x 2, 2 x4, and just 4 singles, so well did he time the ball.
Soon after this came another yet wonderful bit of fielding by the Cardinals, when a well-hit straight drive looked for all money like going into the pavilion for 6 – but Jimmy at long on sprinted round the boundary, threw himself a long way through the air, and brilliantly managed to hold an absolute blinder left-handed at fullest stretch – only to narrowly lose the ball when he crashed to the earth! By now it was starting to get quite dark, but Ben wisely refused Bert’s appeal against the light – as the very complicated semi-Duckworth Lewis system that he tries to apply to such situations, somehow very mysteriously always just favours the home team 🙂
Bert somehow managed to be an unlikely top scorer with a lucky 35*, but we were well beaten as we eventually finished at 147/9. Interestingly one of our more experienced players had prophetically said before the game, when looking at the respective teams, that “they look about a 100 runs younger, fitter, faster and sharper than us” and this was exactly spot on!
But it was a game played completely in the best traditions and spirit of the valley, with everyone in both teams getting a bat plus everyone a bowl who wanted to. For the Cardinals Cam Rennell showed his keeping class, even standing up to the quicker bowlers at times, while Brad Moore bowled particularly well with 6 0 15 1. But the standout bowler was Jamie Livingstone, with the splendid figures of 6 4 6 3, to complete a great all-round performance from him! And the final words for this most enjoyable day are a big thanks indeed to our wonderful President Scott Cartwright, our sole host, who as always did a most splendid job 🙂
Bert Walker (lost the toss, lost the game, but did at least win a bottle of gin in the raffles!).
