Nemesis Again

By Auntie Janet
September 10 2009

Auntie Janet once again provides chapter and verse on her day. All the regular features are there - the cat, the awkward journey and the poor outcome for Middlesex. Shaun Udal provides the punchline but Auntie Janet provides the copy. Many thanks, as always, to her.

The tortoise and the hare

The alarm clock was on cue meowing loudly at 6.14am, but I was not ready to get up. She persisted so I got up at 7.00am. I had no food to prepare as I have had a busy few weeks and have not had time to shop.

I bought my lunch at Grodzinski’s and caught my bus to King’s Cross at 8.00am. I also ordered a special cake for Nashie’s leaving do.

I was forced to get off at the ‘Thames Link’ stop as the next stop was closed. I toyed with the idea of using the Piccadilly Line, but decided that the Metropolitan Line was more pleasant as it was largely over ground (and faster). How wrong I was. There were delays on the Metropolitan Line and I had to change trains at least 4 times. I got to Uxbridge very late and missed the first half an hour. Maybe I should have got the Piccadilly line after all as that was the last train I caught to Uxbridge.

I got to the ground and found that Kent had won the toss and were batting. They were already 45 without loss. They doubled the score by 11.40am, with Northeast reaching 50.

Kartik was omitted as he had a sore hand! Silverwood was playing instead. By 12.15pm the score had reached 115 (from 27 overs) and we were still wicketless.

Silverwood took over bowling at the ‘Gatting Way’ end and he gets ‘The Chubster’ (aka Key) c & b for 46 from the last ball of his over. At lunch Kent were 123/1.

Lambs to the slaughter

After lunch I thought we’d suffer a further onslaught. Just when I picked up my knitting  the second wicket fell with Northeast edging Murtagh to Simpson for 84 (145/2). Jones was then bowled by Murtagh for 20 (156/3).

Yippee a bowling point!

At 3.15 Tea was declared. We all thought it was early (not used to the early start) and the score was 245/3.

After tea the 100 partnership came up between Stevens and Van Jaarsfeld with Van Jaasfeld reaching 50 first. Stevens took a long time to get off the mark. Various bowling options were tried from both ends, including Adam London, and the ball still hit the boundary regularly. One ball rolled up a boundary board and hit a man in the face. He was tended to by both physio’s.

This is getting depressing. The new ball was taken after 80 overs as the 150 partnership came up. Some of the fielding looked a little ragged as balls weren’t fielded cleanly.

Finn was bowling the Gatting Way end when Van Jaarsveld tried to hit the ball over the covers when London took a brilliant one handed catch to dismiss Van Jaarsfeld for 86 (349/5).

Unfortunately that was our last success as Malan dropped Stevens in the slips from Berg’s bowling in the last over of the day.

One funny incident occurred when Udal chase a ball to the boundary near where I was sitting and he skidded over the boundary a few seconds after the ball. He sat there and said: “I think I’ll stay here”.