Middlesex CCC
Rain,rain,rain
Oh no,not you lot again!
By The Diamond Ruled OK
July 12 2012
After a fair old pasting to say the least on the first day, how would the Middle fair today?
Rain, rain, rain.
An early start at home with stuff to do, who said being on holiday should be all fun? Weather looking good at about 10:00am I went for the option of using the car to get to Uxbridge. Match reporting and beer are often not a good mix and with the possibility of rain later in the day I really couldn’t be asked to faff around with the bus service. Car parking for £3 is cheaper than using the 607 anyway and you do not have to share your transport unless you wish to. A good few cars already in the field parked up and signs of people having been towed out over the last few days as well, park near the track Diamond you don’t want to be next behind Vic’s tractor.
I walked into the ground to meet up with the Vermin Corner residents already there in Beefy and Phil. All covers off and a bit of a breeze blowing to help dry the ground out. It wasn’t as soggy underfoot today as it had been on previous days either. Penguins are Mine and Kenny P turn up just as the umpires take the field and in no time at all Vic is called upon by them to build more sawdust barriers against the wet at the edge of the square on the pavilion side. Buck came off the field to be replaced by Harry Podmore and Phil attempted his first spillage of the day with my coffee but fortunately failed on this occasion.
On the field Notts are scoring quite freely, the odd edge is doing the usual for us and not going to hand, the less said about TRJ’s attempted run out the better but they should have been 136-5. Lumb reaches 50 off 115 balls with 5x4’s and Buck re-joins his team on the field.145-5,the old combo of last year is back in action again with Simmo hanging on to a good catch off Dial M’s bowling to remove Lumb for 50.
I go for a wander in the hope of taking another wicket and all my sub editor can be bothered to record is a bowling change with Iceman coming on from the Gatting Way end. Chatting to Seaxe Man, Vic and Eric on my perambulation had no effect except the Nott’s score moving on to 177-5 by the time of my return. Over rate of minus 2 sees Ollie on to bowl to get it down again before lunch.
The cricket being a little slow Beefy decides to check on his phone/internet what time our train is on Sunday week. He gives us a couple of start from Paddington times to Worcester and we rip him to bits as we will be playing in Cheltenham and it’s a fair distance to walk between the two.
The 200 came up a few minutes before lunch but there was still time for Voges to reach his 50.( 209-5 at the lunch interval. )Voges 53no and Read 33no (in usual Read style).Kenny P goes off to check out the new sports facility behind the ground, Beefy heads off to KFC, Phil to the shop and Penguin just wanders off as penguins do . Vic and the boys work hard on the wicket and run ups.
Post lunch we need wickets and quickly. Often during a session of play the ball will find one player to follow around, on this occasion it was Corey, I do hope he hadn’t had too big a lunch. Coops arrives having been to the dentist in the morning (not sure who had the better morning) and Read gets his 50 off 76 balls with 3x4’s. Mala on for a couple of overs before the new ball was taken and yields the 100 partnership run. Another walkabout and this time round I manage to buy the wicket of Read, caught and bowled TRJ for 71 to break a partnership of 143. 288-6. With Voges on 99 Beefy tries to buy another wicket by going to the men’s room, it fails and Voges waits for him to get back before passing the 100 mark off 167 balls with 11x4’s.We have a visitor at Vermin Corner, a red kite flies over the ground, we are slightly worried as they feed on small rodents and carrion i.e. vermin. It carries on over the ground on the breeze looking for better fare out on the Common maybe. It did see Notts post their 300 though.
“Squeaky” arrives and must have put Phillips off as he edged TRJ to Ollie for a score of 6,304-7. Coops is on a beer a wicket and we urge him to drink up as the next one will be along soon. He heads to the bar and misses the whole of Adams innings which was as follows, straight 6 off TRJ, a cut 4, a drop at slip by Berg and playing on to his 4th ball dragging it onto his stumps. 314-8, I help Coops out with his beer task by having one with him. Arriving back in Vermin Corner I say “one more wicket and we get another bowling point”. No sooner are the words out of my mouth and “the combo” (Simmo/Murts) gets rid of Voges for 105, 316-9. 10 runs added by the last pair before Gurney is LBW to TRJ for 4 ,329 all out.
Tea taken at the change of innings with a few spots of rain falling and Penguin having a moan that he was cold, should have worn more than a polo shirt then mate and anyway penguins don’t/shouldn’t feel the cold. The rain gets heavier and local knowledge sees the ground staff getting a lot of covering out there fast. Those of us left stand outside for a while, just long enough for my Middlesex umbrella to provide them with entertainment by blowing inside out and refusing to fix itself for ages, it came within a minute of going in the bin. A nice warm cup of tea in the pavilion and then off home, dropping Phil and Ken off on the way as I couldn’t make them walk to the station in the pouring rain could I.
What do we need with the state of the game at the moment? Rain, rain, rain, for at least a day and that could be tomorrow, the forecast is looking rather bleak. It would suit us to lose a lot of time in the game, not Notts who would consolidate their position on top the table with a win and the one person it would cause chaos for is Vic (and his team) who have seen enough rain already this summer. Ah well back again tomorrow? Why not, wife’s list of jobs permitting.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012:07:14:13:18:18 by The Diamond ruled ok.
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Do you want to tell the boys and girls who had to get off the train at Kings Cross to go visit the "Little boys Room" or shall I Coops?
Great report. Despite a bad two days for us Vermin Corner still seemed to enjoy themselves. I wish I could have been there even though we are up against it.
(Might be cheaper than an osteopath).
Half a dozen or more juvenile pied wagtails in the outfield on day 1, a red kite on day 2: a birdwatcher's delight. If there's any more rain on the outfield watch out for some confused waders.
Isn't that Vic with his wellies on the wrong feet?
