Boring

By Barmy Kev, with Dingy bits and some Lower Pav quotes
August 3 2012

BARMY KEV REPORTS ON THE WARWICKSHIRE BORES ATTEMPT TO FORCE PEOPLE TO THE PAVILLION TO WATCH THE OLYMPICS.

I had a day off as Olympic “Games Maker”. Better still the forecast was good and Middlesex were playing at Uxbridge. This was a rare opportunity for me to catch some midweek cricket this season.  My marathon Olympic shifts had taken their toil and I overslept and had other matters to catch up with.  So up to 12:30 report is courtesy of Dingy Bags scribbles  

At start of play Mr Perambulator announces “ From Gatting End its Toby Roland Jones, no it isn’t, yes it is. no it  isn’t  I can safely say it’s Gareth Berg”.  In 80^th over one climbed Troughton out 209-4.  Westwood’s 100 came off 270 balls. Quote Lower Pav “ scintillating a delight to watch”. Anon quote. “ Planks walk quicker”. Everyone was put out of their misery Westwood ct Malan, although Mr Perambulator announces it as bowled.  Barmy Kev arrives and as catching up on updates, Maddy caught out slashing to deep cover point. Now that will teach them to play an attacking shot.

With score 252-5 from 114 at lunch I was looking for Warwickshire to push on and maybe go for an unlikely 4^th bonus point and hope we may prise a quick wicket . The attrition continued. At 110 overs Warwickshire made 264.   Shame the next over we got 6^th wicket that would have earned a bonus point and another wicket over after. In fact Dext managed to slow matters down even more and take 2 wickets. This despite Woakes and Rickety Clarke who I thought were big hitters hanging around. The 300 was reached with 8 wickets down in the 128^th over.  There was a loud sarcastic applause from Vermin Corner as was there for a rare boundary.  We were calculating the run rate and how it was varied between 2.3 an over and 2.4 throughout.    A random chant of “let’s all watch the grass grow” and “ its like watching paint dry” resounded.  Lower Pav made his feeling clear about Warwickshire tactics in a discussion when he was near the pavilion and Darren Maddy lets just say was not impressed. Our two old boys Wright and Rankin didn’t last long and at tea mericfully they were all out for 324 at rate of 2.4 an over.  Credit to our bowlers for working away, but at no stage did Warwickshire try to force the pace.

 Once Middlesex batted there was a stark contrast in approach.   Two successive fours off the 2^nd over by Denly of Wright “are you watching Warwickshire was the chant”?   Denly was looking fluent but he attempted to play at high one that found edge caught behind.  The 50 was up in 13^th over. A riled Maddy came on as 1^st change and swiftly had Bucko plum LBW.   He and Patel curbed the run rate.  There was a ball that Patel got to turn a lot and AC edged to gully. Lets hope Ollie can extract this amount of spin. Dext and Moggy dug in well to see us safely to close.   

Note the most dangerous  bowlers on view were supposed part-timers Dext and Maddy. With 182 lead I would like to see us bat to lunch with something like 300 lead and can’t see on this pitch,with their lack of enterprise and with something like 65 overs left Warwickshire chasing this.  In fact from what I’ve seen an overnight declaration would be safe.