AC celebrates his ton

By Big Harvey
August 24 2012

Big Harvey reports on an interesting third day's play. We hear how the game shifted from one side to the other, Greek Gods, his Lunch and a helicopter.A cracking read.

Yesterday's wonderful fightback by our bowlers  had left Warwickshire on 293/8, a lead of just 6 runs with numbers 9 and 10 at the crease and the ball only 11 overs old. I therefore had high hopes of us knocking them over and conceding only a negligible first innings lead, maybe even denying them another bonus point. Wright and Barker had other ideas though. Conditions were excellent for batting, and as happened yesterday morning the ball  refused to swing.

 The 300 was passed without any alarms at all. At first they were happy to nudge and nurdle, but then Barker went on the offensive. Three fours were scored off one TRJ over, but an attempt to hit a fourth only succeed in finding Ravi Patel on the boundary... who somehow managed to drop it! It was the kind of drop that would have a bowler at any level of the game tearing his hair out.

With no wicket after half an hour I decided to call on some divine intervention. With my discipleship of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine suspended indefinitely for health reasons (and he doesn't like to be bothered before noon in any case), I needed to call upon a different deity. I therefore headed off to pay tribute to Edesia, the Roman goddess of food. This consisted of going to the Members' Lounge and ordering a bacon roll. My libation of hot chocolate must have worked wonders, as returning to my seat I was greeted by the sight of Barker (23) heading back to the pavilion having just been caught behind off Murts. 328/9. Only 5 more runs were added before Murts ended the innings by knocking over Wright's off-stump for 13.

333 all out and to trail by 46 was somewhat disappointing for us given the overnight situation. Having said that, for most of yesterday we would certainly have taken a deficit of that size if offered!

 Our innings got off to a dreadful start, with Robbo (1) edging Wright's 2^nd delivery through to the keeper.Joe Denly edged his first ball between 2^nd and 3^rd slip for 4, and continued to play streakily. His luck ran out when he fell, caught by a leaping Rikki Clarke off a ghastly top edged slash, also off Wright, for 15. 25 for 2 and we were in trouble again.

Unperturbed by these losses, Middlesex continued to attack, with runs coming fast. Parity was reached after less than 11 overs.

By lunch it was 68/2 with Bucky on 27 and AC on 22. Very fast scoring, although encouragingly for Middlesex silly shots had been all but eliminated, and a useful partnership was developing.

I took the opportunity to make a further tribute to Edesia, ordering roast pork with all the trimmings. I usually prefer to bring my own food, but when the catering is this good and offers such excellent value for money, it seems rude not to make use of it.

Post lunch, AC did try one of those aforementioned silly shots, flashing at a wide one from Rankin which resulted in a huge appeal. I had detected nothing though. The members sitting near me were similarly unmoved, as thankfully was the umpire. This seemed to have a calming effect as reckless shots were replaced by largely risk-free ones and twos, which nevertheless kept the scorers busy. This brought the field in to something almost reminiscent of one of those one day powerplay fields. A rare risky shot from Bucky, an upper cut only just clearing third man for 6 brought up the 100 off only 23 overs. AC's 50 was posted with an on-driven boundary off an overpitched delivery from Barker. Bucky's followed in the next over with a streaky shot to the third man boundary.

 A bunch of  pre-adolescent kids with their adult minder started offering very loud high-pitched vocal support to The Bears in the Members' Area. This did not go down well among the members (average age 60+), and a steward was duly summoned to go and shut them up. I'm not sure how I feel about this. Yes on the one hand it was piercing, annoying, and probably no more appropriate than engaging in such behaviour in the lower tier of the pavilion at Lord's, for example. Surely though it's about time that grounds had sections where such vocal support is encouraged.? There are few enough young people watching championship cricket as it is. Do we really want it to be the exclusive preserve of grumpy old men?

 By the time the 150 came up off just 35 overs, Middlesex were really in the driving seat. The 150 partnership was brought up with a superbly placed shot by Bucky off Blackwell to the extra cover boundary. Warwickshire chopped and changed their bowlers around constantly, switching ends, but all to no avail. AC brought up the 200 for Middlesex, smacking Maddy to the unguarded mid wicket boundary. Soon after, Bucky posted his century, cutting Wright behind square for a couple.

When a large double rotor-bladed military-style helicopter landed next to the ground behind the scoreboard, the Warwickshire bowlers must have felt like jumping in it. 

What a chopper!

 Tea arrived with Middlesex at 223/2, with Bucky on 107 and AC on 84. Our batsmen and my food goddess had done us so proud that I felt another tribute was in order, with a delicious jam and cream scone and further libations of hot chocolate.

 After the break though, she seemed briefly to have abandoned us, as Bucky (109) slashed at a wide one from Rankin with Chopra taking the catch at 1^st slip. 228/3, and 10 runs later Dex (2) followed, chasing another wide one from Rankin and nicking it to Porterfield in the gully. I speculated on whether the Warwickshire team might contain rival disciples of Edesia. Strong suspicion fell upon Messrs Clarke and Blackwell in particular! AC thankfully kept his head while all around were losing theirs, bringing up his hundred in unspectacular fashion with a nudge round the corner.

 Unfortunately this was not to prove to be an inspiration to Adam Rossington (2), who skied an attempted hook, again off Rankin, to Maddy at deep backward square. Seldom can such mediocre bowling have been so handsomely rewarded as in this session. 252/5, and the wheels looked to be coming off in familiar style. What's more, next in was The Iceman, who for most of this season has been a walking wicket, and a shadow of the batsman who not merely entertained but bailed us out so often last season.

He started very shakily, and when dropped on 19 by Rikki Clarke at 2^nd slip, only two or three of the runs to his name had come from strokes that showed any sign of genuine control. That drop seemed to be the catalyst to a dramatic return to form though, as Middlesex fans were served with a reminder of exactly what we've been missing from his bat this season. Even in deteriorating conditions for batting he made it all look so wonderfully easy.

 Proceedings were brought to a premature end at 351/5 (AC 138* The Iceman 53*) a lead of 305, when the umpires called the players off for “bad light.” The light appeared to me and all the other spectators to be better than it had been at any stage during the previous two hours, but the word was that the umpires called them off when Warwickshire decided to take the new ball. It would appear that it's not only gods and goddesses who move in mysterious ways.

Unfortunately if tomorrow's weather forecast is to be believed, Zeus the Cloud Gatherer himself could have the final say in this one. Now that would be sad.