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By Big Harvey
June 4 2014

Another stirling effort from Big Harvey on a better day for Middlesex but not a good one regarding his use of the trouser press or his ears. We hear about some excellent batting and some reckless shots, and even get a bit of music nostalgia. A treat for readers of all interests.

I was excited to discover that my room in The Lambton Arms Hotel had one of those trouser press thingies on the wall. As the owner of a pair of lightweight zip-off travel pants that have been around the world more than once, and couldn't have looked more rumpled if I'd spent several successive nights wearing them in a sleeping bag on the floor of the shed, I was keen to try it out. Unfortunately it seems that these contraptions are unable to work miracles and if anything the wrinkles are now incorporated even deeper into the fabric!

 The day dawned grey but dry, and the BBC weather forecast was one of those frustratingly non-committal ones, with vague talk about afternoon showers which may or may not be prolonged, heavy or thundery. I decided to forego breakfast, since last night's authentic Bangladeshi curry was still sitting heavy on my stomach. I felt as if I'd eaten about a pound of pure ghee, and if the truth be told, that might not be far wide of the mark.

 Middlesex resumed on 69/4, a massive deficit of 499 and the emphasis firmly on survival in the hope of rain.  Simmo was on 12, Denly 11. Stokes had 1 ball left of his over from last night, with Hastings at the other end. Stokes was immediately replaced by Rushworth though, and during the early exchanges life was made decidedly uncomfortable for the batsmen, with both bowlers beating the outside edge on several occasions. Denly managed the first boundary of the morning, a graceful cover drive, but then followed it with another altogether less elegant boundary as the ball passed at catchable height between 3^rd slip and gully.

 Simmo also weighed in with an off driven boundary off Hastings, and as the morning progressed, the frequency of plays and misses decreased. The weather conditions for batting improved and the bowling began to lack the discipline of yesterday and the first half hour of today. A Simmo square cut off Hastings, the shot of the day so far, was followed next over by another off driven boundary off Rushworth to bring up the 100. Ben Stokes replaced Rushworth and his opening delivery, a gentle loosener was given the treatment it deserved by Simmo, being emphatically smashed to the mid wicket boundary. At the other end, Wood replaced Hastings, and Simmo, who was managing to rather hog the strike greeted his first delivery with a straight driven 4.

The batsmen were really starting to dominate now, and once Denly managed to get some of the strike, he flayed Stokes for 3 successive boundaries, even if the last of these passed just over the outstretched fingertips of gully. We even got an unexpected spell of sunshine, and we were basking in it when Denly pulled Wood to mid wicket for 4, bringing up both his own 50 and the hundred partnership. Then completely out of the blue, Ben Stokes surprised Simmo (44) with some extra pace, demolishing his stumps in the most spectacular fashion, and Simmo showing few signs of having even seen it. 159/5.

Stirling was quickly off the mark with a cover drive to the boundary off Stokes, who was bowling a curious mixture of complete dross and seemingly unplayable magic balls. Things were progressing pretty well under the circumstances as Lunch was imminent, and we were claiming the session as ours until once again out of nowhere Denly (59) got a lifter from Hastings that he could only fend to Richardson at gully. 177/6, and despite what had looked like a good session for us, the precarious nature of our position was reinforced. Despite all the good work we were barely better off than we had been at the start, with the exception of the fact that salvaging a batting point or two now looked like a possibility.

It wasn't that dark!

The afternoon session began under heavily overcast skies with obvious shower clouds visible, but nothing immediately threatening. Stirling had a stroke of luck on 17 when a fairly straightforward chance was shelled by Stokes at gully off Rushworth. At the other end TRJ was having a torrid time initially, but eventually began to settle, and despite difficult weather conditions, runs started to accumulate. Stokes replaced Rushworth in what I commented was very bad light in which to be facing seam bowling. A Durham fan indignantly suggested however that “up here it's only bad light when you're wearing your pit helmet and you have to switch the lamp on the front of it on.” The umpires clearly agreed with him. 

Stirling followed up a curious boundary off Stokes over the wicket keeper's head, that I couldn't work out whether it was intentional or not,  with a pull for 4 through mid wicket that certainly was, to bring up our 200 and give us our first batting point.Runs began to flow more freely, with TRJ starting to see the ball quite well, and Stokes in particular offering some fairly loose stuff. TRJ's hook to the boundary off Stokes brought up the 50 partnership, and hit the boundary twice more that same over.

With the ball getting quite old, Durham brought Borthwick into the attack to bowl some leg spin, with Collingwood at the other end to send down some gentle medium pace. At first Borthwick had TRJ looking fairly clueless, and by taking the pace off the ball, the flow of boundaries was stalled. On the stroke of 3 o'clock though, Stirling's push through cover for 2 runs brought him his half century and our second batting point. A spell of gentle accumulation followed, and all eyes were on the impending new ball when Stirling (55) offered a simple catch to Jennings at forward short leg. 264/7.

The new ball became available a couple of balls later, and was immediately taken with Rushworth replacing Collingwood and Hastings taking over from Borthwick. TRJ was unflustered, clattering a short one from Hastings to the mid wicket boundary to post another half century. It had been a fine knock despite what had been a very scratchy start. Murts made his intentions clear straight away, slashing one from Rushworth over the slip cordon, which was a bit lucky, but followed it up with a straight drive for 4 that any specialist batsman would have been proud of. He certainly wasn't in a mood to block, as Hastings found out. The second of 3 successive boundaries owing more to the golf driving range than the MCC Coaching Manual (such was the total lack of foot movement) brought up the 300, giving us another batting point, and attracting appreciation from both sets of supporters. I'm sure Murts would (correctly) point out that when the ball's gifted to you right in the slot like that, no foot movement is actually necessary.

Wood replaced Rushworth, and with the new ball only 7 overs old there was a bit of a surprise at the other end with Borthwick replacing Hastings. TRJ cut Wood to the boundary, once again passing his highest first class score, only to fall next ball, clean bowled for what had been a magnificent 63. 320/8. Right on the stroke of Tea, and once again a disappointing end to what had been a good session for us, even briefly having led some Durham fans to speculate whether we might avoid the follow-on. The fall of TRJ put paid to any real hope of that, though.

Just before the start of the final session I returned to my seat only to suffer once again a bout of short term deafness (OK I'm exaggerating but only slightly) from the PA system. This had been used prolifically throughout the match, and to be fair was mostly quite informative and useful. It was however extremely loud, and every announcement was preceded by a big wedge of howling feedback, the like of which used to be popular with 1980s hardcore punk bands, as well as The Jesus and Mary Chain during the early part of their career. Every time an announcement was about to be made, I half expected the prolonged and deafening screech to herald the opening bars of a Jesus and Mary Chain song such as “Never Understand.” In case you're unfamiliar, it can be found on Youtube, but to fully appreciate what I'm saying you'll have to crank up the volume to levels where the neighbours might object!

Instead this announcement concerned an impending concert at the Riverside by the veteran “boy band,” Boyzone. Perhaps the reason for the loudness of the PA was to alert local residents to the fact that their neighbourhood was about to be invaded by hen party types, with the strains of bland, manufactured corporate pop music likely to be partially drowned out by the sound of biological clocks ticking.

 On resumption Finny (2) didn't last long, losing his off-stump to Wood. 324/9. Murts was transparently determined that if he was going to be denied his half century it wouldn't be due to being left as the not out batsman. Four men formed a cordon on the leg side boundary between deep mid wicket and long on as Borthwick came in to bowl, but a huge mow from Murts connected sufficiently to clear the lot of them and add 6 to the total! Inevitably an attempt to repeat this shot from the next ball resulted in a stumping. Middlesex had made 330, Murts 42.

All in all, substantially better than most of us could have expected in the absence of rain coming to our rescue. It had been a gutsy piece of resistance, aided it has to be said by some fairly ordinary bowling.  Our openers strode out to commence the follow-on in much better than forecast batting conditions. Rushworth opened the bowling for Durham, and although he beat Robbo outside off-stump with his third ball, the 6^th disappeared to the mid-wicket boundary. Hastings started at the other end. By now we were optimistic of saving this one, but we soon suffered a setback when Chris Rogers (1) was trapped plumb LBW by Rushworth. 5/1.

Robbo was repeatedly beaten outside off stump by Rushworth, and things looked shaky for a while. This was a tired bowling attack though, and the seamers could only manage short spells. Borthwick had to be introduced after 14 overs, and between him and the fast fading seam attack there were sufficient 4 balls being bowled for the batsmen to wait for the bad one and not take too many risks, 

In pleasant unforecast evening sunshine, with the day drifting with an air of relaxed tranquility towards the close, AC almost getting caught on the boundary from a wholly unnecessary attempt to hook a bouncer from Wood provoked both dismay and severe criticism from the ranks of the Middlesex faithful. That was nothing compared with the dismay and criticism from utterly shell-shocked Middlesex fans  following the next delivery, which resulted in a hideous slog, skied straight to mid-on. It was a moment of absolute madness. I'm not exaggerating when I say it was one of the worst pieces of batting I have ever witnessed. He had thrown his wicket away for 33, and from a position of relative comfort for Middlesex, the initiative was firmly back with Durham. 76/2.

Ravi Patel came in as night watchman, and did a sound job of seeing us through the final half a dozen overs to the close. He finished on 7, Robbo on 42, and Middlesex 90/2, a deficit of 148. With bad weather forecast for the final day, there's every chance that we can pull off what seemed the previous afternoon like a highly unlikely draw, but then again nobody was predicting a full day's play on Day 3, so there might still be a lot of work to be done to make that happen.  All in all it was a stirring fightback, but it was impossible not to leave the ground with a sense of annoyance at AC's potentially costly recklessness.