2nd XI Match Report - Home to Nutfield in the Local Derby

And so it came to pass that the big game - the local derby - was played at home, with Nutfield having conceded their last 2 games and South Nutfield needing to keep the momentum going at the top of the division. I don’t mind sharing that the captain and his v/c had been a little nervous of the batting with 2’s regulars Mark, Billy and Fazzy being called into the 1’s and Jan and Matt both on theirs hols. So a quick call was made to the reverend who kindly postponed packing his suitcases and came to strengthen the middle order. With Dylan away, “superior” Campbell was summoned from his pushchair and completed a tasty-looking bowling outfit that included the Funky Gibbon from the Sunday team. Unfortunately, both Jack and Jim each wanted BDB in their team, and having failed to agree who was to have him, decided that the fairest thing was to let him go to Graveney. Dave decided that a dinner date with Miss Foster was more appealing.

And so With Jim having lost his first toss of the season, Nutfield chose to bat under a blazing sun. The tone for fielding was set early when Nutfield’s opening bat creamed one to point, where Leighton failed to move his foot in time and took a hefty blow to his ankle. Hanif smiled his approval as the rest of us feared a trip to East Surrey Hospital. Gibbs struggled with line and length as well as pace in his opening over, and Nutfield’s openers were going well until Peter Luard hit Hanif straight to Suli at point.

Gibbs then finally bowled a straight one which the other opener nicked to Courtenay who caught superbly.

With a Hanif looking hot, captain, v/c and keeper all had the same idea - Kyle! This proved inspired as the pint-sized protagonist plundered 2 quick wickets and Nutfield were rocking on 51 for 4.

With Kyle having completed his maximum allocation of overs, Darren started his spell up the hill. Determined to spank his old team-mates, he snarled and gnashed his way to the crease before bowling a peach of a delivery to Chris Lyons. Chris is 6’8” and this bouncer caught him square on the rib-cage. A huge appeal was heard from Darren and John K, before John remembered he was the umpire and lifted the finger. The rest of us looked at each other briefly before Chris stomped off whilst grumbling to Courtenay. Gentleman that he is, Courtenay told him to get lost, whilst Leighton shook his hand by way of apology. After a brief consultation between captain and keeper, we decided that Chris’s batting was so torturously slow that we preferred him to remain in, so we called him back. Darren took this in good spirit and definitely didn’t have a shouting match with Courtenay about it at the end of the over. All six bowlers performed well in the heat, with Kyle the stand-out contributor. All took wickets (but Darren had his one taken away from him). Gibbs took the final catch of the innings whilst making some weird wooooooooo noises like he had seen a ghost and we all took an early tea.

Jim and Simon opened the batting with Jim smashing the first ball of the innings for 4. Not to be outdone, Simon then farmed the strike and made his way to fifty with Jim still on four. Simon was in imperious for, and when Jim was stumped for 30 chasing a wide pie, Simon was on 87 not out and the team was 122-1 with only 30-odd needed. Surely we couldn’t stuff it up from here? Chucky had a quick cameo before chipping a pie to square leg, and then Leighton came in to join Simon. Leighton played his one shot (back-foot golf swing) perfectly and smashed two quick fours. Meanwhile, Simon knocked a single to extra cover to bring up a well-deserved ton. Leighton then played a firm drive straight down the ground, only for the bowler to divert the ball into the stumps and poor Simon perished whilst backing up. Bloody good job it hadn’t happened an over earlier! In came the reverend (Leighton had earlier asked: is he a Vicar or a Rabbi?) to knock off the winning runs, and a comfortable victory was complete.

30 points takes us back to first in the division and special credit goes to Kyle and Simon who both had a very special day.
Thanks to John for umpiring, Joleen for putting out the teas and Billy for cleaning up after us. Thanks also for BDB for not minding too much about being dropped.