The Agony and the Ecstasy

The 2nd XI skipper must have experienced every emotion imaginable on Saturday. Bottom of the Division, pouring with rain and reduced to 10 men following call-ups to the 1st XI and poor availability in general - could it get any worse? Well yes, it could. A cry-off at 12:05 on Saturday morning and we were down to 9! When it rains it pours.

The Magnificient 9, as they will evermore be known, assembled at Bitchet Green in steady if not torrential rain to find the pitch uncovered. Surely we can't play in this? St. Lawrence, facing a side bottom of the league with only 9 men, had other ideas; clearly 20 easy points in the offing. A 25-over game was agreed and play got under way even though the rain had not quite stopped. Outwood won the toss and elected to bowl - a key factor in the eventual outcome. There was an extensive covering of wet, grass clippings all over the outfield and hitting a boundary was virtually impossible unless you were a second row forward or 3-handicap golfer. Indeed hitting it far enough to run two was quite an achievement. The shortened game and slow outfield went a long way to negating the disadvantage of only having 9 men and there was a quiet optimism to go with the steely determination to try and overcome all odds.

St. Lawrence were subjected to a barrage of Evanses with a Hall and a Preen in support. There was a bit of slipping but copious amounts of sawdust meant the pitch was just about playable (so speaks a bowler who has virtually stopped moving by the time he gets to the wicket). Conditions clearly favoured the bowlers and it took St. Lawrence a while to realise that trying to club boundaries was not the way to go - better to keep the score ticking over with 1s and 2s. There were very few free hits on offer - great testament to the bowlers' efforts to control a greasy ball. Crucially, Outwood had their catching and fielding heads on (not always the case!). John and Lucas took two each at mid off/mid on and Preeno safely pouched one at deep mid wicket. Even 1s and 2s can be pretty hazardous if you hit them to a fielder like Lucas who was back to his predatory best. He achieved one run out with a carefully-aimed direct hit and would have had another if JH could have clung on to the bar of soap flung at him (very accurately) at terminal velocity. Mention should be made of an excellent leg-side stumping by Harry but the champagne moment was James gathering the ball and outsprinting (!?) the batsman to the wicket trying to grab a cheeky single off the last ball of the innings. Outwood had restricted St. Lawrence to just 18 runs off the last 10 overs and taken 7 wickets - a great team performance.

86 needed to win in 25 overs at 3.5 rpo - clearly very doable but batting no easier and only 8 wickets in hand, Could we do it? James fell in the second over but John and Harry ran well to reach 30 in 8 overs without any real scares - on target! Harry then fell to a short one that begged to be hit but stayed in the pitch and lobbed gently to mid wicket. Chris then joined John and added a bit of muscle to proceedings, hitting one full length ball effortlessly over the bowlers head for 4. 42 - 2 after 12 overs and Outwood seemingly in control until John was deceived by an in-swinger. With Preeno still at the wicket all was well, especially when he powered a straight 6 over the bowlers head. At 69 - 3 with just 17 needed Chris fell caught and bowled and St. Lawrence's hopes were restored. Two more wickets fell on 71 where the score remained for 3 overs. Lucas was still there but we now needed 15 off 4 with boundaries hard to come by and Lucas' attempt to hit one failed on 74; 12 still needed with our 8th (and last) pair at the wicket.

It might be fair to say that Zac has yet to fully perfect his defensive technique but his determination meant that nothing on the wicket was going to pass his bat. At the other end Paul Tunstall had taken his trusty 5 iron out of it's bag and soon dispatched the St. Lawrence opening bowler for a crisply hit boundary; the enveloping field quickly spread. 6 to win off the last over with the last pair at the wicket. Paul was limbering up with a few practice swings - still 6 needed off the last 3. A single put Zac on strike. "He's done it before" was whispered in the crowd whose fingernails had long since been devoured. A length ball and Zac launches it miles into the air - enough to clear the boundary twice over - but unfortunately virtually straight up with a fielder underneath it. Luckily the fielder had never caught anything this high before - and he didn't catch this one either; a single and 4 needed off the last ball with Paul on strike. Another length ball and Paul nails it - straight to deep mid on who steals himself for the catch - only to find it sail 2 or 3 feet over his head. 6!!!! and we've won. How did that happen? A massive pitch invasion and Paul disappears beneath a mass of Outwood players.

Some things are just meant to be. Decades into the future Outwood youngsters will stare in awe at wizened old men when they are told, "...he was one of the Magnifient 9."