Junior BB

Match Report

On what proved to be the hottest day of the year so far, Torry Hill, alive with butterflies in the outfield, was witness to an extraordinary game, in which the Stragglers, having bowled well enough, collapsed in startling disarray only for the Evans brothers to put on a record braking partnership for the eighth wicket and get the Straggs oh so close to a remarkable victory over the Junior BB.  An agreed toss found the Stragglers in the field, with skipper, Jasper Williams and Freddie Evans bowling with pace at the Junior BB openers, who were happy to use that pace and the ferociously fast outfield to get the innings off to a boisterous start.  Pace off was required and was duly rewarded.  One very tall opener chose to hit everything to leg, and succeeded with a couple of huge sixes, but he failed to deal with the total absence of pace from the Chairman (2 for 36), who induced a couple of skied mis-hits.  Having given precedence to his captain for the first, Harry Heming was not going to be so polite for the second, and the opening partnership came to an end on 104 in the 15th over.  Another wicket followed soon after, but the Junior BB were very much still in the ascendant at the drinks break, 121 for 2 from 18.  The Straggler bowlers began a gentle squeeze, the run rate slowed, Harry and Will Evans proved hard to get off the square, and even with wickets in hand, the Junior BB were drifting.  This sort of pressure can force errors, and the batsmen duly set off on a run that was never there, a sharp throw from Freddie beating the batsman.  Harry (2 for 25) followed this with a ball which spun around the remaining opener’s legs; the run rate slowed further.  Jo Cockle, on debut, sent the middle stump cart-wheeling, and then James Anderson seemed to hang in the air to take a one handed catch over his head at short extra.  With another run out in the final over (Harry with a direct hit), the Junior BB had rather ambled to 207 for 7, the Stragglers content with the target.

The Straggler innings began so well, Fred Sharp finding the boundary with consummate ease.  However, when he followed a wide one to be caught behind for 23, a collapse of epic proportions ensued.  Harry, fresh from his big score at Egerton, smacked a couple of boundaries only to have his off peg removed.  Nathan Weekes, on debut for the Stragglers (having played for SAC in May) found a fielder to take a sharp catch; Jasper, James A, Jeremy Godden and Jacob Hernandez tried to hold it together, but all were back in the pavilion by the 15th over, the score a very modest 53 for 7.  Enter the Evans.  Carefully at first, and then with increasing confidence as the Junior BB used all ten outfielders in rotation, the recovery began.  Even as they frustrated the attack, the target seemed just too far away.  But then came the over, the 28th, which made everything possible.  Will hit the first ball to the boundary and then took a single.  Freddie launched the next four balls around the ground, for a six and three fours, 23 runs from the over, leaving 53 runs required from the final 7.  The Junior BB opening bowlers came back on, Henry Elliott seeming to run in from the horizon, but the Evans were a match for everything thrown at them.  Edges past the keeper were cheered from the sidelines, and the final over began with 10 required.  The tension was palpable; singles from the first two balls, and then Will charged the bowler to be stumped.  Next ball, Freddie did not hear the call of “wide” and was run out trying to get on strike.  Three balls left, six runs to draw level, the Straggs needed a surprise from number 11, which, sadly failed to materialise.  Having seen the Straggler partnership record for the first wicket blown away at Egerton the previous Sunday, the record for the eighth wicket went the same way today.  The previous record of 107* set in 1957 by JLA Barnes and PJC Smallwood, the President, had been passed in the 29th over and now stands at 147 held by Freddie and Will, and, I am told, by a very wide margin, their best fraternal partnership in any cricket.