Street End

Match Report

With a third choice Match Manager picking up the role late in the piece (George on holiday, Jasper getting married – the latter a more acceptable excuse), recruitment looked as if it might prove a challenge.  However, with two days to go, a squad of 13 had been assembled, only for it to fall apart at the eleventh hour.  An assortment of family crises and a head injury (Archie Brown should try to avoid pre-season rugby, when the ground is this hard) saw the Straggler top order vanish in the direction of assorted medical facilities.  And to add injury to insult, Will Fenwick fell over a late-night wall on the evening before the game and arrived unable to bat, and barely able to walk.  The Straggler strategy was adapted to use the bowling firepower in order to tame Street End and set a target which might be vaguely achievable.  The first part of this worked well, with Street End dismissed within 40 overs and a target of under four and a half runs an over seemingly well within reach.

The Straggler bowling opened with Will Falcon and Jasper Williams, the latter fresh from success at Folkestone.  On a beautiful afternoon, bowling at pace, Will and Jasper were suitably mean, with Jasper knocking over one opener, and then securing two leg-before decisions in two balls.  He was on a second hat-trick opportunity in two weeks.  However, the fall of the third wicket had brought the old pro, Sacha Azizi, to the crease, and he was having none of that.  Together with Paul Betts, another who has notched up plenty of runs from Straggler bowling over the years, they nudged, nurdled, hit an occasional boundary and were careful not to give anything away.  Will Fenwick tried to bowl and lasted two legal deliveries before opting for a quieter life in front of the tree inside the boundary.  Replacing Will, Harry Heming (who had been behind the stumps until the drinks interval) almost immediately found the edge of Paul’s bat, taken by keeper #2, Will Falcon, to bring the partnership of 99 and Paul’s innings of 82 to an end at 137 for 4.  With the door now open, Dipak Davies (3 for 13 and on loan from Street End) and Harry (2 for 10) worked their way briskly through the lower order, with Jasper (4 for 24) applying the coup de grace in the final over (a third catch behind the stumps for Will).  Straggler fielding had been uncommonly resilient, with Xandy Long and the Master Brewer at short extra presenting an almost impermeable barrier; in the deep, debutant Tim Symon and Nick Wright held good catches.  A total of 174 looked within reach.

In the absence of at least three openers, Will Falcon joined Harry to get the chase underway.  Will looked in marvellous touch, but, sadly, flirted with a wide one in the first over, caught a hard edge and managed to find Paul Betts at second slip, possibly the only fielder on show who would have held such a sharp chance.  Jonathan now joined Harry, the former not entirely timing the ball, but Boycott-like in his resolution, keeping the strike ticking over and up with the rate.  After 15 patient overs, Jonathan (13) decided that it was time to go long, and merely chipped the ball into the safe hands of Paul (again) at mid-off.  The fragility of the middle order was now exposed with Harry and Xandy gone in quick time.  Nick Wright surprised the Street End fielders, when he launched his first ball over the long boundary into the field for six, but was gone for 12, leaving Harry to try to farm the strike. Harry, who had resisted for 30, was undone by a sharp yorker, and the end was in sight.  The lower order threw the bat, but the last five wickets managed a very modest 12 runs to leave the Stragglers well short, on 95 all out and defeat by 79 runs.  For a second week in succession, extras were the second most significant contributor (28).

This fixture was to be the final home game for Sacha Azizi, and a short presentation ceremony was held during the tea interval to recognise his contribution to Street End cricket over 40 years (>18,000 runs for the club is no mean feat!).  For 35 seasons Street End have been playing the Stragglers with Sacha more often than not the wicket that mattered most. With the 26 runs from today, he has scored 775 runs against the Stragglers at an average just shy of 41.  It has been a privilege to play against Sacha for the whole of my Straggler career (remarkably I caught Sacha off the bowling of Mark BW on our very first meeting), and we wish him well in cricketing retirement.