Cricketers in the field today punctuate the game liberally by shouting all kinds of nonsense you didn’t hear a few decades ago, often to encourage team-mates but also to attempt to get under the skin of opposition batsmen. As well as supportive stuff like “Come on Sudders, I’m backing you” and “Loving your work, Jake, dots bring pressure” you’ll hear some frankly bewildering stuff.
Cherry Tree’s Mark Hadfield, a Primary School teacher presumably more than adept at arithmetic, will often taunt batsmen who have pushed back half-volleys or missed out on juicy full tosses with “Oh, he’s on minus eight for this over now.” As if Duckworth Lewis isn’t hard enough to follow, Hadder’s ‘adders’ is a whole new ball game.
As an often wheezy asthmatic second eleven bowler puffing on my inhaler between overs down at fine leg I usually saved my breath and kept my trap shut – I wasn’t good enough to intimidate anyone – and sympathised with the gnarled old bald County pro Graeme Clinton who once responded to the cajoling of Surrey colleagues at Southport – “behind Medders, all of us, boys,” and “Be on yer toes, Clinters, big shot coming soon” by rolling his eyes at spectators at the side of the sight screen and dismissively muttering: “Why can’t everyone just concentrate on their own effing job?”
Occasionally however, a terse, well-directed jibe can hit a hurtful spot and such a moment occurred towards the end of Accrington’s ‘shock’ (not really – Middleton look a good side who shouldn’t be anywhere near the bottom) defeat at Towncroft when a home fieldsman goaded our number eight and nine and all who had perished before with: “Come on lads, this lot can’t stroll in here, top of the league, and have it all their own way.” Or something to that effect.
Not that the Accy lads had entered the arena with any kind of attitude
– me and my Middleton-based pal Mark watched them warm up with a bit
of football and fielding drills without any air of superiority or entitlement – but it was a barb which stung as the game slipped away to a chase for consolation bonus points and a notable individual landmark for a wounded batter.
It’s a new kind of insult for an Accrington team to endure but also a
compliment to how well they are doing over the first ten games of the
season. Few Accy teams in recent years have been accused of carrying a “Billy Big Time” swagger, quite the opposite in fact. In my brief time scoring for the lads and girls, all too often meek acceptance of defeat had been the norm. Nowadays, we’re a ‘scalp,’ a team everyone wants to beat and in many ways that’s a testimony to the turnaround.
But it’s also a reminder that there’s work to do. While I’ve documented how much I enjoy watching Jurie Snyman about his work, one of the things I”m hoping to see is a couple of wins dug out when the South African maestro misses out. Truly deep, balanced sides can recover from the blow of losing the pro but the pivotal moment on Sunday when a too-risky single call from the skipper led to Snyman being back in the hut affected the challenge so badly that we slumped from a promising 90 for 2 to 115 for seven in the ensuing eight overs. Middle order vanished in a flurry of self-recrimination, eagerness to seize back the initiative and the inevitable poor decisions and shot selection.
With a man coming in at nine (he would have been higher but for injury in fairness) capable of smashing 50 at a run a ball it needn’t have been such a swift transition from a promising base. Jacob, Emile, Kian and Nathan are all players with league half centuries in the bank but scoreboard pressure when the main man departs will often weigh heavily.
Captain Jacob will have had an uneasy night after calling Jurie for a single he was never making following a stand of 67 but on reflection he will know that he and the rest of the batsmen dismissed in the ensuing period had more time left than a rash response dictated. As so often happens at the end of a partnership, he also departed almost immediately after to an injudicious stroke. A run-out inevitably affects both parties and it’s difficult to unscramble your head after such a transgression.
Jurie was magnanimous too after, basically echoing Sir Alistair Cook’s
comments after the Gay-Duckett mix-up (their early Peel sessions were
fab), AC saying he’d never seen a run-out batsman take his ire out on the culprit. The wall, door, bat and window maybe but not your mate.
“These things happen, ‘ shrugged Jurie in that laconic way of his.
Emile, who spanked a magnificent 77 in a rare Friday night win at Colne in the T20, was out to a wonder catch running backwards by former Church and East Lancs man Dawood Rahman who also produced the Exocet direct hit to end Snyman’s promising cameo. He’ll know though that the shot probably belonged to Friday nights. A limping Ali Hasham, one of two Accy bowlers who’d pulled up injured - Jacob was unable to complete the opening over but recovered to come back later off a short run – claimed the two consolation bonus points by hitting a remarkable 55 with four sixes without a runner, Asad Khan proving a durable partner while Ali Hasham also nursed the two teenagers at ten and eleven along to add practically all of the 36 for the final two wickets.
All a bit of a number done on us for home scorer Rod, a wonderful ambassador for his club and great company. His lad Dale weighed in with a five-fer and I hope it isn’t another 25 years before my next visit. The green tarpaulin under the temporary solar-heating roofing give it a slight look of the SCG. Great to see my old school pal and Blackburn schools cricket (the last year before it became ‘with Darwen) teammate Mark whose studies, distinguished career and large family meant he was lost to cricket around 17. I wish I could have done a teenage Faustian pact for his natural sporting talent and hope he enjoyed what must be a rare couple of hours on a ground for him. At least he got a bit longer than anyone who rolled up at The Oval or Chesterfield (a few Accrington members there for the two and a half-day defeat) for their Sunday cricket fix.
Colne on Friday looked distinctly unpromising as I arrived in a
thunderstorm and only finally ventured out of the car clad in bright
yellow County Council rainproof lollipop wear. A wedding party in the main function room and a glum sponsor awaiting his invitees in the upstairs lounge must have feared the worst but we eventually got 15 overs each as top-hatted dandies and brides and bridesmaids posed on terracing for photos and beer flowed for the corporate loafers. Haratbar, off to Australia for the winter again, completely smashed it, Farnworth clobbered a few and Kian also picked up three wickets as Colne barely threatened, a few late boundaries making the eight-run margin look a bit closer than it actually was. Long way to go on a Friday night for not a lot to be honest. Church host Accrington on Friday before Rochdale visit Thorneyhome Road on Sunday, another side who’ll regard us as a prize. Such is life when you’re more towards top than bottom.
I was guest scoring for Immanuel at Brinscall on Saturday although in one of those typical his-fault-not-my-fault scenarios not unknown to cricket and selection committees I’ve sat on they’d actually sent another perfectly good scorer as well as two books. Happily young Elliott was glad to return to New Lane and do the Twos. I stayed on and was presented with a spanking new book. At least we might have at last seen the last of the awful old Ribblesdale League scorebooks with rip-out sheets which survives from the 1990s. Immanuel actually put in one of their better batting displays to make 165 for 6, Abbas Ahmad 39 (told ‘em he was decent when he joined from Accy) skipper/pro Imran Abid a patient 30 and Matt Cook a breezy 26 not out. Fin Best bowled better than I’ve ever seen him to claim five for 38. I thought that might be enough when seasoned stalwart Liam Winstanley mentioned his side had only batted the full overs twice this season but despite losing four quick wickets around the 150 mark he reminded me that my fancy that they’d maybe conceded 25 too many was not applicable in this case.
Another couple of old friends from school turned up, both mildly curious but too polite to enquire just what happened to me in the last half-century which makes me want to spend every weekend hour of daylight watching local league cricket. Absolute pleasure to watch two grand sets of lads battle it out though and quietly watching from the top end for a couple of hours was Church CC legend Steve Metcalf with brother Gerard. 15,000 Lancs Lge runs between those two not to mention a prodigious career with bat and ball for Immanuel for the equally revered latter. The tales and nights out banked with those two would keep me going for a dinner speech or two. While we’re on cricketers of yore to whom a few on-field vituperations and moments of excitement weren’t entirely unknown, I’m not a fan of social media accounts staging trial by twitter on players caught on camera committing what look to be transgressions. We might have some over-fussy umpires even some who let far too much go and you can’t get away with much with clubs (thankfully none I’m involved with) broadcasting games. But let’s leave it to the powers that be eh? I was in the presence of an umpire who was reporting a player for briefly likening his decision to bovine cattle droppings not long ago so anything really serious is likely to have to be accounted for.
We’re a cricketing fraternity at the end of the day and unseemly Sunday night spats on phones benefit nobody. A bit of light-hearted banter about who’s paying who what ain’t going to harm anyone but I also don’t like putting the boot in on lads who maybe aren’t living up to expectations. Cricket is a game which inflicts mental torture on us all at times when we’re struggling and isn’t without reason more associated with suicide and self-harm than most sports. I try not to criticise amateurs because I wasn’t good enough to be a senior league player myself and don’t see the value in highlighting what might be someone’s personal and very deeply-felt woes for a few likes on X.
Anyhow, on with the heatwave and keep cool whether you’re watching or
playing. We’re past midsummer now, always a time when I think of nights closing in and another winter which will be here seemingly quicker than a Charlie Ellwood fifty. We’re not halfway in the season yet or at the school holidays but it will fly by, believe me. Savour every delivery between now and September.
Last week’s Quiz answer – six stumpings Billy Rawstron v Bacup, Three off Bumble, three off Bob Haynes. Roger Harper the Bacup debutant stumped. My mate Peter Nicholson took three stumpings for them that day too!
This week – which Accrington player, still playing in the league, scored the club’s first T20 runs and took the first wicket for Accrington in Lancs League T20 competition in 2005?
