We arrived at Babraham in bright sunshine on a hot Sunday afternoon to word from the Fuhrer that at 10.00 yesterday morning the opposition only had 6 confirmed players. You could see the steam boiling under the Panama at the prospect of a cancellation after so much hard work in getting an XI together ourselves. Eventually 8 turned up with another en route and so Flycatchers decided to bat. A first ball full toss from Jamie Rutt was dispatched by a Flycatcher called Banks, take your pick from Andy, Olly, Rory or Tom, the slightly more rounded gait of father Andy being the only real clue. Andy must be a good cricketer, he went to Felsted School, as did the Philanderers other opening bowler, George Silcock, on debut. At last some proper cricketers mused the scorer!! An opening stand of 139 reflected the road-like nature of the Babraham pitch and lighting fast outfield, aided in part by some average Philanderers bowling, Ben C take a bow with the scorebook showing 1-0-18-0 including a 5 wider!! Turning to the guile of Gerald Coteman, who took the pace completely off the ball, there followed a relative collapse to 170 for 5 with Gerald returning 4-22. The game meandered towards a tea declaration with excellent spells from Aussie Matt and Dougie Turner, but not before skipper Davidson made a very generous charitable contribution at cow-corner, was the sun really in his eyes!! Flycatchers No 9, Guy Mulley, who having played out a maiden was then bamboozled by the skipper’s slower ball, fell over and pulled something in his thigh. A first for Philanderers cricket as he was carried off the field flat out in the back of a 4x4 and tea was taken with Flycatchers declaring on 213-7.
After a hearty Philanderers home tea, Leary and Samson were sent out with what appeared to be about 37 overs to get to the target. Paul L obviously in a hurry to get to the pub played some exquisite shots before he drilled another immaculate drive straight into extra cover’s midriff after scoring 31. Ben Cassells came and went in two balls, caught and bowled for 4. 63 for 2 both wickets caught Banks bowled Banks. Only 7 overs gone so well in front of the rate as Jack Dillon joined Matt in a stand of 95 with Jack narrowly missing being out on a number of occasions. He became another Banks victim on reaching 39 as did Matt one over later with his score at 73. Was panic setting into the Philanderers rank? not a bit of it as Dougie Turner, wicket keeper turned bowler, set about the bowling scoring 29 of the next 30 runs before he too became a victim of Banks, but which one!! Jamie Rutt joined Alex Mistlin and as the Fuhrer had repeatedly said over the years “Jamie is a proper batsman” and he duly proved so with the winning runs coming in the 32nd over despite the best efforts of George Dean ably fielding for the opponents as 10th man.
A win by 5 wickets
Edward Dodson Scorer and 12th man
