Detail: 04-09-2022 - Shamley Green

Result: W by 74 runs
Runs, more runs, 50s, 100s, catches, drops, run outs, stumpings, puddings (both wicket and cake), debuts, roads, annoying mums, cars being hit, Shamley Green had it all.

Shamley Green September 4th

Rewind to Tuesday last week, there I was sat thinking "Great, last blues game, lovely venue, someone will organise it all, just got to get there" queue Wardy with the "Robbo debut for match managing?"
Quick check of the forecast, loads of rain, no chance this games going ahead, probably cancel early "yeah sure, why not" I foolishly answer. In the coming days the playing XI had more changes to it than a Tory cabinet after another Boris mistake.
With some last-minute recruitment from Jenkins Jr in the pub on Friday, clearly it's in the blood, we had 11 and a healthy balance of wisdom and age to youth and exuberance.
We arrived at the delightful Shamley Green, for those who haven't experienced the delights of Shamley, it's about as village as it gets but in a good way. Clearly hose pipe bans were a thing of mystery down here with the wicket and outfield looking very green. We had the rundown of the rules from the ever-knowledgeable Glenn (6s over houses are dead balls, the road is part of the pitch, yes that bit of gravel is the boundary so best of luck boundary runners) and a message from the oppo skipper of please try to avoid the houses, they don't like us at the moment. Cloudy overheads and a green wicket and more importantly F1 & Football to watch later the general consensus was win the toss, field first, eat lots of tea and relax but we don't all get what we want and the toss was lost and into bat we went.
The opening pair of Ed J & Zubair quickly put on the runs against a combination of a very accurate speedy young opener and quite the opposite from the other end with slow left arm spin. Few lovely boundaries from Zubair before one stuck in the wicket from the spinner and being slightly early on the shot it was popped up to a man in the covers, the Blues were 1 down. The pudding track has it's first victim.
In strode the days captain, now some might say that I was earlier and faster on the shot than a teen losing his virginity before being stumped for a duck, but I like to think of it more as valiantly falling on my sword to get our gun batsman in early.
At 20-2 the all too regular blues top order collapse was looming, maybe we will be done early to watch the footy? In steps Sam M and Ed J to steady the ship and start to accumulate runs. A mixture of seeing off the younger pacer and targeting the loopy spinners and the boys were soon ticking along nicely and we reached drinks at 107-2. Soon after drinks and Ed J reached his maiden 50 for the blues without even a sniff of a chance for the bowlers, so much so the oppo captain decided to bowl out his main weapon to try and prize the wicket of Ed, all to no avail and the 100 partnership arrived, a rare sight for the Blues!
Sam M joined in on the fun and got to his 50 in a period where 9 out of 10 scoring shots in a row for Sam were boundaries. Glad someone was doing the name justice.
Ed's fun, including a big 6 over cow couldn't go on for ever and in the baz-ball esque manner of swinging he popped one up for a catch, off he went for a cracking 64.
Youcef into the mix and straight into the quick singles, Sam M learnt to be on his toes with Cef at the other end. In a typically Cef-esque innings he started with the singles and twos before accelerating.
Sam M at the over end was causing the bowlers all kinds of worry, picking up length beautifully to either play forward down the ground or rock back to a mixture of cuts and pulls square of the wicket. The only wobble being an attempted sweep on the full to a spinner that looked rather plum but Ronnie's hands staunchly stayed down, lovely work. The punishment for the bowlers last a little longer as Sam worked his way to a glorious ton, and on that note we thought enoughs enough and retired him, 101 not out, what a day.
Cef, now the set batsman was getting in on the act and moved to a well-paced 37 runs before getting slightly too far down the track and despite his best Tom Daley impression to get back in he was out stumped.
While all this was going on the quirks of Shamley Green were showing themselves, including a woman and her three kids walking up the road at a snails pace, not once, not twice but three times, clearly she liked what she saw with the Blues batting skills on show. Other quirks include dents being put in garage doors, balls rolling down the main road and their keeper needing to run off towards the end to start the teas!
A quick 18 from Naga moved the scorecard along nicely as we motored towards 250, whisperings of 300 were heard. New to the Blues Jimmy (yes another pace bowler named Jimmy) came in and went full box office entertainment for his first Blues action. 6 over the bowlers head, top edge dropped, LBW chance, clothed one dropped, 4, baz-ball eat your heart out. With Naga caught out trying to welly one of their spinners into the next quiet Surrey village in strode Glenn, there's runs to be had here he thought. Unfortunately, it appears Shamley Green had a young Ben Stokes hidden in the covers and when Glenn middled his first ball to his right and just over his head we all thought runs but no the kid picks it out the air one handed to absolute shock of the crowds, sorry Glenn, crickets a tough one.
With a nice little cameo from Tom Hind at 10 and some more swinging from the cat with 9 lives Jimmy we finished with a mightily impressive 278 off 35 overs.
A jubilant Blues sat down for cracking teas, proper sandwiches, chicken wings and the pudding you want to see rather than the one we'd been looking at out on the field.
With a big target to hit but tiny boundaries we knew we needed to bowl well but get a few early wickets with some aggressive fields.
Opening the bowling was Tom Hind, a Putney recruit. He charged in with pace and swing, getting it to move off a dangerous 5th/6th stump line before getting one to jag back a mile and dismantle the opening batsman's off stumps, a strong start for the Blues.
With the ever-miserly Glenn going from the other end the first few overs were very quiet, that big total looking even bigger. With the scoreboard pressure already being chatted about in the field Glenn got the second opener to have a flash at outswinger and the nick went into the hands of Cef. Next bat in has form and has scored a ton against the Blues before, the dangerman.
With the combination of Tom's pace and energy and Glenn's unerring accuracy we kept the score down it was 22-2 off 8 overs before the first change in bowling happened. Before we get to that, in the middle of Glenn's traditional probing lines and difficult to put away lengths he tempted the batsman into a big swing, up into the stratosphere the ball went and under it a large shout of "GLENN'S!" Comes, he steadies himself ready for the catch, takes it in, out it comes, in it goes and back out on to the floor where a distraught Glenn despaired, again cricket is a cruel mistress.
Next bowler - In comes, In Ed J's words, 'the Btec Jimmy Anderson' Jimmy Martyr to start his first spell. With variations from classical 4th stump to slower balls to short balls, Jimmy kept the batsmen thinking. He was rewarded for this in his 4th over as he removed the batters stumps for 25. Albeit this fella had been dropped a couple of times and by the end Jimmy took the Alex Pike school of thought and removed the fielders from the occasion. A wicket just before drinks, lovely stuff. At drinks Shamley were 96-3, almost on par with us with their two most dangerous batsmen in, the game well and truly was on.
Karthik, another Blues debut came on to replace Glenn who finished with figures of 1 for 26 off 7. Karthik had been given somewhat of the graveyard shift here with their two best batters in and a high score to get so much swinging was going on. Despite this his consistent line and length troubled the batters and after a tough first over he got into his rhythm and was a real thorn in the batters side and kept that run rate down.
Naga also got thrown to the wolves somewhat with bowling spin to the two set batsmen who were in full flow by this point, a couple of overs with a mixture of testing leg spin and unfortunate balls to be smacked meant the game was in the balance. At this point the decisions was made to bring Tom back on, "should I target the stumps or outside off to keep the runs down?", take those stumps mate I replied and he duly provided, first ball of the second spell and the main man who was bashing it all over was back in the hutch, a collective sigh of relief from the Blues.
Karthik then nabbed himself a well-deserved wicket sending the 6th bats bails flying, 5 down and it felt like it was just the captain to dismiss for the blues to wrap up the victory.
With their captain swinging Karthik and Tom did a great job of starving him of strike somewhat, Jimmy returned to continue to frustrate the batters while the rate was rising. All this cracking bowling led to a big swipe to cow corner for Glenn, half on the road, half on the grass to come off the boundary and take a great catch, gun batsmen number two was done, and we could almost taste the victory beer in the pub.
Into the tail and Naga went about his work, nice tight lines, varied length, and a few edges even forcing a slip to be put into play. In his first over back the batsmen duly popped one up for Ed J to get his mitts on, making up for a drop earlier in the day, apparently, it's just Glenn's bowling we drop off. Glenn even took it upon himself to nonchalantly take another lovely catch on the run off Naga's bowling. Another wicket fell where the batsman's eyes lit up and he danced down for it to spin away into Youcef's hands for a simple stumping, one wicket left and three for Naga.
In between all this a few overs from myself and Sam W were bowled, trying to keep that run rate down and snuff out any last chance of them getting the big total. With the final wicket needed, ball in my hand as my last Blues cricketing action, it was all set for glory, instead a quick single from the batter was expertly stopped by Jimmy with a cracking run out from the covers, all out for 204 and the Blues had won by a significant margin!
Performances:
Batting:
Sam M - 101*
Ed J - 64
Youcef - 37
Bowling:
Tom - 2 for 22 off 6
Naga 3 for 35 off 4
Glenn 1 for 25 off 7


[updated 18 11 2022]