HHCC President's Weekend

There are various ways to prepare for a game of cricket. A pre-match net perhaps, or some gentle fielding practice. I’m ashamed to say however that the Friday night before the President’s Day match I did not spend brushing up on my technique or studying video footage of the oppo. Nor indeed did I attend the Hyde Heath Beer Festival, which was by all accounts a triumph. No, instead I went a-boozing in glamorous Hackney until approximately 8 in the morning. Somehow I made it to the Heath on time (despite various self-induced transport difficulties) and at 12.30 we were ready to rumble.

President's XI

The President’s XI (for those of you who aren’t aware) is an invitation XI – effectively the HHCC President Robin Richards selects the best eleven cricketers that Hyde Heath plays against. The side was a strong one, captained by Robin’s son and ex-Heath skipper Ali. We would need to play well.

Hyde Heath CC

Charlie won the toss and, as ever, elected to bowl. Fielding definitely occurred, but thankfully I took little part in it. Jez and Nick bowled well early on and we took wickets regularly. I’m afraid to say I can’t remember too much of what went on, except for the odd moment every now and again, which I shall attempt to recount now: Hugh (who you may recall made 50 against us last week) was dropped badly by the usually safe Napier Munn at mid-off. It was a howler, and we prepared ourselves to pay for the mistake. But only a few balls later he absolutely creamed an off-drive drive straight at the same fielder. Somehow Napes held on. The ball was seriously travelling and never got more than 6 inches of the ground. It was a wonderful catch, but even better was to come.

Much to my surprise, when I came on to bowl, I did rather well. Driving properly through my action, I was accurate and getting some turn. In – I think – my fourth over however it started to go wrong. Or right. The first ball was horribly wide. But the batsman – Ollie Haddock – reached for it and drilled it towards cover. Four runs. But no, Nick the Kiwi leapt salmon-like and with two feet off the ground caught an absolute screamer. Two balls later I dished up a wide long-hop which was cut to point, where Will took it diving forward. Three great catches and some LBW decisions in our favour and the President’s were all out for 111.

Ali Richards to Matt Simms...

For some bizarre reason I was asked to open the batting alongside Capper, and so tottered to the crease hardly able to even see. With such a low total all we really needed to do was bat sensibly, but when Capper was caught and bowled by Ali, it looked like we might make a meal of it. Fortunately I decided to bore the opposition into submission. Finding able allies in, first, Matt Simms and then Simon Napier-Munn, I eschewed all stroke-play in favour of dead-bat forward defensives and terrible running between the wickets. There were a couple of memorable shots – a solid pull through mid-wicket off Tim Nutman, and later a straight drive down the ground off Ali, but in truth it was pretty gritty stuff. Anyway eventually it did the job and we won by 7 wickets. I finished unbeaten on 46. Mark Richardson would have been proud.

My boring innings

Sunday of President’s Weekend usually involves a six-a-side tournament, but with several teams dropping out we decided to play a Twenty 20 match, with ten(ish) per side. One team was made up of players from Hyde Heath and the other a composite side featuring five from Yeading Cavaliers alongside Capper, Jez, Nick and myself. We lost the toss and were asked to take the field. The Powerplay saw us bowl accurately and field poorly. Shrimpton (Hyde Heath skipper for the match) took full advantage, racing to 30 before getting himself out. Hyde Heath’s middle order then struggled as Jez applied the squeeze from one end and I dished up a load of old rubbish at the other. Somehow I took 3 wickets, thanks to a brilliant running catch at long-on by Nick (after he’d put down a sitter at the same position the previous delivery). Father and son Danny and Charlie Samuels then batted sensibly to get the Heath up to 145, a very defendable total.

We (Yeading Heath?) then lost Capper early (again) and really struggled to score at any kind of rate against the pace and accuracy of Brad Holt and a visiting fellow called Willis (no, not that one). But Yeading skipper Leather joined Jez at the crease and they began to forge a partnership by picking the gaps and running hard. With 70 needed off ten, it was anybody’s game. But then an expensive over from leg-spinner Jay and two poor ones from Will turned it our way, and eventually we romped home with almost 3 overs to spare. Jez finished unbeaten on 45 and Leather on 41.

So it was certainly a cracking weekend, and hopefully lots of money was raised so for the club. We’re still unbeaten and with no away matches until mid-July, it’s looking like being a record-breaking season.

In Defence of Twenty20

I am, as most are, worried about the impact that the T20 phenomenon will have on the longer form of the game... however as I work from home and have recently acquired Sky Sports I feel I should share some optimism about what I have seen.

Watching a game develop in front of us, it is clear that the international teams are still finding their feet in this format of the game, field settings and balance of teams are still a work in progress. I find it fascinating to be able to watch the development of ideas and tactic in this form of the game, for so long has 50 over cricket become formulaic (and in my opinion dull) it is with real pleasure that one can watch on to see the steady development of crickets newest toy.

It is still not clear how best to set your fields in the first 6 over of these T20 games, some teams opting for fine leg and third man to be back and bowl full and straight, while others prefer to pull their length back and have one man square of the wicket and fine leg in the circle.

It is still not clear what types of bowling are the most effective in this format. Our domestic T20 league seems to point to the fact that spinners/ slow bowlers are the key to success, but some of the international teams have proven to the contrary perhaps due to the higher class of batsmen compared to the domestic scene finding the more gentle pace easy to attack. But in this shortened format it has been fascinating to see how some international batsmen just don’t have the skill or ability to get after the genuinely fast bowlers; anyone who watched the NZ Vs South Africa game last night would have seen that Guptill and Broom (both Kiwi internationals) were clearly not up to panning the Saffer quicks out the ground and succumbed quickly
trying to do so.

Seeing novel bowling methods has also been of interest, whether it be Broad coming round the wicket bowling wide yorkers across the right-handers, the ever increasing array of slower balls or the continued emergence of Mendis finding genuine confusion is a more useful tool then genuine turn. It has been touted round that T20 is a batsmen game, but from the games I have watched it is more often inspired bowling and fielding displays that have won games rather than big knocks (Gale not included).

A fairly obvious point about T20, due to its shorter length, means one or two big performances from a side can result in a victory. Although that leaves many feeling a bit hollow, I think it is great to go into contest between any two teams knowing that the game could be turned upside down by early wickets or an explosive first 6 overs.

Not many of us will forget the Netherlands game too quickly (I had the joy of being there live!) but it can’t be a bad thing for the game to see an increased competitiveness between all sides and I am sure the Broad final over must have been a catalyst to many a chat over the resulting weekend – often for me with people who I would not usually consider to be big cricket fans.

I must stress again that I would not want to see T20 cricket to eat away at any of our beloved Test match cricket, as the longest form of the game is the true test of skill and where I hope all future cricket stars will make their names. But I feel with the cricket calendar getting more and more hectic, and players complaining of burn out, this format could lighten the work load on our players while still filling up the stadium and create that cash for the county grounds. This could also create a great opportunity to promote the women’s games having a women’s match as a prelude to the main event.

We all know that T20 is here to stay and it seems as if it is only going to increase in its frequency. I just hope that it is at the expense of the 50 over format rather than Test cricket. There are 7 scheduled one day games between Australia and England after the Ashes this summer. I would assume that we will all remember the result of the Ashes, but wonder how many of us will recall the outcome of the 7 match series. It’s not Test cricket but I encourage you all to give T20 a second chance, not just as a cheap thrill but as another spectacle of this great game, and one is forcing players and coaches to think as deeply and innovatively as they have done in any format.