“Shorten 1, Rest of Team 0”

Match: 14 / 338

Lost by 6 wkts

Team	Total
FFTMCC	165
D. Shorten 103*
Islip CC	166 - 4
C. Roberts 1 - 22

History is full of men who have toiled, given their all, but who have ultimately been unable to drag their comrades, their team mates to glory. Think of Davy Crocket, attempting to repel the hordes invading the Alamo, think of General Custer and his last stand. Now add to that list David Shorten, a valiant attempt to singlehandedly drag his decidedly off-key team mates to the unlikeliest of victories against overwhelming opposition.

The figures are stark, runs scored: Dave, 103, rest of team, 40. Catches, Dave 1, rest of team 0 (with five drops.) Run outs, Dave 1, rest of team 0. Teas provided, Dave 1, rest of team 0. On behalf of the rest of the team, we’re sorry Dave but we were woeful.

Stand in skipper for the day Russell, lost the toss, but we were put in to bat. Things started usually enough, with a typical innings from Geoff / George (4) i.e. no runs, no runs, no runs, some runs, no runs, out. Martin Westmoreland (11) professed to seeing the ball well and being in good touch and was therefore mightily frustrated to be back in the hutch just as his innings was getting going. He did at least make it to double figures, which is more than can be said for the ‘engine room’ of The MAD batting line up as Turner (5), Mellor (3) and Smith (6) fell in quick succession. Reeves (0) was perhaps unlucky on this occasion as a tickle down the leg side was snaffled by the keeper.

Midge has seen it all before: crap MAD batting – including her owner….

Special mention has to be made of Thornton who, originally batting at five, had such faith in The MAD batting line up that he decided to go and pitch a tent, build a shed, something like that. As he returned roughly 30 minutes later, he inevitably found that he was immediately required to bat at 8. Things were really looking dire at 52-6. Also The MAD were struggling with just 10 players as Jan had got his dates mixed up and was instead attending a barbeque. He was reportedly ‘in the shower’ and unavailable for comment as frantic phone calls were made to ascertain his whereabouts. So with only Hoskins, Timms and Roberts still to come, no criticism of their talents, but given what had come before, a score well below a hundred looked a real possibility.

Dave is known as one of the cleanest and furthest hitters in the team, but with a high score of 42 had yet to register a fifty for The MAD. Several reasons can be provided for this, not least because as one of our few bona fide opening bowlers, he often bats down the order and therefore rarely has the time or the team mates to reach a sizeable score. He would be the first to admit that sometimes he’ll be out immediately after a big hit and his ability to construct an innings rather than a quick fire 20 could be questioned.

Dave gives it some humpty.

Today looked different however, there were the huge shots we have come to expect, but he was also careful to apply a value to his wicket. Speaking afterwards he said he was careful to reset and start again after every ball. He reached his fifty off 49 balls to cheers from the boundary, but no-one had any idea of the heroics to follow.

His partners did their best. Hoskins (2) appeared to be enjoying himself until he was rather cruelly cut short LBW to a straight one. The only contention being whether his big stride forward was big enough. It appeared that there was an altercation on the field, but was in fact the opposition debating whether or not to call him back. Timms (6) played one glorious cut to the boundary, but was again un-done cheaply. Timms reported that Dave scored twenty runs in the time it took him to walk from the boundary to the pavilion.

Last gun for hire: Tall Bob (right) assists Dave’s century march….

With the score on 118 there was only Roberts (3) left and with Dave on 64 it appeared it would be a good innings for him, but not an historic one. Chris still has his eyes on the top score of 19 at position 11 as a Club Record, but with only 10 players even that was not an option for him, although it would have been irony of ironies if he had passed that score batting last at number 10. Unaccustomed to his role as senior batsman, Dave accelerated his scoring, but also exposed Bob to the bowling, sometimes from the first ball of the over. For Bob, it was one of the finest threes The MAD has ever seen, coming as it did in a partnership of 47 (a joint ninth wicket record for The MAD).

Dave was now well in to his stride but completely unaware of his score. One final massive six was launched over cow corner. As his team mates went wild on the boundary, he was genuinely unaware of his remarkable achievement. A few balls later Bob was castled, leaving Dave stranded on 103*. What could he have scored if we’d had eleven players, or if any of numbers 6-10 had accompanied his brilliance? Surely The MAD record of 117 was within his reach, probably in the next over or two if he’d been given the chance.

Dave is attacked by a jealous umpire as Bob comes to his rescue.

‘Couldn’t have happened to a nicer bloke’, was the general consensus at tea, but it is a comment on the team that to a man, everyone put their own failures aside and offered Dave their warm and heart felt congratulations individually. With characteristic humility Dave prepared the tea and putting his own achievements aside talked only of the total and our chances of defending it. The only thing missing which would have put the cherry on the icing on the cake would have been if his wife and daughter had been there to share in his achievement, instead arriving a few minutes later.

In reply, Islip got off to a steady start. It was of course Shorten (7-0-34-0) who opened the bowling. Hoskins (6-0-33-1) tried, Reeves (5-0-29-0) failed and Timms (8-0-40-1) and Roberts (4.2-0-22-1) got smacked around. The only highlight was a superb direct hit run out from guess who? We were again woeful with five catches going down and a string of mis-fields. The lack of an eleventh player really seemed to tell as gaps were exploited.

A good innings from Deeley (69*) finally put paid to any chance The MAD may have thought they had. Islip CC are a good team and play Sunday cricket in the right spirit. We look forward to many more encounters with them in the future, hoping however that eleven players will turn up for us of whom more than one will actually do something.

The last word of course goes to the man of the match, so over to you Dave – “MIDGE!”

’Reevsie’

*

Statto Scorecards

Far from the MCC versus Islip CC Played at Brasenose College, 3 August 2014 Islip CC won the toss and elected to field Islip CC won by 6 wkts Far from the MCC debuts: none

14 / 338 40 over match

Team	Far from the MCC
#	Batsman	How Out	Total	Balls	4s	6s	FOW
1	G. Carter +	b J. Washington	4	(16)	-	-	1-15
2	M. T. Westmoreland	b Venables	11	(12)	2	-	2-17
3	R. P. Turner *	b Farooq	5	(19)	-	-	5-33
4	P. A. S. Mellor	b Venables	3	(11)	-	-	3-28
5	M. K. Reeves	c Matin b J. Washington	0	(7)	-	-	4-31
6	D. Shorten	not out	103	(86)	12	4	-
7	J. D. Hoskins	lbw b Henshaw	2	(18)	-	-	6-52
8	T. P. W. Smith	c Matin b Mason	6	(26)	-	-	7-99
9	G. J. Timms	b Mason	6	(13)	1	-	8-118
10	C. D. Roberts	b J. Washington	3	(9)	-	-	9-165
11
	Extras	(NB14, LB7, B1)	22
	TOTAL	(all out, 34.3 overs)	165

#	Bowler	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wkts
1	Venables	5	1	14	2
2	J. Washington	7.3	0	31	3
3	Farooq	6	1	17	1
4	Henshaw	7	1	32	1
5	Mason	6	0	43	2
6	Haig	3	0	22	0

Team	Islip CC
#	Batsman	How Out	Total	Balls	4s	6s	FOW
1	B. Deeley	not out	69				-
2	S. Demeyer	run out (Shorten)	20				1-32
3	O. Black *	lbw b Hoskins	10				2-38
4	Matin +	c Shorten b Timms	45				3-132
5	J. Washington	b Roberts	3				4-150
6	S. Haig	not out	5				-
7	R. Henshaw
8	Farooq
9	H. Venables
10	N. Mason
11	R. Washington
	Extras	(W5, B9)	14
	TOTAL	(for 4 wickets, 30.2 overs)	166

#	Bowler	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wkts
1	Shorten	7	0	34	0
2	Hoskins	6	0	33	1
3	Reeves	5	0	29	0
4	Timms	8	0	40	1
5	Roberts	4.2	0	22	1

MOTM: D. Shorten Champagne Moment: D. Shorten’s maximum to bring up his century Buffet Award: M. K. Reeves’ tired looking apple doughnuts (with rich cream)

Opposition: V078 / 02 Ground: G040 / 40 Captain: C024 / 06