Bore Draw Not

Thanks for the memories

By Daisy ( with help from Ged)
December 6 2014

This archived report of a thrilling day at the Oval is Phillip Hughes final CC day playing for Middlesex. No scope for another century, but we read about another significant contribution of course with the bat , plus fielding and even bowling. His major contributions in a short space of time sadly did not lead us to a victory, but showed his quality. He will always be in the hearts of those associated with Middlesex CCC.   

Bore Draws On

Well, technically I suppose Ged was right on Friday evening when he said "the most likely outcome is a draw". But he did also say "it might well fizzle out as a bore draw fairly early in the day" and it certainly didn't do that. I was disappointed on Thursday, when I realised that our test match tickets for Saturday were probably going to be about as useful as a bike is useful to a fish. Ged was pretty confident that the test would end Friday and that we'd at least get our money back. He called that one right, although there was a point on Friday when I thought we might be turning up to see a couple of overs Saturday for our £110. When Ged suggested "we can simply relocate our Saturday picnic to the Oval" I thought that was a super idea. Especially as Ged, for once, was doing the whole picnic and I do like being waited on. We normally aim to get to Lord's early for a test match, as we hate the crush at the gates between 10:30 and 11:00, so we simply followed our normal routine and the extra journey time took up the slack - we arrived at the Oval and sat down just as the umpires emerged. We sat in the Laker for the first few overs, but were keen to take the sun, so we trekked over to the one bit of the OCS stand that was open (Blocks 1-4), where the view was excellent but there wasn't much room to spread out the full picnic up front.

Gareth Berg was fielding as sub in front of us there and he politely answered all of my questions. He also paitently signed autographs for several youngsters. Lovely chap. Wickets Start To Fall Then Hughes took a sharp catch of Murtagh to get rid of Ramps. Ged for some reason thought it was Brown who had gone and texted Barmy Kev incorrectly, much to my amusement. Ged hinted that I had misled him but I ignored him. Afzal fell quickly when Shaggy came on to bowl, but soon misfortune struck as Tim Murtagh went down awkwardly trying to stop a four off Shaggy's bowling. It looked really bad and several people (two of ours plus the Surrey physio I think) helped Tim off the ground. A horrible thing to witness. Ged felt that this drastically reduced our chances of bowling Surrey out, especially as there was already some doubt about Richo's fitness and he hadn't bowled yet - indeed Richo didn't bowl all day. The announcer at the Oval was the mumbliest, least audible announcer since I heard Amy Winehouse introduce her own songs on that live concert they televised recently and/or the compere at Ronnie Scotts by the end of the evening. Not that I am suggesting that the Oval fella was as well-oiled as those other examples.

Batty and Brown were hunkering down and it was starting to look as though Ged's bore draw prediction was right, but about 15 minutes before lunch, Shaggy did it again, again partnering with Dexter fielding close to remove Batty. Ged reckoned that one more before lunch would have Middlesex in a strong position, but that wasn't to be. Just before lunch, a father and his young son sat behind us. The little boy asked his dad "why aren't the players wearing their genuine Twenty20 kits for this match?" and the father sounded rather embarassed explaining the facts of cricketing life to his son. A sign of the times, that question.

Lunch and Relocation

We decided to relocate to the Peter May Stand on the other side, where we thought we'd get some more space to spread our picnic; and we were right. This was my first ever visit to the Oval for a county match and I must say the place pleased me far more on such a day than it does when it is heaving with people on a test match day. Ged had done us proud with cashew nuts, wild smoked salmon bagels, juicy tomatoes, ham and cheese bagels, apples, grapes, ginger biscuits, toffees and a choice of white and red wine. Play and Wicket Taking Resume Soon after lunch, Hughes takes a sharp catch off Shaggy's bowling to remove the stubborn Brown. "Game on" says Ged. But it takes a while for the next wicket to fall. We noticed that "Mr Winehouse the Announcer" sounded even less audible on this side of the ground than he did on the other side. Perhaps the Oval's sound system is knackered! Ged had been texting Barmy Kev at the fall of each wicket, but Kev then texts Ged "tactically". Ged says that he has made a strategic decision to go to the loo, "in the name of Barmy Kev, his county and his duty". While Ged is gone, Ughes and Hudal combine again, this time to remove Schofield. Ged seems to think he has caused the wicket, which makes no sense to me. More importantly, soon after Ged returns Eoin Morgan runs forward and takes a stunning catch off Finn's bowling to remove Elliott. Ged says that the catch was "worth the price of admission alone". I thought that we'd well and truly opened them up at this point, but Ged was far more circumspect. "With only two real bowlers still standing, this innings isn't over until we have taken all 10" he said. And with the benefit of hindsight I must say he had a point. Nuts In (Peter) May

Meanwhile, sitting behind us were a couple of young lads who would cheer for Surrey after I cheered for Middlesex, although whenever Surrey looked in trouble, they started cheering for Yorkshire instead! Ged said they turned right rather than left by mistake when joining the M1. I said they should take their Sat. Nav. back to the shop where they had bought it. There were some rather drunk and noisy Surrey fans sitting some distance from us in the Peter May, but I was surprised when a woman came over to the steward near us to complain about them. She said that they had been rude to her when she asked them to keep quiet and then they called her a stupid cow and were now going "shhhhhhh" when she walked past them. The steward suggested that she might want to move, but she said that she and her husband had no intention of moving. This complaint went on for quite some time and she was obviously upset. When she went back to her seat, we saw that she was probably as far away from those fellas as we were. I don't condone the fact that the lads were rude to her, but it does seem to me unreasonable to expect everyone to keep quiet for you in an entire ground. Just because county cricket days are sometimes soporific...... The steward was very nice; he got some instructions from his supervisor and went over to mollify her and her husband - don't know if that will have worked! We chatted to the steward for a while after the game - he also had expected to be at Lord's that day but had relocated to the Oval, like us! And while talking about nuts, it seems only right to talk about Andre Nel, who looked very solid as a batsman for a short while until Shaggy bowled him. Ged very visably did Ravi Bopara's "sign me up to the honours board" gesture to recognise the five wicket haul. Dexter and Finn combined to remove Dernbach quite soon after Nel fell but then things started to get harder for Middlesex.

All Out By Tea?

Strange Rules Abound Barmy Kev had texted Ged to say that we'd need them all out by tea. Ged tried to explain the complicated "tea" rule to me. The gist of it, as I understood it, was that tea would be taken at the same time as the change of innings as long as the last wicket fell with more than 24 overs remaining in the day. Ged felt that the game would be gone if the last pair survived until then. And if that complicated business with rules wasn't enough, Ged pointed out the sign in front of us which read "NO PERSON IS PERMITTED TO ENTER UPON THE PLAYING AREA AT ANY TIME UNLESS SPECIALLY AUTHORISED BY A CLUB OFFICIAL, OR TO INTERFERE WITH THE NORMAL COURSE OF PLAY IN ANY MANNER". Ged assures me that the drafting of that notice is so bad that it means that you ARE permitted to enter the field of play if you wish to interfere with the normal course of play. We decided not to test this idea; merely to let you dear readers know about it. There was a chance which looked difficult but perhaps gettable off Finn's bowling while the last wicket partnership was still young, which would have left a target of something like 160 off 34 overs. I said "never mind", Ged said "that might have been the match dropped". Just before Ged's "tea deadline", Meaker nicks one to Billy Godleman so Surrey are all out and Middlesex need 186 off 25 overs after tea.

As Exciting As It Gets

Well, I think you probably know what happened after tea. Hughes batted wonderfully well, ably assisted by Nick Compton who looked good until he fell. Eoin Morgan also batted really well. But inexperience and nerves got the better of Middlesex in the end. We thought Richo might have done enough to get 2 off that hoik to deep square leg, but even the "winning draw" wasn't to be. Just the draw. 7-and-a-bit per over seems normal in 25 or so overs judging by T20 stuff, but as Ged pointed out there are no fielding restrictions and no bowling restrictions either. Murtazah Hussain bowled all 13 overs from the Vauxhall end, for example, and he bowled those very well. Of course it all comes down to small things. When we only needed 17 runs off 18 balls and still had wickets in hand, for example, we were confident we'd win. Even when it came down to 3 runs off 4 balls after Shaggy hit that 6 off Murtazah, we thought we'd win. But in the end, it was a fantastic day of entertainment and we have to thank both teams for that. This is how county cricket should be. A small crowd got some of the best entertainment fans of cricket could ever hope for. I still think that Middlesex look like the makings of a great team; we've just forgotten how to win, for now. But here's hoping for similar levels of entertainment and better results as the season goes on.

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