Nearly There
By Ian Clark
WEEK 11
JULY 19th 2008
4th TEAM v MATCHTECH (A)
1st TEAM v PORTCHESTER (A)
I'm in the fourths today. The fourths is where the colts start; it's where I started too. My Saturday contact was going to be spent umpiring the fourths. After three weeks, protesting too much, I was playing again. I've retired half a dozen times, sometimes for several seasons but I always come back.
That team has moved on; Shaun and Tom are now top of the entire league with the firsts, but Mike Garner has stayed. I don't think I've met a nicer man than Mike. Here he is still nurturing the colts and organising teas and scoreboards and match fees and lifts while the rest of us have gone off to the world of good wickets and bonus points. Mike will be off soon too. Like most league cricketers he won't play if he doesn't deserve a place in the side. Mike is 48, the league 50s are over and August 28th will probably be his last day.
"Fantastic to see you Ian"'
Mike beams at me and it is great to be back. I'm just not entirely sure why I'm here although there was talk of some of the thirds dropping down to help the fourths stumbling promotion run. Dr. Mike is here too but looking round only Mike G and Hannah remain from two summers ago.
We win the toss and we're soon 12-2. Mike has put me at number 4 today and by now it's clear why I'm playing and why I'm at 4. We're playing Matchtech, who are top of the division, and they have Wilson, a fast bowler. Stuart is still there. Like me Stuart is in his mid-forties, has played a lot of league cricket and is not going to be intimidated. We agree to see off the quickie and then review the innings. The next hour is why I love league cricket. Wilson bowls accurately and is the fastest bowler I will face all season. He bowls round the wicket, he bowls short, he bowls unchanged. Stuart is dropped behind, satisfyingly, by a wicketkeeper who even amongst wicketkeepers is irritatingly vocal. Wilson swears in a Scottish accent so thick it resonates of low skies and mist. I don't know why but a Scottish accent still seems incongruous on a cricket pitch. I've played with and against many Scots but it still seems odd.
Mike smiles at me "Four more overs, that's all". Wilson is still bowling fast and well but he can't bowl more than 12 overs. The overs and then the balls are ticked off; Stuart and I hold on and shake hands.
League cricket, even in the fourths, offers intensity that village or Sunday cricket does not. It's addictive, it's competitive, its why league cricketers sneer at village cricket (any incompetence is called "village" in club cricket) and why village cricketers hate the leagues. Just read "Fatty Batter". But that hour was great made sweeter because everyone was trying their hardest.
Stuart goes on to a fine 50 and we are 135-3 when Hannah joins me. Hannah starts poorly and is struggling to score a run; the overs start to slip away. I'd been looking forward to playing with Hannah, I'm proud that she plays league cricket on merit and that our cricket brings us together.
In the end I call Hannah for a short single and she is run out for a duck and like so many other fathers with teenage daughters we end up rowing; although unlike many of them our disagreement is about a quick single to gulley. Hannah leaves shouting back at me something beginning with F. We finish with over 200.
Dr. Mike tears in and Hannah keeps well to him and although Matchtech thrash and struggle we win by 40 runs.
Tom is later than usual. The firsts have lost, away to Portchester. We always lose to Portchester. All season I've waited, the club has waited, fatalistically, for the bubble to burst, for normal service (and a 7th place finish) to resume. Tom says Fred was very down in the car.
Gooders umpired and wrote on the club website:
"Are you flat track bullies? Do you have the nous to change?"
and an exchange of emails followed as three-quarters of a season's work unravelled.
Robbie even wrote an address to the club on the website as the spirit of Corporal Jones began to take hold.
Tom left late "They didn't fight; they just wanted it more than us Dad".
At least the Thirds won and are safe.
