Match report

Under the shadow of the iconic power station towers, IVCC made the short journey to the impressive new Boundary Park facilities to face Didcot CC for the very first time. With a clutch of regulars not available, the Villagers included four debutants and one player making his second appearance.

Having lost the toss and been inserted, Bill sent the brand new opening pair of Garr and Ali out to the crease to start things off. Garr has opened the batting for IVCC three times previously, with scores of 6 (all scored via the outside edge), 0 (diamond duck) and 0 (golden duck), but looked surprisingly confident as he moved swiftly to 13 at a run-a-ball. Didcot captain Coates stopped him in his tracks with a straight full toss that had him LBW: Garr tried to channel Daylight and smash it into the next post code, but dialled the wrong number and ended up channelling Dan Watkins as the ball apologetically rubbed against his back pad. More wickets followed alarmingly quickly: Cav (7) found the boundary before finding a fielder; Vikas (1) edged to gully (who rather unsportingly made a superb diving one-handed catch); Andy “Tonya” Harding (2) saw his bails dislodged. At 32 for 4, IVCC were in a spot of bother, and it was down to the skipper to attempt to start a rescue job.

Ali & Bill settled things down, and soon spectators were treated to such reassuringly familiar sights as the Meier Nurdle Through The Covers For Two, the Smith Biff To The Long On Boundary For Four, and of course Smith’s trademark Aggressive Running Between The Wickets. Things were looking very comfortable for both until the introduction of Didcot’s Oxfordshire U14 opening bowler Kane Durrant, who shocked Bill (13) with a straight ball of some pace which ricocheted off his pads onto the stumps.

This writer can surely be forgiven for expecting a swift end to proceedings from this point, with Dan Bibb the next man in, batting at 7 and carrying a number 11’s average of 13 runs @ 4.33 from his previous IVCC outings. But Bibb confounded expectations and past performance by building a superb and valuable innings to help IVCC post a competitive and defendable total. Dan moved slowly through the gears and by the late stage of his innings was demonstrating superb timing as he laced boundaries over mid-wicket and past mid-off.

At the other end, Ali was his usual demure self, watchful and always looking to add to his picket fence, until two overs after drinks when he clearly got bored and smacked the young spinner back over his head for sweetly struck boundary fours. Such extravagance is not a hallmark of Ali’s game, and perhaps lacking practice in the art of hitting out, he was stumped as he danced down the pitch a couple of overs later, out for a vital 41.

Atilio swaggered to the crease next, and was immediately informed by Dan that he couldn’t run quick singles due to a bad knee. Atilio clearly took this as advisory only, as he edged his first ball straight to gully and tried to run. Thankfully the fielder made even more of a pig’s ear of the run out attempt and Atilio (3) survived long enough to chop onto his stumps later in the same over.

IVCC quickly crumbled thereafter, with the last four wickets falling for just 21 runs. Dickie (1) was bowled; Phil Collins tried to hang around with Dan and showed that he was an Easy Glover as he survived an early caught behind chance before holing out for 3; in between, Bibb fell for an excellent 40 when he was bowled by Cole Jr. IVCC finished on 141 all out, and both teams retired Jane Austen-style to take tea on the terrace.

The skipper opened the bowling from the Harwell end. In the interests of being positive, let’s just say that the first over featured a close LBW appeal and no runs scored off the bat. Garr started things off from the Didcot end with the score on 12-0, and found the radar that the skipper had mislaid to register a maiden first up, beating the hapless batsman’s outside edge three or four times.

As with IVCC’s innings, a rank full toss took the first wicket as Bill felled the off stump with the first ball of the 9th over: 31-0. This brought together the Didcot partnership of Cole Sr and Beesley who both looked to play shots and built a steady partnership of 36 which only ended when Atilio took a good catch at square leg off Tonya’s bowling to dismiss Cole Sr.

Beesley survived a couple of close (read: plum) LBW shouts from Garr’s bowling and moved on to 20 before he was finally triggered by the other umpire off Bibb’s bowling. Didcot were 72 for 3, barely half way to their target and wobbling in the face of some accurate Village change bowling. Phil Collins was next on to bowl, and indeed there was something “coming in the air” pretty soon, straight to Dickie at mid-on in fact. Dickie picked up a wicket of his own with the help of a dubious LBW decision from the same umpire who had confounded Garr earlier.

The score was 122 for 6 but with plenty of overs left; IVCC had to take wickets. Unfortunately, the steadfast umpire at the Didcot end denied them a near-certain run out which all-but-ended their chances as Cole Jr baseball-batted the remaining runs to the fence to lead his side home by 4 wickets.