Cardiff Cavaliers Cricket Club

Match Report

Consmen (Willow League), Tuesday 25 May 2010

Consmen 95/8 (20ovs, Duffy 2/19, J Davies 2/21, Marchant 2/23). Cavs 96/4 (15.3ovs, Chapman 38no, Marchant 15no, J Thomas 14). Cavaliers won by 6 wickets. Cavaliers 13pts, Consmen 2pts

Scorecard

Another glorious day lead to another greyish, chilly evening at Llanrumney for the 3^rd match of our 2010 Willow League campaign. Already we were dipping into the depths of the squad with Stevie Davis summoned (rather than summonsed) to lend his hands (and other parts of his anatomy, as we shall learn later) to the cause.

Pre-match briefing was interrupted twice – once when it was discovered that the Vice had parked his car blocking a coach with a bunch of kids eager to get home to their X-boxes. Much tut-tutting from skip and co, only to have the question posed a few minutes later “does anyone own a rather battered silver Seat? That’s in the way too” so off goes the Captain.

We lost the toss and, as they’d conceded over 200 to Casuals on the same pitch last week, Consmen didn’t want to tempt lightning twice and opted to bat, opening with the Skirrow & Son partnership. Mikey McVeigh and Ally Fraser both bowled some great balls and, so it seemed, would have little luck until Ally got one to lift and Skirrow senior could only cut it toward Stevie Davis in the gully who took it cleanly in both hands, dropped it on to his stomach and then clutched it between his legs. You know what they say, you can take the pads out of the keeper but you can’t take the legs off the catcher.

Mikey then got his just rewards to dismiss Skirrow junior when Andy Steadman took a blinder of a catch at slip, a good bit of thinking by skip and vice to keep such a field placement to Mikey’s bowling. He dived full length to his right and held the ball at maximum stretch just an inch above the ground. When the openers finished their spells Consmen were 28/2 off 8 and had been set back on their heels somewhat.

Cap’n Jimmy introduced himself and Jasey and it was the later in particular who caught the eye with good pace and movement inducing several false shots and more than a few plays’n’misses. Jimmy bowled through and dismissed dangerman Bowen and their no4.

Meanwhile some sort of tacit collusion was occurring at the stumps between the Radyr lads with Skirrow sen, now umpiring, failing to signal byes from his end, which saved the blushes of Davey Parsons looking after the keeper’s locker tonight. Indeed, so blatant did it become that eventually the Consmen sent out a message to the umpire to “do the flipping signals”.

Jonny Jiffy Davies was playing his first League match of the year and also bowled well and was particularly pleased with his ct&bw which, he described later, as being almost balletic with his swivel, pivot, lunge and swoop - we’ll allow readers to use their own imagination …

Jasey came back to bowl at the death with JD and they strangled any thoughts Consmen may have had a final 3-4 over dash. Duffy finished with 2/19 (which could’ve been more) and JD 2/21.

Our batting order, though, was causing some concern as Andy Steadman had been in the wars in the field. Firstly, he’d lain low to the ground to allow Glenny a clear throw to the keeper to try and effect a run out, only to find that Glenny had decided to do a “one bounce to the stumps” throw and the bounce trajectory coincided with where Andy had placed his head. Sportingly, the Consmen batsmen declined the overthrows as the ball ricocheted off the Steadman bonce when it was clear he was injured. Happily he could continue but then pulled up lame chasing a ball and declared his condition as the old footballer’s injury “a groin strain”.

Although he felt well enough to open and managed a first single okay, the second saw him pull up half way home and try to hobble on to safety only to see the fielder score a direct hit on the stumps – a cruel irony as no other shy at the stumps by the Consmen got anywhere near the woodwork. So Andy out for a golden duck and still 7 runs short of becoming the first Cavalier to score 400 runs before the end of May [Ed: there are many of us who’d be ecstatic to get 400 in a whole season].

Mikey McVeigh was strangely becalmed but Jonny Thomas, returned from the U S of A, thumped 3 boundaries before both of them were out to left arm Matt Davies, who was the pick of the Consmen bowlers with 2/15 from his 4 overs.

Glenny showed excellent form and judgment mixing stout defence with effortless flicks off his rib cage to no-balls for a 6 and a 4. Nigey was eager to get on with things but fell to an excellently judged catch in the deep.

Jimmy joined Glenny and, mindful of the need to keep wickets in hand so that we got some bouns points, put together an unbroken partnership of 49 to see us home with more than 4 overs to spare finishing on 15 and 38 respectively.

Champagne moment: many have been catches this year so far, perhaps because we drop our fair share of them so when a really good un is taken it stands out, so have to go for Steaders one-handed blinder at slip off McVeigh

Team: Jimmy Marchant (capt), Jason Duffy (vice capt), Dave Parsons (wkt), Andrew Steadman, Mike McVeigh, Jonathan Thomas, Glenn Chapman, Nigel Adams, Steve Davis, Alasdair Fraser, Jonathan Davies. 12th man: Michael Dawkins