Memories of Jimmy’s debut

We made the 80 mile journey to Ramsey in Cambridgeshire for the opening fixture of the 2002 EAPL campaign with a new keeper in our team. Jimmy Ainscough had joined the Dons. Since David Hunter had worn the gloves in 1997 with aplomb we had experimented with a few batsman who could also keep wicket so it was great to have a safe pair of hands in the side.

Mark Boraston also made his debut on that day and although he outshone Jimmy on this occasion it’s easy to see who has made the bigger impression on the club, just.

Losing the toss wasn’t in our plan and to be fair it didn’t happen that much...I’d won my 4 previous tosses in our championship winning season of 2000 when Spaggs nursed a sore digit (broken nail)!

We were inserted so it would take some time for our new men to get a taste of the action. It was Ramsey’s first game after promotion so they had less experience of the EAPL than us but we would have bowled first too.

Spaggs got us off to a flyer when he rocked onto the back foot to despatch a half tracked to the extra cover boundary from the first ball of the season. They were to be his only runs that day as we lost an early wicket.

More followed and we were becalmed by some excellent bowling from Saffa Grant de Kock who slid left arm over seamers down the slope. After this Ramsey unleashed Martin Burton on us who spun his left arm orthodox variety down that same slope in a way that dried the run rate completely. These two bowlers and the less memorable Nick Rushton shared 19 maidens and 9 wickets for 91 off 54 overs.

That sounds grim but in the other 18 overs that took us to our maximum of 72 we managed to milk another 97 runs. This plus 14 byes / leg byes meant we could sneak past 200 having used our full allocation and kept Ramsey in the field much longer than they were used to.

Their dependency on 3 guys to do all their bowling was a shortfall we didn’t share...

But batting had been an arduous task especially for those who had to block De Kock and Burton so that others could find batting easier. Arkle took 36 balls over his 3 whilst Dubbers took 122 balls to get to 39. Both these fine players were used to strike rates much higher than these. Ainscough himself couldn’t break the shackles and we got only a glimpse of his strengths on that day as the sweep shot was unfurled without real reward.

These guys had done enough to allow the late middle order especially the quietly destructive Boraston to turn the taps on late in the day. The whispering Aussie belted 3 maximums and almost made it to 50 on debut.

Rubber Raymond started his campaign with a shiny globe and it was left to James Ellis and Legend to ensure we ushered our total past 200.

At lunch I remember Ainscough searching for the Potato Pie, Mushy Peas and Black Pudding and his furrowed brow when Ham sandwiches were the best he could find. I think he had some lard stashed in his Cricket bag somewhere to stop him from feeling homesick....he should have given some to Boraston.

Ramsey never had a chance to show us if their plan was to go at 4 an over to secure the win or to block for 48 overs to grab a draw.

Boraston saw to that by ripping out the opener with his very first ball for the club, it was certainly the high point of his short stay. Opening partner Wargent assisted the unassuming Boraston to reduce the hosts to 22/5 after 10 overs....

Amongst these wickets was a straightforward catch for Ainscough and for him off the mark. There were no further opportunities for him and later two byes cost him a clean sheet...I’m sure he got one later that season somewhere along the line.

Burton showed his class by creating a 50 but in truth Ramsey were always chasing shadows and subsided to 123 all out with Rubber and Legend cleaning up the tail.

Ainscough had remained vocal throughout his debut although in truth most of us and the opposition weren’t sure what he was saying or when to laugh...he seemed to pick up the words to our victory song fairly quickly and the last 18 years must have had plenty of chances to get to grips with it!