One More Win...

I’ve got really vivid memories of all the games I played in the 2000 season except, for some reason, for this one. It’s easier to remember the away games, probably because some of them took place at venues I only ever played at once, like Mistley and Browns. Some games that season stood out because of incidents that took place during the games, such as when Russ Catley’s chin exploded or Ruddy dropped the easiest catch in the history of cricket. It’s not quite as easy to recall the home games in such detail as I must have played in a couple of hundred of these over the years. Despite that I can put together a coherent set of memories for almost all of the games we played at Drapers in 2000. Our final home fixture of the season was against Copdock and Old I’s and I have to fess up that I can recall very little about it. A glance at the scorecard will reveal that I got a blob and as such have erased the memory from my brain. It’s suggested in the scorebook that I was caught behind for naught although in my defence I’d have to add that I either didn’t nick it, it didn’t carry or perhaps both.....that was usually my version of events. What I can tell you about this match is that Copdock and Old I’s only had 10 men. I can honestly say that this wasn’t the difference between the two sides and I suspect they probably would have needed 15 players to make a game of it. Arrogant perhaps but read on and you’ll understand my bold statement. The team news was that Legend was on holiday and his replacement was James Ellis. Spaggs won the toss, and of course against 10 men at home on a warm day we batted first...game over already I venture. Spaggs himself was blossoming into a patch of form that would later lead to the self proclamation that he was our version of Moses. For the second week running he dominated an opening stand with Rubber who had only managed to contribute 7 out of 47 at Frinton a week earlier. This time Rubber was even stingier in adding only 5 to a partnership of 42 before he was cleaned up in the 11th over. We always said that Spaggs was a quick starter and he emphasised this point we taking the 7th over of the innings for 16. Dubbers was in at #3 as usual but this was a rare occasion when he missed out. He was out for 16 having shared 39 with Spaggs and taking the score to 81-2 off 20 overs. From there we began to accelerate as Spaggs and Arkle shared 81 in 16 overs before, with the score at 162 and his hundred in touching distance he holed out! He had made 97 including 11 fours and it was an innings that put us on track for a big total but for the second week in a row he’d missed out on a ton having done the hard graft. It meant that Spaggs had scored more runs in his last 2 innings than his total for the year prior to those digs. He’d moved on to 330 runs for the season now at an average of 33. Then came my forgettable knock which sent my average tumbling from 45 to just under 40. It also bought Rare to the crease with 12 overs to go, an unusual luxury. He was about to take advantage in some style. In partnership with Arkle the two shared a stand of 81 in just 10 overs. Although Arkle was already well on his way to another half century it was Rare who played the dominant hand in this period. He flayed the attack to all parts but sadly fell for 46 before reaching what would have been a very well deserved first half century of the season for Rare. It wasn’t quite the fabled 10 ball 40 but this was an innings full of creativity and positive energy. Rare was a unsung hero of that season, always willing, often underused but never quiet or without a cheeky grin his presence in the side was definitely a helpful contributor for us. Arkle himself was out soon after, narrowly failing to beat a direct hit. He was run out for 69, his 4th half century in his last 7 innings in a wonderful second half of the season. In the usual final 5 over flurry we added 44 for 4. During this period we lost not only Arkle and Rare but Trevaskis for 7, Toby for a duck whilst Goz plundered an unbeaten 17 with some fierce square cutting to deliveries of all lines and lengths. We ended at 272-8 off our 50 overs and felt extremely comfortable that this was more than enough to give us another precious victory in our charge to the title. With the very first ball of the Copdock and Old I’s reply Trevaskis struck lbw, winning an absolutely huge appeal. He had a knack of taking wickets with the first ball of an over and now he’d managed to make an almost impossible task even harder for Copdock and Old I’s. He struck again in the 9th over to make it 40-2 by bowling the other opener. Next on the scene was Rubber who sent down a double wicket maiden to reduce our opponents to 68-4 off 14 overs. The first of these wickets was Tristan Jervis who had made another quick fire 50 in just 14 overs and had briefly threatened to give us a run for our money. From there it was plain sailing for us, Rubber grabbed his third wicket (3-35), Toby got one (1-8) and although he didn’t take a wicket there was a first bowl of the season for James Ellis who snuck on for 2 overs (0-3). Spaggs went wicketless through 6 overs for 32 in a spell where Jervis took a liking to his attempted bouncers! As always though the bowling honours went to Trevaskis who took 5-61 off 13.5 overs to claim his 4th five wicket haul of the summer. In doing so he went past 50 wickets for the season. Only two bowlers achieved the feat that summer and the other, Rogers at Frinton, bowed 60 more overs than Jay! He’d been magnificent all summer and led our attack with menace, taking wickets at a strike rate of 1 every 4 overs, pretty impressive stuff. Copdock and Old I’s were all out in 34.5 overs leaving us plenty of time to celebrate the conclusion of our home fixtures for the season. We now knew that if we could get a decent haul of bonus points in our final match away at Braintree we would be champions for the first time! The bad news for us was that we would be without Arkle who was having a stellar second half of the season. James Ellis also couldn’t make this one. The two replacements were Alistair Cook (for what I think was his first XI league debut) and Paul Davis....I thought long and hard about which order I should write that in! We were still without Legend so the bowling department would be reliant on Trevaskis, Spaggs, Rubber and Toby...I’m not sure we had a 5th bowler if needed. The weather forecast was decent and hopefully we could hold our nerve all the way to the chequered flag!