A Tale of Jordan and the Bishop!

How we got to play a game of cricket at Headley on Saturday will remain one of life’s eternal mysteries. With heavy rain forecast from mid morning onwards, the skipper had thoughts of an afternoon shopping with his daughter rather than picking up another convincing win at the expense of a wily and experienced Sunbury team.

On arriving at the ground at noon, it was dark and wet, the heavens having recently opened. Was this a just a prelude for the afternoon to come? Miraculously, it wasn’t as the rain soon stopped and stayed away all afternoon save for a short five minute shower.

The toss was going to be a key event. Once again the Ashtead skipper had no shortage of advice as to whether batting or bowling was the preferred option. So it was with great relief when Nobby Clark, the Sunbury captain, won and made the decision to bowl.

It is important to point out at this stage that after the game was over, a number of players said that the wicket got tougher as the game went on. However, the Ashtead opening pair of Pete Sudell and Jordan Nicholls would disagree contesting that their opening partnership of 83 was down to their own superior skill and expertise rather than a benign pitch. With Sudell’s fitness for most things having being questioned once again before being out on 49, Paul Sidwell came to the wicket, but after a couple of quick boundaries, was soon out, playing on for 12. Hayden Storey, unusually smart in jacket and tie when he arrived, hit a circumspect 17 before being caught behind whilst Jordan was steadily accumulating 61 before finally being caught late on in the innings, a supremely mature performance for a 14 year old.

The experienced Sunbury spin twins of Nobby Clarke and Bill Kincaid at this stage were exercising an element of control over proceedings, using all their normal wiles in taking the pace off the ball and using a damp pitch to their advantage. With the run rate having slowed, the skipper needed to rely on the big hitting Bryn Griffiths (17) and the Whiteley boys (24no and 20no) to provide the necessary flourishes in the last few overs allowing Ashtead to reach the very acceptable score of 204-5 after 47 overs.

Now, even at this stage, I think we believed that the rain would still arrive and affect the match but extraordinarily it never came. After another excellent tea and the first indications of a warm-up all season, the Ashtead team took to the field to see what they could do in the next couple of hours.

It was going to be important to exploit a slow pitch with variable pace and bounce, but the Sunbury opening pair of Winston Veerender and Anoop Manro appeared to have other ideas and started aggressively. Ashtead were beginning to question their aggressive field strategy when Will Bishop bowled Veerender with one which swung and stayed low. Seeds of doubt in the pitch were already being sown. Aaron Rose at the other end was tending to bowl a slightly variable line but when he got it in the infamous corridor of uncertainty on or just outside offpeg, he was threatening and thoroughly deserved his wicket as Manro drove uppishly and was caught by Nick Williams at cover. Bishop then got one to lift off a length and Mike Smith gloved it to first slip leaving Sunbury 21-3. Jack Southby and Lawrence Nichols then began to rebuild the innings but this was short lived as Southby skied one back over the bowlers head. For a brief moment there was total indecision as three Ashtead players willed one of the others to go for it. Bishop, the bowler, was clearly not interested. Bryn Griffiths at mid-off looked towards mid-off who wasn't looking that interested either and so it was left to Griffiths to somewhat hesitatingly pouch the catch. The batsmen had crossed and next ball Bishop got one to nip back off the seam as Nichols swung across the line and was plumb lbw. At 31-5, and on a hat-trick Bishop was fired up but new batsman Nobby Clarke survived.

At this stage in a game, it was a question of whether Sunbury were going to shut up shop or go down fighting? Time was on the Stags side as once again, even having batted the maximum 47 overs, the skipper was hoping to be in a position to bowl over 50 back before the close at 7pm. Ben Sidwell had taken over from Rose and in his third over, following some wise words from Dave Whiteley, Matt Whiteley was moved a few yards straighter at silly mid on and two catches very soon came his way as Ryan Borgman and Andy Price were beguiled both by the pitch and Ben’s nagging line and length. Nick Williams had replaced Bishop at the other end was twirling away with his leg spin, He soon picked up Rhythm Bedi’s wicket with probably the worst ball of the day, a rank long hop with which Bedi very skilfully managed to provide a return catch off the end of his bat. The end was nigh, but there was still time for another first as Nobby Clarke ended up in the book as "caught P Sidwell bowled B Sidwell". With well over an hour still to play, Bill Kincaid came to the crease to show the youngsters how to bat with some classic cuts down towards the cover point boundary but he was soon undone by a straight one from Williams and the game was over with Sunbury only on 52, James Birch being the undefeated batsman.

A classy performance from the Ashtead team with honours on the day going to Jordan with the bat (61) and the Bishop with the ball (8 overs, 4 maidens, 4 wickets for 6 runs). There is a lewd headline in there somewhere about Jordan and the Bishop, but it will just have to remain unwritten!