Kippered by the weather
The first touring team of the season saw Butterlords CC, from London, England gather on the hallowed turf at Entrecasteaux to do battle against a home team bristling with some talent but also with some noticeable gaps – namely Chaminda Perera, who had been available but due to the bungling of the short sighted secretary, had evaded selection. With the forecast for rain the Butterlords CC captain hesitated, due to his team numbering at that moment but 10 players, and then inserted the hosts .
Andy Fife (10) and Anthony Slack (30) obliged their captain’s bidding with Slack , as powerful as ever, punishing anything loose with the contempt it deserved for such a delivery. Opening bowlers Grob (10-0-56-2) (or so the book reads – thank you Nicola) and Hearn (5-1-27-1) bowled in very different fashions – Grob finding the pace but not the direction or length; Hearn steadier and more accurate and therefore harder for the batsmen to score runs . His accuracy finally was the undoing of Slack who he caught leg before wicket in the eighth over when the partnership had reached 46.
This brought Roshan Perera (19) to the wicket and though he dispatched his second ball for the classic Roshi 6, with a flick of his wrists from a ball on middle and off, which saw it fly over the midwicket boundary, he was apparently not at ease. McGill(5-0-24-3) had replaced Grob at the Garden House end and after an indifferent first over in which 11 balls were bowled, he did then find his line and length and claimed the wickets of Roshan, Fife and Ed Harland (2). Roshan was the first to go to a ball that he thought about hooking and then in two minds patted a simple catch to gully. Fife was clean bowled and Harland, in playing back in front of his stumps was returned to the pavilion by umpire Maurice Mitchem.
Uddi Bandaranayake(35) produced a beautiful innings – you never really notice him scoring runs, it all looks so easy but in the eight overs he occupied the crease 35 invaluable runs were added. When he was caught at the wicket Entrecasteaux were 132 runs with 5 wickets down in the 22nd over. If ever a captains innings was called for it was now and Clifford Gregory (58) duly obliged in exemplary manner, scoring freely and extravagantly off both Cooke (5-0-25-0) and Hill (4-0-30-0). In his efforts he was very ably supported by Kalith Fernando (39) so that this 79 run partnership left the home side with a very respectable 220 runs. After Gregory had been run out and Kalith’s wicket claimed by the fortunate Hildebrand (5-0-46-1), Jammes Betley(4) added a boundary which left Fergus Harrington, Tom Slack and Michael Howarth twiddling their thumbs and counting the rain drops which were now falling in earnest. Entrecasteaux’s total had reached 224 in their allotted 35 overs.
So we retired to the Espace Culturel where Yvonne & Hannah Slack and the ever present Ann Mitchem had prepared a fabulous lunch. A long lunch became really the only option and then after a long lunch the powers that be wisely decided that no further cricket could be played. What a shame as Butterlords would have enjoyed trying to reach the total and Entrecasteaux would have enjoyed trying to knock over their wickets – in hind sight perhaps a 20:20 would have been possible. Hind sight is a wonderful thing but certainly lacking in this instance – let us put it down to the kipper we had at breakfast that morning. The wretched herring had been killed, smoked, fried and baked and was therefore so dry that all brain functions had ceased!
Very many thanks to Maurice Mitchem and Phil Chitchen for umpiring and to Yvonne, Hannah and Ann for organizing, preparing, serving up and clearing away our lunch.
A disappointing result in many ways but your club were delighted to entertain such a very good team of like minded individuals from Butterlords , who play the game to enjoy the game, and we hope that we will see them in Provence again in the not too very distant future.
ECC: C.Gregory, U.Bandaranayake, R.Perera, A.Slack, T.Slack, M.Howarth, E.Harland, K.Fernando, F.Harrington, J.Bentley, A.Fife
Umpires: M.Mitchem, P.Chitchen.