April 24th, the most important day of 2010 – not only the 22nd anniversary of the second coming ( Jill's brithday!!), but the first day of the all-important cricket season.
The weather was glorious, the grass lush and the players willing as we assembled at the home of opponents Arkley CC: the Dame Alice Owen ground in Totteridge (actually nearer to N2 than our own ground).
Kaptain Kutner started us off nicely by winning the toss, and we were off taking to the field again in good N2 tradition.

Electing to open with the deadly combination of Dobbly Dodds and… er… Odd Olly, we got off to a decent start with Paul keeping things very tight at his end, whilst Butler blew off the cobwebs at the other. However, the opposition batsmen rarely looked troubled as they picked off the bad balls and occasionally jogged a single.

At this point it was becoming apparent that the aerial route was probably going to be the best way to score quickly, due to the savannah-like outfield, and Kutner duly handed the advantage to Arkley with the introduction of the usually-magnificent Jill.
(the reader needs to know at this point that Jill wrote this report!!) Struggling for control and rhythm early on, Frosty began to settle into his task, and should have had one of the openers caught skying to midwicket. Unfortunately he and Olly both failed to take responsibility, and watched wryly as the ball thumped into the turf. At this point we felt we hadn’t had the rub of the green – difficult slip and cover chances being put down by Parker and Bobby respectively off the bowling of an increasingly frustrated Paul.

The breakthrough eventually came off the bowling of Newbers – a good ball thumped straight down Jill’s throat at mid on to send the more aggressive of the openers on his way for a solid 50. Wickets began to fall steadily, and a magnificent catch from Taffy off his brother’s bowling could have fooled the ignorant into thinking we were actually decent fielders. A tidy piece of keeping from Robbie did for the remaining opener, and suddenly all was well.

Or so we thought. Arkley had managed to secure the batting services of the Bearman at number 5, and as he stumped to the crease the bails visibly rattled and the pavilion fairly shook. Luckily Daisy Moore was on the case – accurate bowling stifling his massive haymaker blows, to his obvious frustration. He played himself in (in a manner of speaking), and the ball began fairly flying from his actual willow tree trunk. Eventually he skied one, and as it re-entered the stratosphere the handsome and magnificent Jill sprinted manfully around the boundary, nobody doubted his genius for a second. Unfortunately the ball had attained terminal velocity by this point, and even Usain Jill could only get a despairingly outstretched hand to the ball. The ball ricocheted painfully onto his opposite forearm and was still travelling at pace when it crossed the rope some metres behind.

Not to worry, Daisy had her victim shortly afterwards, and followed him with another to restrict Arkley to 165-5, a credible fielding performance in the baking sunshine, that on a luckier day could have reaped major dividends.

After a pleasant tea, Bobby and Parker strode confidently to the crease, dour northerner and cheeky midget united in purpose. Unfortunately Dave after hitting a nicely timed on drive for four was clean bowled by a flighty ball moving off the seam and swiftly returned to sulk in his chair.

Off went Robbie, buoyed by a Gomes-like performance behind the stumps earlier. He and Bobby proceeded nicely for a bit (about an over), Bobby using up all his leprechaun luck to stay in the game, before a combination of 3 hours standing behind the stumps and a heavy tea did for Robbie’s hamstring.

When it became clear Robbie would need to retire, a captain’s innings was needed from Kutner, and he looked relaxed as he marched out to save the day. Unfortunately he batted like a fanny, and after a few airy swishes was swiftly back in the pavilion. We were in bad trouble with effectively 3 wickets down for 20-odd runs, and things got exponentially worse as Taffy departed for a duck. Bobby was hacking away manfully at one end, but swiftly running out of partners. Simon steadied the ship for a while, his cool head allowing the building of our first almost-noteworthy partnership of the day as the scoreboard ticked over at a reasonable rate. Things were looking up until Bobby was caught agonisingly short of his 50, but we still had the tubthumping Mr Dodds to go. He and Simon set about their task with gusto, and with 14 overs to go we needed just over 6 an over the target was within reach. Simon was coming out of his shell now, but he paid the price when he was stumped, the keeper clearly confident in his ability to stand up close.

The mighty Jill was next up, but before he had even properly got bat to ball Doddsy had got himself out, driving airily wide outside off stump into the waiting hands of the slip. Jill and his new partner Newbers made a conscious decision that it was time to shut up shop for the draw, and 7 overs of manful blocking under extreme pressure followed before Dave was done through the gate. At this point, with 6 overs to go we were still confident we could draw if the lower order remained resolute and sensible. The very able combination of youth (Daisy) and beauty (Jill) set about their task with gusto, Jill farming the strike and calmly middling everything in site.

With the game petering out, a final ugly twist occurred. Frosty missed a ball that kicked up horribly (honest…) and was stumped, his back foot being millimetres short of safety, leaving the outcome in the hands of Olly. As the rest of the team showed their confidence in the 9th wicket pair by manhandling Robbie back into his gear, they did us proud by seeing out the final 3 overs and taking us to what had at times looked a very unlikely draw.

Bowling:

Dodd-        9overs- 4maidens- 16runs- 0wickets
Butler-       7         0               31        0  
Frost-        7         0               42        0
Newbury-   7         1               25        1
S.Dyer-     6          1              27         2
D.Moore-   4          0              19         2

Batting:

Parker-         Bowled           6
R.Moore-      Caught           45
Crouchley-      Retired Hurt    0
Kutner-         Caught           2
D.Dyer-        Bowled           0
S.Dyer-        Stumped        16
Dodd-           Caught           17
Frost-           Stumped         3
Newbury-      Bowled            3
D.Moore-      Notout             0
Butler-          Notout             0

Extras                                13
G. Total                              105