UCLES brought the curtain down on an impressive league season last night with a 6 wicket victory against Judge Institute at Downing College.
With vast and dramatic thunder storms forecast Lawrence chose to bowl first on a pitch resembling a knitted cattle grid. And it was a decision that reaped swift rewards as new ball pairing Danson and Siyambalapitiya made good early use of the scouring pad surface. Siyambalapitiya it was that struck first, rocking the varnished ash with a swinging full length delivery.
Judge (notably missing the smattering of snarling imbeciles that dominated last year's proceedings) are a good side, but they were struggling to make headway against another shimmering UCLES show in the field. Visage in particular was bristling with action, smashing the stumps from cover and then smashing Bean from slightly closer in a frantic spell of high tempo cricket. On a day when a third umpire would have been very busy, the batsmen rightly survived. Moments later Visage almost took the catch of the season off Siyambalapitiya's miserly bowling but the Danson-esque dive yielded just sore finger tips and girly yelps of acclaim from team mates.
Bean and Robinson replaced the openers and continued the good work. With the ball gripping more than the John Grisham section at Waterstones, Robinson was particularly effective, providing Lawrence with back-to-back catches at short third man. Conjuring up more dots than a school optician, Robinson was strangling the Judge batsmen whilst Bean was among the wickets again, benefiting from Wylie's fifth catch of the season.
As overs began to drift away like pooh sticks on a hefty current, so the Judge total hobbled towards 100. Robinson helped himself to two more victims in a highly impressive spell whilst more sharp work from Monk and Bean produced another two run-out victims. Linsdell came into the attack at the death and despite six balls from the 'dross' end of the bowling continuum managed to snare another victim, caught by the swooping Robinson. The man they call simply 'Steve' then returned to see out another near-perfect over - although admittedly most of it was bowled to a man holding a cricket bat the way Michael Jackson holds a baby - and Judge closed on 98 for 9.
Only time would tell whether 98 was a good score on a difficult batting wicket but it quickly became clear that it was going to be at least competitive. Linsdell and Lawrence began quietly, as they do, sipping lemon tea and discussing current affairs between runs. Scoring however remained steady against some accurate bowling and enthusiastic fielding. Appealing everyone time the ball touched anything white, Judge were applying good pressure but the UCLES opening pair were combining the occasional boundary with sharp running between the wickets. For 'sharp' however you could read 'suicidal' with Linsdell especially surviving a number of close run-out appeals. Happily, the third umpire was still nowhere to be seen.
After passing 50 at a reasonable 5 runs an over, Lawrence finally fell LBW for 28. The overseas pro was slightly surprised to be given out by team mate Visage - a man who clearly hasn't learned the two golden rules of amateur cricket:
1) Never, ever give the captain out. If he thinks he's out, he will walk
2) Never suggest the cake the captain's wife brought for the tea was actually from Waitrose
Entrusted with the job of steadying the ship and maintaining the course, Linsdell immediately ran himself out, albeit victim of a surprising direct-hit from deep. Any lingering doubts about the outcome of the proceedings were however dispelled over the next few overs as Wylie and Monk brought the winning post in to sight. Making a rare appearance as straight man, Monk saw Wylie lift the ball around the Downing's expensive outfield before finally being bowled playing the sort of cricket shot you normally associate with Americans. With just one decent blow required for victory Monk fell caught and bowled. This paired Bean and Dagless for the finale. Bean prodded elegantly through the covers but mysteriously Dagless wasn't able to make the vital second run. This forced him to take the glory with a neat leg glance - and that was that, victory with 6 wickets and 7 balls to spare.
UCLES have won 8 of the their 10 league games, producing some high quality and high energy performances. Displaying admirable spirit throughout, the side have given themselves with a real chance of taking the league title. Only time and the weather will tell.
