A beautiful night for Widgeons

by our swimming correspondent (Iain Staniland)

Ah Cricket, those lazy summer days, cucumber sandwiches at tea, men in white, the sound of leather on willow in the late evening sunshine. And then there's BAS cricket 22 hearty souls, shivering in the rain with the faint glow of a streetlamp only just penetrating the looming grey of a stormy night. Forgive me if this is an incomplete guide to the 'action' but with visibility limited to my immediate neighbours what was happening at silly mid off is as much a mystery to me as the world of particle physics, for all I know Lord Lucan was turning his arm over!

On a night of testing conditions BAS battled bravely against a friendly Ridgeons team containing a number of folks who knew what they were doing (regarded as cheating at this level!). Somebody won the toss and BAS ended up opening with the bat. Gareth and Rob bravely strode to the crease though Rob was soon to return after facing a bowler who found a bit of life from the pitch. Gareth improvising shots as he went rattled up a quick nine despite spending a good while at the wrong end. Mark Cliverd after a slow start found his timing in the darkness, and top scored with and impressive 31 including two glorious sixes (and two lost balls) dispatched with some distain off short wide deliveries. Belchier after a flying start suffered in what was now a strong drizzle which also affected Bruce Denby's normal all out attacking style. Steve Marshall showed a whole new approach to his batting, playing with a strong straight bat which helped him to 11 runs, obviously net practice has paid off. There was a brief pause as chief meteorologist Jon Shanklin judging conditions to a tee avoided the biggest downpour so far whilst kitting up. The last five balls were delayed for a few minutes as both teams huddled undercover and BAS remained stuck on 91 runs. Would they make it to three figures in the first game? Well yes thanks to Mike Irwin and Shanks helping themselves to a couple of boundaries and a quick single.

As we took the field to defend our hard won total things even seemed to be brightening, but sadly it was not to last. A corridor of dark cloud marched relentlessly over our small patch of Girton green and with a soggy ball, steamed up glasses and a skating rink of grass we toiled in the gloom. The bowlers did well considering gripping the ball was like wrestling a greased baboon and conditions underfoot were more favourable to Torvil and Dean than Gough and Caddick. Highlights, I am told, include a splendid catch by Mark Belchier off the bowling of Trev McCormac and a clean bowled by Rob Hibbins can revenge for his earlier dismal. With fielders tottering about unsteadily like little old ladies, Mark Belchier experiencing an unplaned and driving home with wet pants some of us wondered about our sanity. The only problem encountered was trying to convince loved ones that yes we had been playing cricket all night 'in that' and no we had not sloped off to the pub!.

All in all though, at the end of the day, when all is said and done and some fat bird has knocked out a tune we had fun, put on a good show and despite a loss there is plenty of things for us to build on. Anyway if it doesn't improve we can always become the bas water polo team.

The team:

1. Dirk Briggs
2. Mark Clilverd
3. Rob Hibbins
4. Jon Shanklin
5. Trevor Mcormack
6. Gareth Chisham
7. Mike Irwin
8. Mark Belchier
9. Iain Staniland
10. Bruce Denby
11. Steve Marshall