And so to the final game of the 2011 season and under grey skies “The Grantchester” headed East to Dullingham. Twenty years ago (November 1991 to be exact) the village of Dullingham was struck by a freak tornado which caused substantial damage. Would history repeat itself?
The prospect of rain made this an important toss to win which our skipper duly did (not his only important contribution of the day). At this point I should mention that our scorebook was A.W.O.L. that afternoon and our plucky scorer’s ingenuity was tested as she resorted to scoring on old shopping lists and the back of her cheque book. Details of the Grantchester innings are correct but aside from the final score there are no details of Dullingham’s reply.
Adam and Kevin Roos opened the batting and in the blink of an eye we had lost two wickets. Five runs on the board and both openers back in the pavillion. Captain Wilson and Tim Offord had some work to do. A light drizzle was falling but the scoreboard was still ticking over. Precise details are not available but the score must have been forty something for two when, having batted with his usual aggression, Tim was out for a valuable 25. Ferg was quickly off the mark and there were hopes of a father and son stand; sadly Ferg was out as the rains came down and both teams sought the shelter of the pavillion.
The rain delay lasted at least an hour and when play resumed the wicket was – not surprisingly – a mudbath. Your correspondent came and went for a quick 8 and it was down to TK (10) and Sam (an excellent 34 not out) to keep Wizz company while he reached his first 50 for Grantchester. Priceless runs in difficult circumstances without which it was unlikely we would have reached our final score of 158 for 5.
Matt opened the bowling and soon claimed the wicket of one of the Dullingham openers, this despite the very slippery conditions which didn’t help the faster bowlers. It wasn’t long before the slows – not to say “olds” – came on. Operating off a run of perhaps five or six paces Tony Kennedy completely tied up one end and finished with the excellent figures of 9 overs for 18 runs and 2 wickets (number of maidens not recorded). At the other end Neil was also bowling sensibly, finishing with figures of 7 – 2 – 23 – 2. Frankly Dullingham were never quite up with the required rate and the end came quickly when Kevin Roos took three late wickets: Dullingham all out for 138, Grantchester winning by twenty runs.
Perhaps the final word should go to Wizz so I’ll quote from his end of season report, “an impressive victory against the gentleman of Dullingham in our last game of the season…….in my view this was our best performance yet with sound batting and an impressively tight bowling display”.
