HILTON CRICKET CLUB June 2007 Report

We know what you're thinking.  Just because of a few drops of rain, those wimps in the cricket team won't go out and play in case they get their trousers dirty.  You're wrong, of course.  In fact, the reason that no players were in evidence on the Green for the first home match of the season was that the man fielding at cover point refused to carry on, because the rain kept putting his cigarette out.  Mid-off didn't like his beer diluted, either.

Nevertheless, cricket has actually been played between monsoon cloudbursts and our white-flannelled heroes have done the ‘business' twice more since the last report. 

Now, Lewis Hamilton might have beginner's luck in those fortnightly competitions for driving bright red cars round in circles quite quickly, but Mark and Graeme can demonstrate pure skill in wielding a beautifully fashioned chunk of willow.  That was why the Great Staughton team watched in awe as Mark (62) and Graeme (48) guided the ball to places where other balls cannot reach.  Then it was time for Adi to launch 5 exocets and the match was in the bag.

Scoreboard:      

Hilton 185 for 5 wkts  (M Darlow 62, G Stubbington 48)
Gt Staughton 93 all out  (A Darlow 5-20).  Result: Hilton won by 92 runs.

For the next match, our opponents (Alconbury III) decided that they would prefer to play skittles, rather than cricket.  Somewhat ill-advisedly, we complied and allowed ourselves to be knocked over for just 50 runs.  Only four of our batsmen reached a score of 1 or more - which means that seven of them didn't.  It wasn't a one-sided match, though, as we took seven Alconbury wickets before they overhauled our meagre total.  One felt that if only our middle- and late-order batsmen had remembered to take their bats out with them for their innings, we might have notched up another dozen runs and presented an insuperable target.

Scoreboard:      

Hilton 50 all out (I Jacobs 17, T Frost 15, M Darlow 7, T Leader 1,
Everybody Else 0)
Alconbury III 53 for 7 wkts  (I Jacobs 4-21).  Result: Hilton didn't win.

Eventually, on 10 June, we christened our 2007 pitch with a match against Upwood III.  The wicket was as unresponsive as a Yorkshire pudding, so the scoring rate was not high.  Indeed, the pavilion clock was moving faster than the scoreboard.  Hilton scored 122 in four days, nineteen hours and twenty-two minutes.  That total was enough, since our bowlers dismissed Upwood for just 50 runs.  (Just think - if Upwood had batted first, we might have saved ourselves two and a half days!)

Scoreboard:      

Hilton 122 all out  (F Frost 29, T Leader 23)
Upwood III 50 all out  (A Darlow 4-21, F Frost 3-3, I Jacobs 3-20). 
Result: Hilton won by 72 runs.

Finally, our unlimited thanks go to Mr Eddie Rose for the use of his company's motorised roller. Not only was this a source of many hours of fun for Mark and Adi (thanks to them, too), but it squashed the weeds down sufficiently for us to play cricket as early as mid-June.