Carpe Secure Victory over Land Security

While England were taking a well earned breather from obliterating the hapless Indians on Friday 5^th August, Carpe’s battle hardened troops soldiered on. In this instance it was to Regent’s Park that they swarmed, or rather dribbled, after work. As the start of the game loomed we realised that we were short of a full eleven.

Our opposition, Land Security XI, were even more numerically challenged. The sun was already lowering itself in the cloud-patterned sky when the resolve to play cricket overcame the fact that only fourteen people had turned up, three of which hailed from that proud cricketing family, the Bremakumars. A twelve over game with eight balls an over was decided upon and Land Security took to the field, bolstered by their reinforcements from some selfless Carpe players.

But with a limited number of fielders and some sterling batting, Carpe’s opening pair of Walker and Stannard were able to race away and build a strong score, striking boundaries with delicious ease. When Walker was sent stalking back to the “pavilion” after being bowled the run rate hardly slowed, the diminished field becoming ever more stretched. All seven batsmen made their mark with Stannard’s 27 not out and Sat Bremakumar’ 32 the pick of the bunch.

Those Carpe players who put the game before their allegiances and played for LS also took a healthy share of the wickets, Sanjay Bremakumar dismissing his younger brother with a satisfied snarl and Dingwall taking the wickets of Nunn and Whitting.

LS padded up with the total of 113 to match before the sun failed or they ran out of wickets. And as the shadows lengthened their two openers used their experience from fielding to find the gaps in Carpe’s net, finding singles with almost every ball. The match’s sole spectator, a bearded man doing yoga on an inflatable ball, must have worried that Carpe’s bowling attack would not be enough to stem the flow of runs. But he didn’t reckon on Stannard who followed up his powerful innings with the bat with a devastating over that dismissed LS’s openers and put Carpe back on the front foot.

As more wickets started to fall Bremakumar Major and Minor found themselves together in the middle battling against the bowling of their brother in a vicious family feud. The fine bowling of the middle child was rewarded as he took the wicket of his older brother much to the delirium of the Carpe field, whose sledging up to this moment had been first rate against their occasional captain.

It was left to your faithful correspondent to take the final but his first wicket, clean bowling LS’s wicket keeper after finally getting his line right after a decidedly wayward first over. To Carpe went the glory of victory; to The Bobbin went the glorious victors.