Carpe Vinum CC recorded their second successive win of the
summer in one of the most keenly fought matches in their history. With a team
of only ten men taking the field, the odds were stacked against Carpe from the
start for their annual battle against Latin rivals Agricola CC, yet they clung
on in a match that ebbed and flowed with each passing over to finish worthy
winners.
In sweltering conditions under the fine afternoon sun, Alex
Beecraft and Mike Saunders strode out to the middle and proceeded to set up
camp there. The run rate trickled, as the Agricola slow bowlers harried the
batsmen and pinned them down, aided by an outfield that needed harvesting
rather than mowing and consistently kept the ball from the boundary.
As the drinks break approached after 20 overs, the score
crept above 50, but crucially Beecraft and Saunders remained, toiling in the
heat, containing their frustration as they built the innings.
When Beecraft was caught for 37, it brought the aggressive
Mark Wallis to the crease, who hit a swiftfire 13 before being caught. Then
when Johnny Heath was caught deep at mid on, slogging a higher ball, it
triggered another ominous Carpe collapse.
The exhausted Saunders was eventually clean bowled for 62,
while Steve Haag, Toby Adamson and Charlie Whitting all departed for ducks. Nik
Darlington eked out a solitary run before being caught himself. Chris Strong
and Sanjay Bremakumar staged a last stand partnership to haul Carpe past 150
runs, but once again the team failed to last an entire innings.
With a total of 153 to defend and only ten men to do it,
Carpe knew that they could not trust in the treacly outfield alone – the fielders
would have to be focused, sharp and energetic.
And so it proved, as Adamson and Strong prodded and probed.
Agricola’s innings took on a similar pattern to Carpe’s as their openers stuck
it out patiently, waiting for chances. They inevitably found gaps in the
depleted field, but Carpe stuck to their task admirably and found their reward
shortly before drinks. A Darlington delivery clattered into the pads. The
umpire’s finger went up and the team dared to dream.
But as the squash was handed round, Carpe must have known
that Agricola still held the advantage. With 20 overs still to bat, they were
already almost halfway to Carpe’s total, with a daunting nine wickets still in
hand.
The introduction of Wallis into the attack brought immediate
dividends, however, despatching the second opener and exposing new batsmen. Neither
lasted long against an impressive Darlington attack. Agricola were four wickets
down and their run rate was drying up; Carpe were in the ascendancy and when
Saunders stepped in for his first over, belief was high.
That was reckoning without one of Agricola’s aggressive
South African batsmen. In one destructive over, he clobbered the ball high over
the long grass and the boundary and sending Agricola’s score rocketing into
triple figures. In such a situation – 40 runs ahead, with ten overs left and a
brute finding the boundary at will – Carpe might have let their ambition die
and surrendered to the inevitable.
Instead, the team remained unbowed, the belief held and the
fielders tightened the net. Two overs later and Saunders had his revenge, as
Bremakumar took a fine catch in the deep to send the South African back to the
hutch and expose the Agricola tail.
The stage was set for a thrilling finale, as Carpe strained
to take the remaining five wickets and Agricola strived to reach Carpe’s
temptingly attainable target. Willis enjoyed a wicket maiden and Adamson was rewarded
for his incisive and miserly bowled to have a batsman expertly stumped by
Beecraft.
In the end, it was Carpe’s energy in the field, which never
flagged, that won the day. They pounced on any potential single, and as
Agricola’s chase became ever more desperate they effected two run outs to
deliver the spoils.
Veni Vidi Vici!!
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