Hot on the heels of the cup-retaining tour of Somerset,
Carpe Vinum CC were on the road again, this time to the idyllic New Forest.
Alas the journey down was far from idyllic for many of the team, as the start
of the summer holidays turned the roads into car parks and the train stations
into waiting rooms.
By the time the fielders of Coombe Bissett CC were striding
out of the pavilion, only three Carpe team members were even at the ground. As
the rest of the team edged through the traffic, Richard Manthorpe and Sam
Phelps resolutely held their nerve at the crease. Three overs later and they
were still battling it out when two cars came haring through the gate. Five
players burst out and raced into the pavilion to get changed and ready to play.
They did not have to wait long. Manthorpe was soon back in the hutch after
battling to a duck and Sanjay Bremakumar was out at the crease hastily pulling
on his gloves.
Neither he nor Phelps lasted much longer and Carpe found
themselves three wickets down with only a handful of runs to show for it. Tim
Denny and captain Johnny Hilliard established some sort of fightback, eking
singles and clubbing bad balls to the boundary down the slope. When Hilliard
was bowled for 19, Strong put his shoulder to the wheel, combining well with
Denny to drag Carpe’s total to something approaching respectability. After
Denny departed for 34, two more Carpe players arrived at the ground, bringing
the team up to 10 men, albeit with time running out. Alas they failed to add to
the target, with Mike Saunders impressively out lbw trying to reverse sweep his
first ball.
Set the modest target of 103 to win and knowing that Carpe
were still a man short in the field, Coombe Bissett’s openers set about their
challenge with relish, setting the tone with a powerful boundary off the first
delivery. Hilliard rotated his bowlers and the energy in the field never
slackened, but the runs were coming all too quickly. Even the late arrival of
Joe Hare and Toby Adamson, who had gotten it into their heads that the trip
from London to the New Forest on a Friday evening couldn’t be longer than an
hour, couldn’t stave off the inevitable. With eight overs still to play and 12
men on the field, Carpe succumbed to a chastening 10 wicket defeat.
Nevertheless, they left the ground in high spirits and enjoyed
a few ‘shandies’ at the local Fox and Goose before retiring to their cottages
for some drinking games involving cheap (and very weak) continental lager.
The next day had no cricket scheduled, so team activities
had been planned – a trip to the beach, followed by Salisbury Races.
Unfortunately, the team rather disintegrated, with your correspondent shooting
off to a wedding and Denny, Adamson and Hare electing to play golf instead.
Your correspondent was therefore not around to witness the shenanigans of
Saturday, so these pictures must suffice. However, special praise must go to
Saunders and Chris Barker who also braved Salisbury’s Chapel nightclub and were
last back to the cottages.
Carpe’s next opponents were Rockbourne CC who put them into
bat on a pitch with a temping slope but a slowish outfield. Things got off to a
bad start as Strong was caught on 1, with Hare following him soon afterwards.
However, fellow opener Saunders, perhaps in a bid to make up for his
embarrassment in the first match, batted strongly, picking gaps and judging the
bowlers’ lines well. In this he was ably assisted by Denny and the generous
Rockbourne bowlers, who leaked 41 runs in extras.
After Saunders was given out lbw only a few balls after
reaching his half century, Denny was ably assisted the entertaining innings of
Bremakumar and Adamson to help him reach the same milestone. Carpe’s total
marched past 200 and they even survived the innings without losing all of their
wickets, with Denny left standing with the runless Whitting on 52 not out.
After posting the highest total of their season Carpe might
have been confident of defending it, but Rockbourne proved themselves to be
admirable batsmen. After Manthorpe took an early wicket, the next two batsmen
Maidment and Beetham set about the chase, rotating the strike and punishing any
wayward balls.
A corker of a delivery off the first ball of Adamson’s final
over to bowl Maidment was the breakthrough that Carpe craved and, followed by
direct and aggressive bowling from Denny, slowed the run rate to tilt the
balance back Carpe’s way. However, it was not long before Rockbourne snatched
control back again in the most brutal of fashions.
First, Hilliard was carved and slogged all over the ground
to cede five successive boundaries. After he had been hauled off, captain
Strong gave himself an over in a bid to make a breakthrough before drinks. That
breakthrough did come, albeit at the extortionate cost of four more successive
boundaries, including two maximums. Carpe had their wicket but it was
Rockbourne that took drinks in higher spirits, 42 runs plundered in two overs
and the total now well within their grasp with seven wickets still in hand.
From this point, there was no return for Carpe. They battled
with typical spirit, Hilliard gaining some revenge with a wicket and Saunders
breaking a brotherhood partnership soon afterwards. But in the end, the result
was inevitable and Rockbourne reached their target with eight overs to spare
and plenty of batsmen still in the hutch. Drinks in the Rose and Thistle
afterwards went on late into the night, with captain Strong awarded man of the
match… by Rockbourne.
The next day, after everyone had recovered from the previous
night’s punishing Tour Court, Carpe Vinum travelled south to Hampshire CC’s
beautiful Rose Bowl to witness the delight of some superb batting from England,
while those watching on TV had the more dubious delight of seeing half the
Carpe team sitting sunburnt in the stands watching the action.
Another tour was over, one that may not have been successful
on the pitch, but which had been a triumph everywhere else… which is what Carpe
Vinum CC is all about.
