An End of (One) Days

Diamond reports on the last List A match of the season. It turned out to be a rare chance to see Middlesex win this season and a good weather day. Less rare were the travel difficulties, about which Diamond pulls no punches. Many thansk, Diamond, for this excellent report.

Trouble out West.
 
A nice early start to get to Lord’s with the early commencements in September was always on the cards. It was however a good job I left myself a little more time than usual to get to the ground. I knew the Jubilee Line was a no go zone (as it has been most of the summer at weekends) but was unaware the Central Line was out as well. Praise the Lord for good old BR and the Paddington link from Ealing Broadway. A quick hop on the Bakerloo Line to Baker Street and then a jump on a 139 from Dorset Square was to be my route, this was duly foiled at the bus stop by an under credited Oyster Card, reminder to self do not lend it to daughter while she is home from Uni. Still the walk up did me good and I topped my card up for the evening’s journey home. Texts from Beefy had informed me Ken and he were coming in via Harrow on the Hill and Marylebone and as I reached the roundabout opposite the ground I met up with them, surprising Ken with the old cold can of Red Bull on the back of the neck routine, very childish but it works every time, trust me .

The game.
 
To be honest with you all this was not a game I wanted to report on, for weeks it had all the meaningfulness of an end of term essay. No one really wants to do it, the marks are meaningless and by next term so of the class would be at other schools anyway. The crowd however was of a decent size, no Premiership or Championship football plus it being the last weekend day of cricket this year for the faithful to get together before dreaming of next season, add to this the last chance for those people to see Ace in Middlesex colours after the much publicised decision not to award him a contract for next year and one can see why the crowd was so good. The weather on the other hand decided for most of the day to blow up a gale making some parts of the ground feel more like April than early September, fair play to those in the outer stands who put up with it.

Middlesex won the toss and elected to field (not many times that has been written this season) and soon had Derbyshire in some trouble at 32-3 with Redfern, Smith and Durston back in the hutch all for single figure scores. Hughes and Madson then proceeded to make the score look more respectable before Tom Smith had the dangerous Hughes caught by Dex for a score of 64, the highest of the Derbyshire innings.114-4.

Diamond admission time now folk, whilst on a tactical I missed the funniest moment of the day when Hughes creamed a ball for six onto the mound stand advertising hoardings up and down onto a spectators head from where it bounced back onto the field, I thank Beefy for noting this for me.

Derbyshire wickets continue to tumble at regular intervals and Ace is used as a bowler to see if the golden arm will work on its last day for us. The wicket of Clare bowled for 2 said it did work. Wagg got to one of his usual annoyingly good scores of 48 and with the help of Needham who was run out off the last ball of the innings saw Derbyshire to a score of 195 for 9.A steady bowling performance all round with the exceptional figures being Tom Smiths 3-26 off 8 overs.

In reply Middlesex found Wagg to still be annoying, removing Straussie for 7 when the score was on 12.Enter Ace to a solid reception from the crowd. .Scotty Newman and he then put on 127 before Scottie fell 10 runs short of his ton , a ton which would have been well deserved, some of his stroke play was pure magic to watch, the timing superb and the field penetration precise and maximised, the best shot being the 6 into the mound stand that took him past 50. Ace was playing as we all know he can, they even managed an all run four, a rarity in the one day game these days, mind you both of them looked knackered after it.139 for two became 158 for three when AC’s 19 ball 8 was terminated by a Clare catch off Needham, and that folks was the last one day Middlesex wicket to fall at Lord’s for the season, Ace and Iceman saw it home with some aplomb with nearly two overs to spare. The run rate required barely ever got above the scoring rate throughout our innings which was good to see and the batsmen applying themselves well to the task.

Aces 50 off 85 balls with 3 4’s was greeted with warm applause though his salute to all parts of the ground except the pavilion gives us some idea of what he thinks about recent proceedings. 58 not out at the end and cheered from the field just in front of Iceman 21 not out and the points in the bag.
 

Any last day of the season is a rather sad occasion for many but with a player like Ace (departing after the final CC game) it seemed all the sadder. A fine club man, man and boy we wish you well Ace where ever the game takes you, with the natural caveat of not scoring too many runs against us future meetings.
 
 
Secret Squirrel!
 
This week the club had problems with a news embargo being broken. On the other hand another secret was very well kept. It was Fletch’s birthday on Friday and Lorraine had arranged a party for him after close of play in the Tavern, all sorts of folk had been invited, players, friends, a few reprobates like Beefy and I and the turn out was excellent, much to the surprise of the Birthday Boy himself. Nibbles were laid on and very tasty they were to. What they did to Fletch’s birthday cake I can’t tell you as this is a family site, suffice to say a couple of olives and a carrot stick were involved. Culprit for this ….unknown, but Simmo was in the vicinity (having kept well all day what a surprise to see him behind a table at a party).Toasts were made, ale consumed and then the many set off on the trek home via a depleted transport system. A grand evening out and many thanks to Lorraine for the invite and Fletch for hitting 40, I thought he was only about 35!!

A steady walk back to Paddington station in the night air was greeted on nearing the station by the small of fish and chips, not the nice smell but that one of used oil. On turning the corner to Station Approach we noted three BTP (British Transport Police) vehicles parked up, I said to Beefy I bet they are in the Chippy, he said “Why”, my reply whilst getting ready to run was “I bet they are dealing with a battery!!”

A brief visit to the 30p facility on the station and then a train out at just after 9pm for the both of us. Way to late to be writing up notes so thought I would do it Sunday afternoon, this turned into Sunday evening due to other duties.
 

For those able to get to the County game v Worcestershire this week, enjoy yourselves. To those who have seen their last cricket for the season (as I have) winter well folks and here’s to a successful 2011.