Hooray Rhubarb

Rogers and Out gives us a much wleciome report on the 2nd XI triumph in the T20 cup. Aside from travel and geography we get to hear about local drinks and what it is like trying to keep track of a match without a scorecard or even a PA by the look of it.  Thanks for making the effort to go and great to have a trophy to reward it.

Two fine performances by our gallant second eleven saw us lift the T20 trophy at Arundel after four wicket victories against Lancashire in the semi final then Kent in the final.
It was fitting reward after some great work with both bat and ball. Ryan Higgins stood out with the bat and all the bowlers made useful contributions, with Max Holden's economy against Lancashire and Ravi Patel's against Kent playing a big part in our success.
My journey by train from London to Arundel had been uneventful, but I mistakenly thought the cricket ground was near the main entrance to Arundel Castle. This delay plus the need for refreshment in the form of rhubarb cider at the Red Lion meant that I arrived after the start of our semi final. On arriving at the ground, I saw some glum looking Durham cricketers loading their kit on to their coach, so I assumed (correctly for once) that Kent had beaten them in the first game.
Lancashire were batting and one wicket down when Harry Podmore bowled a ten ball over full of free hits and wides which got the northern side up and running after a slow start.
Proctor and Mellor put on over fifty for the second wicket, but after the power play, our slow bowlers kept the run rate in check. We were also looking good in the field, with Ryan Higgins in particular catching the eye. Steve Eskinazi, who performed tidily behind the stumps all day, carried out a neat stumping off Max Holden to dismiss Mellor. Young Max returned excellent figures of 1/19 from his four overs and although several of the Lanky batsmen scored in the thirties, their final score of 148/4 looked a little below par. Gurjit Sandhu also bowled well to register 2/26 from his allocation.

Higgo on form

Our reply got off to the worst possible start when captain Nick Gubbins slapped the first ball from Simon Kerrigan straight to Luke Proctor at mid on. However, Higgo and Eski soon began to score quite freely. Their partnership realised 62 runs before our 'keeper was caught and bowled by Parkinson for 29. Rob White was next in and kept the score ticking over before he too was dismissed by Parkinson. Our required run rate was creeping up when George Scott came to the crease. In the 17th over, Ryan Higgins went on the attack and lofted Kerrigan for consecutive sixes, but perished when injudiciously attempting a third maximum, with Jones taking a simple catch on the long on boundary. His 67 runs had been a fine effort and left us needing to score 30 from the last 20 balls.

Harry Podmore hit a rapid ten runs and Nathan Sowter a priceless boundary which just cleared the despairing backward point, but it was the cool head of Scotty that got us over the line with an unbeaten twenty four with one ball to spare. We were also assisted by a poor performance with the ball by Mahmood who went for plenty and also fluffed a simple looking run out which would have put Lancashire firmly in the driving seat.

The PA System

Kent won the toss in the final and elected to bat. However, a terrific first over by Ravi Patel, conceding just a single, set the tone for an outstanding Middlesex display in the field. In fact, I can't recall a single no ball or wide, although I'd have to stand corrected as I can't locate a scorecard for the game online, hence the lack of detail in the rest of this report  We regularly took wickets and Kent, who fielded the likes of Fabian Cowdrey, Mitchell Claydon and Adam Riley, were three down after the power play.
Directly after the power play, Nick Gubbins produced a moment of magic when he brilliantly stopped a powerful drive at mid off and then had the wherewithal to run out the batsman backing up. Kent were now 44/4 and it was soon to get worse for them. Nathan Sowter had come on to bowl and after a rank full toss, he took two wickets in two balls then followed up with another in his next over to leave Kent in a sorry state on 95/7. Ravi and Poddy cleaned up the tail and we were set a target of 116 for victory.

Ryan Higgins started like a house on fire and although Gubbo departed cheaply, both he and Eski looked likely to take us much of the way to the lowly target.
However, Ryan was out for 33 in the last over of the power play leaving us on 53/2 and from this point on, we regularly lost wickets and Kent sensed an opportunity for an unlikely win.  The run rate required was still quite low at around three runs per over, and although nobody else made a score of much substance, we crept along towards our target. Max Holden looked as though he might steer us to victory, but played an unnecessarily risky shot and was caught on the mid wicket boundary. With six wickets, it was left to Cameron Steel to get us home much to the delight of the Middlesex faithful.

Three wickets apiece for Nathan and Harry, a parsimonious spell of 1/10 from Ravi and the knock of 33 from Ryan plus Gubbo's brilliant run out had done the trick for us and we were worthy winners.

All that was left was to return to the Red Lion to celebrate with what else but rhubarb cider.

Negatives

None !

Positives

Lovely town and ground

Brilliant all round Middlesex performance from our young lads

Rhubarb cider