Match Report - Bures vs. Helions Bumpstead 08/07/04

(Halstead KO Cup Semi Final)

Helions Bumpstead 159 for 2 (20 overs)

Bures 160 for 6 (20 overs)

(Matt Whitthread 89)

Result - Win for Bures

High drama at Bures in this tight and bad-tempered game in which the home side squeezed home by just one run, qualifying in the process for the final at Star Stile on 20th July!

Helions, having won the toss and being evidently equipped with their usual complement of Club cricketers, decided to bat. Chris Crace watched with disappointment as even his better balls came on to and off of the bat nicely, while Mr. Slow offered pies of a varied provenance from the other end, many of which suffered a similar fate. The change bowlers (Patrick McKenna & Chris Chambers) had to work hard to avoid the same treatment, with the Helions batters buoyed by a Bures inability to take wickets. Finally, the recall of Mr. Slow yielded a prize wicket but it remained a question of containment on what was clearly a good batting wicket with little encouragement for the bowlers. Helions closed on 159 for 2 and retired to the pavilion with something of a swagger, content that they could defend the total.

They were mistaken! Despite a disastrous start in which Lewis Chambers was dismissed for a golden duck, Matt Whitthread and Chris Crace set about the Helions bowlers with intelligent running and placement of the ball, interspersed with the occasional village heave. The total mounted and the pressure began to tell with angry exchanges between batsman and fielders and questions of the umpire's integrity being raised by the fielding side. Despite a regular fall of wickets, the total remained within reach with Matt Whitthread dominant. The final over arrived and Matt departed, caught in the deep for an excellent 89, with just 5 runs required for victory. Nail biting stuff as the target was reduced to just one run required off the final three deliveries and Chris Chambers and Patrick McKenna nervously twitching at the crease! We needn't have worried. Despite two dot balls, the final delivery of the game was called no-ball by the umpire, effectively gifting the game to Bures.

To say that Helions took the defeat badly would be an understatement. There followed a sustained verbal assault on the umpire and indeed, on all things Bures, with their conspiracy theorists having a field day. Mr. Slow distanced himself from the tumult and sniggered quietly behind the groundsman's shed while Joe Dutton went home and returned with his gloves, just in case. The Skipper left without comment, to be found alone in The Shoes twenty minutes later, already on his third pint and dreaming of Star Stile. Cracey smiled his salesman's smile and peddled conciliation having converted the scorer's table to an impromptu arbitration bureau. Mrs. Bocking arrived at the height of the melée and publicly reprimanded her husband for taking her sons to the "bloody cricket", a particular phrase which finds much favour in the Bocking household during the summer months. The Umpire smiled contentedly to himself, nose buried in his copy of The Laws of Cricket published by the Marylebone Cricket Club in which Law 24, 5 (ii) reads

"the bowler's front foot must land with some part of the foot, whether grounded or raised, behind the popping crease. If the umpire at the bowler's end is not satisfied that both these conditions have been met, he shall call and signal No ball"

That's cricket.

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