V&A XI: A. Pitlarge (c), D. Pitlarge, N. Constantine, V. Nicoli, T. Bird, C. Mounsey-Thear, A. Jacot, J. Tetlow, C. Jonkers, J. Arnold, M. Shenfield
Many of the teams we play suggest some form of unity in their name. Few live up to it. We do not work for the V&A. The Chelsea Arts Club are largely not members of the Chelsea Arts Club. The Jesmond Jaguars no longer live in Jesmond. The Wine Trade had held out for a while; when I last played them a couple of years ago, many of them were still in thewine trade. We arrived to quite a youthful looking team. This raised doubts about their all being wine merchants; these were confirmed and we started with a hint of fear that they may not only be better than their usual side, but also carrying less wine for lunch.
I was captaining and had chosen to bat. I do not like having to bustle in to bowl early in the day. David and Joe were therefore sent out, same as the week before, to get us going. David soon missed one and was bowled between bat and pad, ignoring the many times he’d told my younger self to keep that gap closed. Tom was in next as I started to wander over to the bench by the nets to read my book, confident that I would not be needed for a while.
I was lucky that that was true. Our innings continued at a good clip on a pitch far better for the batsman than it was only a couple of weeks before. Joe batted well before holing out. Jasper and CMT also picked up a few runs. Nick picked up a very good 50 whilst batting with the others. Despite this positive start, which led to us crossing 120ish only a few wickets down with plenty of batting to come our eyes on 200+, a collapse was due. Our trickle of wickets became a waterfall, and we were soon all out for 168.
Lunch was an excellent version of the usual fayre by Steph. Excellent pork with a range of mustards. Her years of service earned her a chef’s hat courtesy of Nicky, though it swiftly made its way onto Enzo’s head. Dare I say it, it looked more natural on his head than Steph’s, though that’s only to say that it truly fit him like a glove. Christiaan was less cheery than Enzo, growing ever more perturbed at having to turn away punters from a seat saved for Nicky’s brother (who did not show the usual Bird eagerness to serve himself lunch).
The Trade’s innings started off in a very lively fashion. One of their openers looked like he knew what he was doing, and the other was wearing a Uniqlo shirt and blue checked boxers à la Nelly c.2008. This did not stop him getting a rather improbable 30-odd, assisted by Christiaan and I bowling too many loose balls in our opening spells. Perhaps this could have been avoided after the first over. Uniqlo ambled out of his crease after the delivery, Jasper whipped the bails off. The square leg umpire offered a few different reasons why he was not out. None bore much relation to the laws of the game.
Their number three then proceeded to take the game away from us. He had in fact indirectly been a thorn in our side all game, having brought three sons, all of whom could bowl well despite only being in their early-mid teens, all of whom took wickets. The father then made a statement with the bat, scoring a fluent 50 to put them in a commanding position.
But we plugged away — the game was still somewhat in the balance around teatime. Nick and CMT bowled well as first change, as did Adam and Enzo after that, and they started to lose a few wickets in quick succession. Their innings started to take the same shape as ours, but we didn’t have quite enough on the board to get all ten before they crossed 168. In any case a good effort to defend a score that was certainly at least 20 runs short on a hot, sunny, batsman’s day.
