Wood Street Village vs Frimley Green Cricket Club - Sunday 20th August 2017, 14:00

There's an old adage in cricket that you never know how good your team's score is until the other side have batted. And in this game against Wood Street Village, played under ever-greying skies, that was definitely the case as FGCC produced one of their most accomplished fielding displays for many a year. Losing the toss and being asked to bat, and despite Tim and Ajay falling early, it looked like FGCC were well-set by drinks, with Mark and Suresh both playing measured innings on a pitch with more than the odd gremlin in it. Not that this deterred Mark, who played some beautiful leg-side hoiks and stoical defense on an unpredicable pitch, and together with Suresh kept the score ticking along in bringing up a 55-run partnership for the 3rd wicket. However, that was as good as it got for the FGCC batsman, as from 84-2 (when Mark fell to a very sharp caught-and-bowled from youngster W. Gaff) Frimley Green lost 7 wickets for 4 runs, the damage being done by WSV slow bowler Raj whose remarkable spell of 3-3-0-5 ripped the heart out of the middle order. With Ants left stranded on 8, at least FGCC managed to stumble their way to 3 figures, the innings closing more than 9 overs only on exactly 100. With a low total to defend, FGCC needed to make early in-roads into the Wood Street batting line-up. And whereas in years passed shoulders may have dropped and hands been hidden in pockets the energy in the field was positive from the get-go, buoyed on by some inebriated geezer who with a can in Special Brew in one hand and a bottle of gin in the other cheered on FGCC with some of the most vocal support any team could ask for. Nick got things going, trapping Raj LBW in the second over. In the next over Anam joined the party, bowling Suraj with a pacy delivery which clipped off-stump. But this was only a mere flavour of what was to come, as FGCC 2.0 kicked into gear in fine style. Anam trapped L Binfield (who made 99 when the teams met earlier in the season) LBW for 4, Nick took another scalp with Mark taking a sharp catch behind the stumps, and great fielding from Kanavel resulted in the run out of Webb. With the win looking unlikely at tea, and with the skies getting ever darker, the onus was on FGCC to drive the advantage home before the heavens opened. And this is exactly what they did, with Nick (3 wickets), Anam (5 - including an absolute peach of an off-cutter to get rid of Gunn, who could do nothing but shoulder arms to it) and debutant Shiva (1) clearing up the tail. In an innings lasting only 17 overs, WSV were dismissed for 31 - to the editor's knowledge, the second lowest ever score FGCC have bowled out an oppo for, and the first time since Hawley in 2010 we've skittled a team for under 50. Whilst Anam and Mark must take the plaudits, the fielding (along with the positivity and energy) was a real team effort, and despite earlier concern over a rather catastrophic collapse it transpired to be the biggest of silver linings as 30 minutes after the game finished it started to lash it down. A game that will linger long in the memory, one expects...