Weekend Wash Out

What at first looked to be a game that could have gone either way at St. John’s Green this Saturday involving the first teams of Percy Main CC and Allendale CC was curtailed by the seemingly endless rain that descended upon much of the North East this weekend.

Percy Main’s first XI, coming into this fixture off the back of two tight affairs against Berwick the previous weekend – one a 38-run defeat in England’s northernmost town in the league, the other a cup semi-final that went down to the last over, the Main falling short by just 9 runs, were eager to avenge a heavy defeat from the reverse fixture in May at Allendale. The away side, 9th in Division Three of the Northumberland and Tyneside Cricket League prior to this Saturday, had lost a few games on the bounce coming into this tie, and as such, the game promised to be tight had it been played out in full.

After captain Alex Young won the toss and elected to field (or in his words, swim), the game started promptly, both sides willing to get as much cricket in as possible before the unpromising forecast became a reality. In humid, overcast conditions with a drizzle in the air as the game began, opening bowlers Nick Dodds and Oli Robson started (and ultimately finished) the game with testing spells of 5 overs each before the umpires drew the logical conclusion that the rain was too heavy to continue in, Allendale having been 33-2 at the time. Dodds’ propensity to bowl hostile spells with pace, seam movement and bounce was reflected by the field set by skipper Young, initially having 2 slips, a gully and a short leg in for catches close to the bat, later enlisting a leg slip in light of some sharp short bowling from the pacer. This was epitomised in the first over, when Allendale’s opener Ben Litchfield was hit on the helmet attempting a pull shot.

Dodds’ partner with the new ball on the day, fellow seamer Oli Robson, provided a contrast between the former’s utilisation of pace and bounce, and the steady swing bowling provided by the latter. Robson produced a tidy opening maiden, beating the outside edge of Allendale’s Oliver Weeks on a couple of occasions. Both bowlers were consistent in testing Litchfield and Weeks, and reaped the rewards in the 6th and 7th overs – Robson having Weeks top-edge a ball slightly wider of off than previous deliveries, falling safely into the hands of all-rounder Anshad Pulayakalathil, before left-hander John Welch in at number 3 fell into Dodds’ trap of hitting the pitch hard and testing the back foot abilities of Allendale’s top order. This fell perfectly into place when an attempted pull shot was clothed by Welch, and pouched nicely by last week’s near-centurion Hari Subramanian.

At around 1:30pm, the inevitable rain became insurmountable in the eyes of the umpires, which transpired to be a correct decision given the unabating nature of the classic Great British weather throughout the day, and so ensued some highly competitive one-hand-one-bounce by players on both sides. Tea was taken shortly before half past 2, the players tucking into a feast made by the fair hand of Percy Main’s own Steve Knight, and little more than half an hour later, the game was called off. Opener Litchfield finished 24 not out from 25 balls having played some nice shots, the pick of the bunch a sweet cover drive for four off Dodds in the seventh over. Wicketkeeper Michael Cunningham made all his four runs playing a sumptuous lofted drive off Robson in what turned out to be the final over of the match.

The game’s status as having been abandoned instead of cancelled, set into stone once 10 overs had been bowled, meant that both teams picked up 8 points instead of 5, a decent return given that the weather gods may well have given us no cricket to speak of at all. Percy Main having taken two wickets gave the home team a bonus point, and as such, go into next week’s away encounter at Bomarsund with 9 points to hopefully capitalise on in that match. The Main’s second team had no game arranged for this week, and are now looking forward to a home fixture against Whitley Bay’s second team in the hopes of recreating the blissful win at the Bay back in May.