While the cricketing world was watching a tension filled day at Lord’s, a select few in the know had their eyes on the Ramblas’ penultimate home game of the season. The hosts welcomed Wrotham St George to Fortress Ex-blues, keen to avenge last season’s two defeats.
Despite the weather being abysmal in the build up, the Ramblas chief cover operator Ash Harriss was working overtime and thanks to his efforts, the wicket was in great shape before kick off. Captain Michael Cooper had no issues with selections this week, with Dave Gambie and new boy Rahul Saha, who answered the call of our Playing for the Ramblas page, replacing Laurie and Johnny Stocks.
Cooper won the toss, electing to bowl first and, with Mark Loughlin dealing with a calf problem, opened up with Doug Danks and Chris Thomas. The decision to toss the new cherry to Thomas was rewarded in just the fourth ball of the innings when Wrotham skipper Fleming chipped one up to Loughlin, who took a simple catch at cover.
Danks worked well in tandem with Thomas, keeping the batsmen under pressure, ably backed up by their fielders. Shortly after stopping a certain boundary in the field with his shin, Cooper nearly took a sensational one handed catch to dismiss Harvey.
The pressure on the batsmen finally told in the seventh over, when a risky single attempt saw Harriss throw the ball to Thomas who whipped off the bails to run out Rothwell. After an impactful four over spell, Thomas was replaced by Geoff Parrett.
Danks picked up his first wicket of the day with the last ball of the eighth over thanks to a perfectly flighted delivery that deceived Harvey, clean bowling Wrotham’s number three. Parrett’s rhythm wasn’t there early in his spell but he soon settled to support Danks.
The fourth wicket fell courtesy of another excellent delivery from Danks that had Humphries pinned back in his crease, trapped LBW. The beard to be feared finished with figures of 7-0-41-2 and was replaced by Fitch.
Wrotham’s number four Bragg was causing the hosts a few headaches, as he continued to strike boundaries at regular intervals to keep the scoreboard motoring along. Bragg’s resistance finally fell when Cooper took a smart catch at extra cover off the bowling of Fitch.
Parrett struck twice in two balls to reduce Wrotham to 84-7. Ralph was the first to fall, dismissed thanks to a one handed grab from Harriss at cover. Malyan was Parrett’s second victim, caught behind after an edge was safely snaffled by Gambie. Wrotham reached drinks 94-7 but the Ramblas knew that the game was far from over.
As Cooper looked to finish the game off, Gibbs came on in place of Parrett. But it was Fitch who made the breakthrough after the drinks break when he clean bowled Harrison. Gibbs did pick up a wicket in his first over, with a delivery that came back in off the seam to clean bowl Vyas.
Gibbs wrapped up the innings with the second ball of his third over when the visitor’s number eleven was caught by Thomas at silly mid off. Wrotham were all out for 111 and both teams headed to the pavilion to tuck into another excellent Ramblas tea.
With a fairly low target to chase, Cooper mixed things around in the batting order and opening the batting with Matt Rudgyard. While the pair were initially cautious, keen not to lose early wickets, Rudgyard was the aggressor of the two, plundering two boundaries in the fifth over. Cooper’s stay at the crease came to an end an over later, when he was trapped LBW for 3.
Saha was in at three and was off the mark with a boundary early doors, and together with Rudgyard kept the scoreboard ticking over nicely. The pair took the score to 48 before Rudgyard was out LBW for a fluent 27.
Matt departs / Rahul offers words of advice
Harriss came in at four and announced his arrival at the crease with a crunching drive for a boundary. But that was as good as it got for the batsman who was bowled the next ball. A minor wobble say the Ramblas go from 48-1 to 52-3 in the space of four balls.
The next cab off the rank was Gambie who attempted to stick around and support Saha, the debutant looking in good touch. Alas, another classic Ramblas collapse saw the pair both dismissed inside three deliveries. Gambie was caught and bowled off the bowling of Rothwell for a duck and the first ball of the next over, Saha was out for 24, off the bowling of Harvey.
The sidelines a picture of calm
Gibbs and Loughlin were the men tasked with rebuilding the innings, with the former playing the supporting role as Loughlin looked to punish any loose deliveries. The pair slowly chipped away at the target until the twentieth over when ten runs were taken off Harvey’s penultimate over to take the score to 83.
The duo continued to drag the Ramblas towards the finishing line, with Gibbs hooking a full toss for a huge maximum to make those on the sideline a little more relaxed. With the score on 109, Gibbs attempted to finish the game in style but could only pick out the man at deep mid wicket and was out for 18.
Thomas came to the crease and with the last ball of the over, played a delightful late cut that raced to the boundary, sealing a five wicket win for the Ramblas.
In a performance that was the polar opposite of last week’s effort, the Ramblas fired on all cylinders as they claimed their sixth win of the season. Next week sees the club host Cricketers CC in the final home game.
Ramblas MVP: Hats off to Chris Thomas for starting and ending the game with aplomb, and to Steve Fitch for another tidy spell of bowling. And with the bat, honourable mentions to Mark Loughlin and Rahul Saha for helping guide us towards the target. However, for his 27 at the top of the order to help get the chase off to a decent start, and for his 2-6 with the ball to go with his 18 with the bat, this week’s MVPs are Matt Rudgyard & Ed Gibbs.