Nottinghamshire Libraries Cricket Team V Ernehale, 2.6.10

Nottinghamshire Libraries V Ernhale
2nd June 2010 at The Rectory Ground, Colwick

On a beautiful night for cricket NLCC found themselves playing on The rectory in Colwick for the first time in many years. The match should have been played at King George V playing field in Arnold but botulism has closed the pavilion (what do Gedling District Council expect when they neglect the ground?).
The change of venue delighted all our bowlers who find King George a nightmare to bowl on but little did they know! The night didn’t start well as we were only had 9 players available (it was to get worse with one player arriving late and one not making it at all). Stand in Captain Mike Hayward won the toss and decided to bowl. Ernehale, the opposition, very generously leant us 4 players to field. Well it seemed generous but after a couple of overs it became obvious that they were more for decoration than any practical use, making some very poor fielding attempts. These included a farcical dive that saw a slow moving ball kicked over the boundary rope.
The match started well enough with Baker bowling Johnson with his second ball but after that it was very hard work with Newham scoring 79 before being stumped by Bray of Stannard’s bowling and Taj retiring not out on 65. Ernehale scored freely through out their innings ending up on 183 for 2 off their 20 overs.
While Ernehale found it easy Libraries found it anything but with only Hayward (17) and Stannard (10) getting to double figures. When we were all out for 68 in the 14th over it actually felt a bit of a relief.
We were out batted, bowled and fielded but still had a good time and there were some highlights. Tony Gordon and Dave Stannard got a rare opportunity to bowl. Dave doing very well, beating the bat several times and getting a well earned stumping (his bowling added to his batting got him the man of the match award). Lumb getting an equally rare opportunity to bat scored a fluent 7 not out including a boundary.
The Vimto moment, the opposite of a champagne moment, went to our guest fielders for the most incompetent display of fielding seen for many a year.

Steve Baker