Wylye Valley - 2nd May 2004

Wylye Valley are usually Babington bunnies. In fact, it was back in the last century when Wylye Valley Wanderers, to use their proper title, beat us for the first and only time. It was also BHCC’s first real match and Wylye won thanks partly to a fresh-faced lad by the name of Cadbury, who hit a cavalier 48 and took two wickets.

How times have changed. Yesterday Wylye, as an American friend of mine would put it, cleaned our clock. We were lucky to get a game in at all, given the recent bad weather, and the heavy rain had left the pitch soft and damp. Groundsman Clive Hamblin had done a terrific repair job after some members had played football on the outfield the day before and had apparently brought a herd of cows to watch. Thanks, guys.

Adrian Leng and his team, bolstered with a one or two new faces, were clearly pumped up and determined to win. We batted first and it was a struggle from the start. The pitch was slow and low, the bowling was tight and accurate and it took us 12 overs to reach 20. By that time, Matt Ellis had finally lost patience and was caught in the gully chasing a wide one, and Mike Nicholson, who began how he left off last season, lost his stumps to a jaffa from David Leng.

Gordon Croucher was going really well until he drilled one back at Adrian Leng, who decided to catch it rather than wear it, and Andrew Pinnell was so surprised to get a straight ball in an over of wides that he missed it.Andrew Standen MacDougal bravely agreed to bat despite a bruised back and briefly reminded us what we had missed last year, but after that we just faded away. We were all out for 101, eight overs short of the allotted 40.

It was always going to be tough to defend such a small total and we were probably a couple of seamers short, but at 50 for 2 off 15 there was a glimmer of a chance. An over later, Mark removed the No 4 with his “quicker one” and then Andrew Pinnell bowled a full toss at their lanky opener, who top-edged it into his face and had to retire hurt on 42. A couple more quick wickets and it might have been a different story, but skied shots either didn’t go to hand or were dropped and Julian Matthews decided to break the habit of a lifetime and score some runs at Babington.

It wasn’t one of our better days and Wylye ran out worthy winners by six wickets. And the Champagne Moment? No one could seem to think of one, although my favourite was the animal-loving Wylye fielder who failed to stop a four because he ran round a family of ducks on the boundary. There’s a cricket joke in there somewhere, but frankly . . . .