Team Talk

A day of wonderful ups and a final down, a day where rain continually threatened but the sky never delivered anything but a patchwork of clouds in every shade of grey - and actually finished with an ironic burst of sunshine, just as hands and feet had lost all feeling. Was it just a week ago that I was standing on the boundary in shorts and T-shirt?

This photograph was taken during drinks at the halfway point in our innings. The score was 121-0 with Sam on 61 and Forrest just having reached 50. The opposition team, Kirkstall, were having a team huddle, trying to fathom how they were going to take a wicket. The umpires were incredulous at such an opening partnership on a pudding of a pitch and an outfield that gave little value for any 'proper' shot played along the ground. The batsmen were getting a pep talk from their captain.

The stand was eventually broken with the score on 178, when Forrest departed for 77. Sam went on to make 98. It wasn't easy to maintain the momentum and we eventually finished at 247-8. It still looked like being plenty of runs on that wicket. 

The result was in the balance all the way through the Kirkstall innings. We took wickets whenever the game was going away from us. Forrest took possibly the catch of his life to get the second wicket, certainly one he will never forget, chasing and diving full length to catch the ball as it flew over his head from behind. He was instrumental in getting their leading scorers out too, clean bowling one and then snapping up the other with another great catch. But it wasn't enough.

Kirkstall got the runs with just three balls and three wickets to spare. It was neither the wicket nor the weather to have inspired the scoring over 500 runs today. Cricket is often a strange game. The lads found no consolation in having provided, for the second week running, such wonderful entertainment in a losing cause. Forrest was a broken young man at the end, both in body and heart. I felt pretty broken too.