Eymet vs Toulouse

Fine “English-summer” day after torrential rain
Carpet surrounded by an unpleasant bumpy field

Eleven players, one dog and one lady supporter braved the 2.5 hour journey through a tempest to arrive at Eymet just in time to watch the culmination of a thrilling match between the other lot; Saint Aulaye collapsed to finish 3 runs short of their required 124 with unnecessary griping at a run out which had no bearing on the result. The Northern league is renowned for moaners, we heard a lot more today.

TCC chose to bat first against St Aulaye, and after losing a couple of early wickets, Naga and Brett began to build a solid total in contrasting styles. Naga was all elegance (Zaheer Abbas) while Brett was bludgeoning (Matthew Hayden) with his new super heavy Gray & Nicolls bat. Brett was unfortunately “limp-out”, carrying a couple of strains. The remainder chipped in with a few runs each, Steve leading the way with 9no at the end as we set a challenging total of 150-9.

Saint Aulaye lost a couple of early wickets as Samuel steamed in with some hostile lift and penetrating yorkers to clean up the first two. But then a match-winning stand of 70 runs at 9 an over took the game away from us, and although the spinners slowed them down a little, they got home relatively easily in 18.3 overs and five wickets down. No complaints, they were just that little bit better.

Next up were Eymet, who batted first. They have a very strong top order, and were soon racing away at 9 an over. Rayhan pulled up with a shoulder injury, so we were a seamer short. At half way with three wickets down they were threatening a total approaching 200. Naga and Michael came on and bowled some good slow stuff, taking three wickets apiece and stemming the run flow, only an expensive last over took them past 150 as the final two balls were heaved for sixes. 162-7 was within reach and we felt quite pleased with ourselves, as we had five over-50s, were carrying three crocks, yet we still managed to field actively and look like a reasonable team.

Brett once more took the lead for our reply, but didn’t quite time it as well, in particular against one nippy young Pakistani. Robert played well for 5 overs, and we were in with a shout but the run rate was only 6 and we needed 8. As they and Naga fell it was left to Neil and Samuel to chase at a daunting 12 an over. For a short while they managed to keep it up, running twos on every delivery. However, the timing of the hits was a little off and a dearth of 4s meant that that the target rate drifted beyond us in spite of some excellent running between the wickets and a lot of commitment shown in the lengthening evening shadows. We finished well short on 127-8. Once more the opponents were just that little bit stronger.

We enjoyed our day out and we left for home at 9pm proud of our contribution to a good day’s cricket. We learned a lot, accepted that we weren’t quite good enough given the age and fitness of the side. Heads were held high, TCC did OK….

Written by:

Michael Fitchett