Tour de Ludlow

A message to all three of my readers

I sincerely apologise for the following:

• Not having provided any updates for a month and a half

• Not putting this particular entry up when I wrote it in mid-June

• This very long entry and the large proportions of cricket writing it contains

• The probable lack of detail in my subsequent, potentially more exciting entries, due to me forgetting the events in question

• The rush of blog entries that will probably come all at once

• Andrew Bolt's columns. They weren't/aren't my fault, but I feel that someone has to apologise for them

Now that I've got that out of the way, here's the story of our Ludlow adventure and the proceeding days... (I've resurrected the ‘!”£$%^&*’ notation to let you know when the content is cricket-related).

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A depleted St Fagans 2nd XI headed up to showery Usk on Saturday morning, missing five performers from last week’s demolition of Sudbrook, including the skipper. But with Pat Symcox’s nephew heading our otherwise weak bowling line-up, we managed to skittle the top order, and then worked our way through the middle order to have them 7/85.

A wicket off a full toss was my only success for the day, but it could have been very different had a fairly simple catch off my bowling not been dropped at midwicket. The batsman who had been given the life provided the backbone for the rest of the innings as Usk scraped their way to 9/174 off the reduced forty-four overs.

Despite the let off, St Fagans were in a comfortable position with fifteen overs left, needing just seventy with six wickets in hand. But nine runs in five overs, followed by a couple of wickets, put pressure on the lower order who weren’t quite good enough to get the team over the line. Coming in at number ten, I managed to hit a few twos and singles before smashing a catch back to the bowler in an attempt to get some quick runs.

We fell ten or fifteen runs short, which was disappointing given that we were significantly below par. Our first loss for the season, too.

Sunday came and so did some lovely Welsh weather; it poured with rain all day and all games were called off. But no matter. I passed the afternoon watching some of the cricket from Lord’s and doing not much else.

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I went in to work on Monday, then left earlyish to go to St Fagans. I took some of the juniors for a quick training session, then joined a few of the firsts for a testing fitness session.

I was still feeling the effects the following morning when opening batsman Paul Leach picked me up to go to Ludlow for the annual Myocardial Cricket Club tour. I’d agreed to come when I heard there were as few as three players for one of the games, and who wouldn’t want to go away for a few days to play cricket?

Two hours of easy driving and we were in the pretty Shropshire town, meeting our teammates and admiring the views from the Church Inn, our accommodation for the few days. And after lunch at the town’s other pub, the Charlton Arms, we headed out to Ludlow Cricket Club for our first game.

The view from Charlton Arms

Our team over the three days included such players such as ‘Leachy’ the neurosurgeon, Owen the medical student and his dad whose name I can’t remember, Tony the brother of the injured captain Mike, Adi the left arm spinner and doctor working in Manchester, our neighbour Trevor, surgeons Andy and Dan, miscellaneous doctors Big Al, Khitish, Mike and Woody and two quality Pentyrch fill-ins, Steve and Dave.

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We won the toss at Ludlow and batted first, posting a competitive 7/209 in forty overs, though it helped that they bowled mainly their second-string bowlers.

They didn’t bat their second-string batsmen, though, and after seven overs, they were 0/60 and looking like running away with the game. A run out brought us back in, and then I had a moment that made me look like a genius and gave the team another glimmer of hope.

It was halfway through my first over, and I was making some adjustments to my field. I told my midwicket to take five steps back, a few steps to his left, and… yeah, that should do it. Lo and behold, the following ball was hit directly to him in his new position and I had my first (and only) wicket.

We bowled fairly well, actually, but they were far too good and knocked the runs off with quite a few overs to spare.

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Then the drinking started. My sole teetotaling friend, Tony, was apparently allergic to alcohol, and as the rest of the team became more and more intoxicated, first at the club and then back at the Church, we sipped away on our lemonades. It was a good night, though, and we certainly slept well.

Wednesday was the only full day of the tour, but our match wasn’t until the evening, so we had the day to kill. After a big breakfast I dragged Owen along to Ludlow Castle. As a local, he’s probably seen hundreds in his time, but for me, they’re still a bit of a novelty, and certainly pretty cool. Ludlow was one of many built by the Normans, and had great views over the surrounding landscape.

The rain started, so we went inside to the museum, which was small but nice enough. It was still only lunchtime, though, and we’d comprehensively visited the town’s two attractions. So I went for a haircut.

A light lunch, a bit of a rest, and a drink in the pub and it was time to gather the troops and go.

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Our destination was Shobden, a small village just outside Ludlow, with a ground the size of a postage stamp. With only nine players, including three medical students as ring-ins, we were always going to be up against it, but we fancied our chances of chasing down 104 in twenty overs.

As we discovered, though, it was a slow pitch that was difficult to bat on, and we lost wickets steadily to be all out for ninety. I was the first wicket to go, unfortunately, cleaned up by a yorker that came out of the dark trees acting as an ineffectual sightscreen.

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And so the drinking starts again. We went to the local Shobden pub for a few before retiring to the Church once more. A kebab pushed me over the edge, as it did to most of the team in the end, and I missed most of the night’s festivities.

After packing the following morning, we said goodbye to Ludlow and drove up to Leominster, the home of Dales Cricket Club and the site of our last game of the 2011 tour.

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We had eleven players, incredibly, and the opposition only ten, and we pressed home our numerical advantage with a reasonable 5/204 in forty overs, Heselev contributing with a solid 16* (12) at the end.

One of our players tweaked a muscle while batting and had to umpire, but he did his job by providing us with a few early LBWs (which, I must say, all looked out from point). We had them on toast at 5/48, but incredibly, we didn’t take another wicket for the day and they hung on to beat us with a couple of overs to spare. Eight dropped catches didn’t help our cause.

It was rather disappointing to go through without a victory, particularly given that we’d been competitive in all three games, but on the plus side, the rain had stayed away for all three games, which I’m told is unusual!

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Back home to Cardiff we went, giving me four losses in six days, but also some great memories and new friendships. Awwwww.