A blisteringly hot day at the Cass ground in Cambridge whilst the restructuring works continued on the college’s own ground. This time captain Richard Higginbottom was determined to bat should he win the toss following the almost literal roasting at Wandsworth Common the previous week. However, he lost the toss, but home skipper Sybil Stacpoole took the option to bowl first, having agreed restricted time and over slots owing to the extraordinary weather conditions.
Stuart Bruce wasted no time in tearing into the Long Vacation attack, punishing anything loose (and quite often deliveries that weren’t so bad) with extravagant strokes, reaching and very often clearing the long boundaries over the parched outfield. Opening partner Higginbottom had advised owing to the size of the outfield and its barren nature, there would be big rewards for keeping the ball down. Clearly the South Coast Slammer saw this as some slight to his king hitting credentials and duly went ballistic. For quite a while Richard hadn’t received a ball, and when he did was playing old school cricket and Stuart was considering trying to get to 50 on his own, but then a 2 and a 4 meant the balance was redressed a little. Bruce didn’t so much cruise past his half century, he stormed past it. Richard charged down the track and belted a surprising four before fending off a lifter and departing for 13. Shortly after Stuart reached his century with a massive six over square leg and promptly retired – this was in the 13th over and he had reached the landmark off only 52 balls; we don’t have comprehensive records for scoring rate, but your correspondent is certain this is the fastest century in both time and balls received for the Gardeners. The legend of Stuart The Bruce is thus even more brightly burnished. After this storm a well judged innings of 36 and a cameo of 14 – both at better than a run per ball – by Toby Frow and Saurabh Bezalwar respectively kept up the tempo. Rohan received an excellent ball before he had added to the score, then Graham Bruce decided to follow big brother and walloped the ball for 18 off 11 before miscuing another muscular biff. Jeremy Gostick was calmness personified whilst young blade Isaac Simon continued the carnage, hammering a quickfire 33, enabling the Gardeners to declare at 248 for 6 after only 30 overs (we have never declared earlier).
A pleasant tea in a brown bag. Personally your correspondent didn’t need all that food in one go but scoffed it anyway, and felt quite queasy. Stuart said he’d like to keep and we have lots of bowlers, so the skipper headed into the gully and put in a cautiously attacking field to support opening bowlers Shubham Kasar and Tim Parkin.
From the outset it was relatively clear that the college didn’t back themselves to reach the target, though Huw Edmunds belted a couple of powerful fours before Tim bowled an extravagant off cutter to clip the off stump. Shubham was regularly beating the outside edge and we kept adding extra slips but the edges were along the ground; however, Tim got Williams to miscue and Saurabh made no mistake with catch. Noel Rutter had been showing some fine defensive technique, but then Tim dropped slightly short outside off stump, Noel took to invitation to cut and top edge fairly tamely to the skipper in the gully. Charles Parry compiled a classy half century at a run a ball – though in the second half of his innings we had abandoned boundary riders and switched to a Carmody field in search of the win after Blumel had also succumbed to the Power of Parkin. Toby accounted for Parry with one that stayed a little low, then Saurabh got an edge off Ben Rhodes, a high juggling catch taken by Toby at slip. From then on the field was so close together we could almost touch hands, but solid defence by Ben Wills and Sybil saw the Long Vacation team to the draw. Notes for the future: 1. Put the Carmody field in from ball one. 2. Bring back Tim to give him a shot at getting his five-for. 3. Take the gloves off Stuart as he often gets a wicket in unpromising situations. 4. Make Stuart bat left handed in a blindfold.
Salmagundi Gardeners Cricket Club 