Kinoulton Fun

 Sunday saw me take a side out to play Kinoulton at their pleasant little ground down endless bumpy lanes going out towards the Leicestershire border. 

I was thinking we were going to be going in with an actual 11 players, but as it turned out we had two late drop outs, so I was left with 9. Ah, never mind, I thought. It was a nice day, we'll figure it out. 

After "winning the toss" - me basically being asked by the very pleasant Kinoulton co-captains if I wanted to bat first, I tried to sort out some kind of batting order and see what would unfold. 

Kinoulton had said they had a very young side, but it certainly wasn't as young as ours. But our opening bats, the youngest and oldest players on the team I think, made a fantastic start, and batted with great authority for the first 15 overs and getting a fine 50 partnership on the board. I umpired for the second half of this, while spending the first half filming a hummingbird hawk moth that was putting on a show feeding off the buddleias in the posh gardens overlooking the ground. 

It was after drinks when things started to go wrong. One of the Kinoulton skippers, wearing an Oasis bucket hat which I found myself wearing while he was bowling. 

Cue much terrible punnage - "Champagne Super-Over", "Wonderball", and most disgracefully "Well that's Definitely Maybe out" being said myself when I had to give our young opener out plumb LBW. 

He then castled two more of our bats, taking three wickets for no runs and leaving us without much more batting in the tank, or so I thought. However, a debutant played decided to go postal in the last few overs with some big hitting. 

His power was remarkable, given that he didn't seem to move until the ball was about a foot away from him, before he whipped his wrists through generating incredible bat speed. In partnership with a young players dad, he got us to 124 for 6, much to my joy as it meant I didn't have to bat. 

I was actually going to send out a couple of the young ones to bat again. 

So 124 didn't feel like enough, especially as the big slogger who wiped us out last year was playing. But our young opening bowlers made a good start, although one of them said "You can't catch anything" when I offered to field at slip. 

No respect from the younger ones for their skipper.

He didn't need any fielders, as he soon castled one of the Kinoulton openers with a beauty. But this meant the big slogger came in, and it was time to patrol the boundary. 

But as it happened, he never got away from us. Our young slow bowler had him totally baffled, and he walked up and down the wicket before having to play a little block, or push a gentle single. He eventually holed out to the debutant at the other end, caught by his own captain who was fielding for us, and who refused to celebrate. 

So, they weren't murdering us, but they were getting the runs at the required rate. Gave myself a little bowl, and it went well, bowing their opener who top scored with one that turned two feet out of a footmark and kept very low. 

Too bad in the 28th over I suddently dragged a couple down short to lose us the game. 

In the end though, it didn't matter, we had a great afternoon playing a great bunch of lads, and there was a well stocked bar to retire to after the game. So all was well with the world. 

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 15.07.25