Legends raise the Hadlee Trophy, but Cricket was the winner

By Sam Peters, deputy trainee village cricket correspondent, Horse & Hound Magazine

Freddie Power manages to find the gap with unprecented 8-man slip cordon for paceman Andrew Snell

At times, it felt as if they’d never been away.   Drinks were consumed. ‘Banter’ was had. Tales were told.  And on occasion, something vaguely resembling cricket was played.

But this was one of those evenings which seem to come along with gratifying regularity at our special little cricket ground, where what happened on the field was almost irrelevant. Almost.

The self-anointed legends, among them founder members of a club originally envisaged as a ‘drinking club with a cricket problem’ rolled back into town for 40 overs of fun on Friday night and remarked their old Fonthill patch in a manner entirely befitting a bunch of old p*ss artists.

Jonnie Power bowled full and straight on his one and half bandy legs while John Sealy reminded us he’s every bit as good with a cricket bat in his hand as he is with a fishing rod.  Still in his twenties and clearly nowhere near old enough to qualify for legend status, Josh White returned to what really should be his current stomping ground to hit the ball miles.

Meanwhile Rupert “Muzza” Murray, the name most written on our club honours board with no less than five previous hundreds recorded, was castled by Ewen for his second successive duck against his old club before uttering with a face considerably straighter his bat “I’ll do the jokes, lads”.  You most certainly will Rupert!

Another great bat failed when Mike Rawlinson, himself no stranger to the honours board, was castled by a brilliant Moore in-cutter every bit as good as the one Murray imagined he had received just moments earlier.

Having set the Fonthill Park 128 to win, with White smashing 50 not out before retiring, including two towering sixes off the hapless half teenager/ half snow leopard aka Freddie Power, prompting this correspondent, masquerading as an umpire, to ask Tim Jones at cow corner “did that carry, Tim?”   “Into Fonthill Lake” I had forgotten to ask. 

Jon Sealy attacks as fully-trousered umpire Rupert (LBW) Murray looks on

Sealy was relentless. Fresh from landing a 12lb trout from the Test for one of his billionaire American clients, the former Richmond man played like a lottery winner, caressing cover drives across Mikurenda’s bare outfield as effortlessly as Jimmy Street sunk cans of Thatcher’s before, during and after each innings.    On the subject of Street, looking and batting like a punch-drunk Blake Carrington, who at times during his innings seemed more likely to trouble those of us trained on the defibrillator than the scorers, he surely deserves special commendation for “out Alpha-ing” Murray with the withering put down: “Your trousers don’t look anywhere near as full without your box in them, Rupe.”  Why on earth he was looking really was really anyone’s guess. But it seemed to work.   “I’ll do the jokes,” a red-faced Muzza muttered again.

Former Club Captain Jimmy Street plays a straight bat

As the tittering subsided, Street got back to the serious business of making Charlie Prior appear like a cross between Abdul Qadir, Terry Genner, Shane Warne and Paul Adams rolled into one on a pitch offering generous bounce and turn for the young leg spinner.

Back to the cricket and it really wasn’t anyone’s game. The Legends were gripping the Young Guns tighter than a John Salisbury maiden. Of which there weren’t nearly enough.

Posting a challenging but eminently gettable total of 128 from 20 overs, almost entirely due to White (50no) and Sealy (46 no), the supremely oiled legends set an unprecedented field of nine slips for the first ball from septuagenarian opening bowler Andrew Snell. As the former paceman turned pacemaker charged in, the crowd and the legends held their collective breath. All except Snell, who had been advised by his doctors not to.

Freddie Power wielded his bat before completely fluffing his lines – you were meant to nick off Freddie! – and cracking the first ball of the chase for four.

It was as good as it got for the youngish bucks, who never really looked like chasing down the relatively modest total. 

Nick Power thunders in for his 2-10

Jonnie Power finished with figures of one for 14 from three while his brother Nick, no doubt still scratching his head at his son’s decision to have a haircut more befitting of a seven year old girl’s onesie, also showed he has still not lost it with two for 10.

Nick Jennings bowled some tidy off spin as Fonthill failed to get their innings anything like back on track after subsiding to 34 for four after youngsters Rhys Salisbury, Teddy Green and Charlie Prior were put in their places by the Nadder Valley’s collective of grumpy old men.

Charlie Knight, another returning youngster clearly unqualified for legends status, mixed it up at the end with a clever spell of fast-medium bowling as his recently retired dad Andy watched on from square leg.  Apparently so captivated by the Oxford undergraduate’s bowling he literally didn’t move during the entire spell.    In the clubhouse Karen poured herself another glass of Rose and no-doubt reflected on the fact at least one male Knight might be capable of riding to her rescue in future, should she so need it.

Hobbs flicks for 4

Even captain Moore and the swarthy Hobbs, a master blaster every bit as capable of clearing the ropes as young White, could not provide the impetus required as Fonthill’s chase flopped prematurely like a flaccid Legends’…(ed – DON’T YOU DARE!!).

Back on the field, even the presence of 12 men in the field, only spotted by Fonthill’s eagle eyed skipper Moore after 13 overs, could not mar a truly memorable night.    How long the legends remember it for really is anyone guess as the inevitable cognitive decline kicks in over the next decade or so, but the important thing is they remembered to turn up on Friday night and their skipper Simon Prior, surely as proud of the way his son bowled as he was for the way he kept wicket, raised the inaugural Hadlee Trophy and waved it to the legends’ adoring fans. Chairman Tracey beamed on. And for good reason. 

The Barbecue Kids

As Finn, Molly and Charlie flipped the burgers at close of play and club officials sought to undo the spectacular self-inflicted PR disaster of failing to thank either the umpire (me) or Rich Green for scoring all 40 overs, we were left to ponder the meaning of cricket.

What is the point of playing sport? Why are villages cricket clubs such special places? What is it about Fonthill Park Cricket Club that makes it so incredibly special in so many ways to so many of us?

Friday night my friends. That was why.

Fonthill Park CC. Where legends are made and friendships are forged. On occasion, some cricket is played. But who really cares about that?

Congratulations to the legends. Winners by some wickets. See you next year?

With thanks to Simon Prior and Tim Jones for organising the teams, Rich Green for scoring, Sam Peters for umpiring, Finn,Molly and Charlie for stepping up to manage the barbecue, Nic Jones for her camerawork and everyone who came to play and watch.