It was fifth time lucky as the mighty Modbury finally secured their first win of the 2026 season in perfect cricketing conditions.
Captain John Compston made the decision to bowl first and gave his vice-captain Lee Merchant the new ball to get proceedings under way. Lee clearly had teas on his mind early on as he sent down several overs of pies that wouldn’t look out of place in the Strawberry Fields Farm Shop.
Debutant Sam Price was confused at the end of the first over as everyone moved round and the bowlers changed end; this transpired to be one of the many rules that the team had forgot to tell him about. However, Price did proceed to put his body on the line several times in the field including one attempted stop out on the boundary which resulted in both him and the ball ending up in the bush. At one point it seemed that Price was spending more time in the bush than Ron Jeremy did in the 80s.
Guy Speed was the pick of the bowlers ending up with 3-27 with the stumps being rearrange on two of the occasions andblowing the back pad off the opening batsman for the other. Such was Guys appetite for wickets, his eyes lit up when Kingsbridges youngest batsman hit the ball to him and rather than do the honourable thing of giving the young lad a single, Guy decided that no child was exempt from his bloodthirst for wickets as he attempted the runout which much to the relief of all on the ground was unsuccessful.
James ‘Slappuccino’ Sloman enjoyed a personal battle with the Kingsbridge overseas player. Quickly realising that Slaps will put the ball on the same spot, he charged down the wicket dismissing the first ball he faced and so begun the duel that felt like Botham vs Chappel as England and Australia collided. NASA did report this afternoon that a small red ball had been seen orbiting Earths moon but it was soon confirmed to be the match ball that the batsman had hit for 6 from Slomans bowling. Eventually Slappuccino won the war as he got his man with a perfect yorker and shouted out ‘I bowled out their Aussie!’. For the Aussie, he faces a long road to recovery knowing he was bowled by a man who’s kitbag is a suitcase that was salvaged from a skip.
Oscar Pistorious, Gregg Wallace, P Diddy. Just a few names that have fallen from the dizzy heights of their previous successes. But today a new name was added to the list. Howard ‘El Chappo’ Williams. For most of the innings the ball avoided Howard. Some say this was due to his reputation of being the greatest fielder world cricket has ever seen; the batsman of Kingsbridge too terrified to hit the ball within 20 metres of him. Eventually the ball was destined to come his way, just a matter of time before the Jonty Rhodes of our generation would be brought into action. Alas, the moment came. Fielding at backward point, the batsman cut the ball straight to Howard who in this moment turned into Casper the friendly ghost as the ball went straight through him and to the boundary for four runs. An undignified jog down the ball to retrieve the ball followed and thus concluded Howards only contribution for the day and a sudden announcement that he is unable to do the match report.
Some tight bowling at the end from Mark Trevethan helped to slow the run rate and Kingsbridge ended up with 151 from their 30 overs.
With 152 the target, Ethan Bell and Guy set off at a blistering pace and brought up the 50 partnership within 8 overs. A mixture of classy shots and agricultural swinging saw the ball flying left, right and rhubarb with the Kingsbridge fielders having no answer to the onslaught. At one point it felt inevitable that we would need to host ‘Modbury Aid’ to help fund the cost of replacing the balls that were being lost.
Guys innings was brought to an abrupt end when he was bowled by a ball that bounced at a height that would be called a no ball if the batsman was fresh out the womb.
Dan Clayton suffered a similar fate to Guy and headed back to the sheds for 1 which brought out captain Compston to join Ethan at the crease. Ethan was continuing to send the ball to all areas of the ground (with a fond attachment to backward point/third man and the edge of his bat) but eventually his luck run out, and he was caught just 5 runs short of a half century.
This brought Merchant out to the middle who clearly had no plans for the evening as he had no intent of scoring quickly and only wanted the red inker at the end of the innings. Such was the trench he was digging, fear began to spread amongst the locals that an invasion was coming, and we would soon be at war. It however transpired that the war was Merchants war on positive cricket.
The scorecard shows Merchant hit a 6 but those in attendance can testify to the true version of events as Merchant and Compston ran a gentle 2 runs only for the Kingsbridge fielder to gift 4 overthrows and turn an average 2 into a truly awful 6. To the credit of the captain and vice-captain they did not look in danger of getting out and comfortably saw Modbury home to victory with six players not required to bat, something of a rarity for Modbury! Merchant ended up on 30* and Compston 19*.
Thanks to Kingsbridge for hosting a great game that was played in great spirits, and we look forward to the return fixture.
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