Modbury finally beat their local rivals Ermington with a six-wicket victory and ending their two-game losing streak in the process.
Ermington won the toss and put themselves into bat.
Lee Merchant and Tom Hatch were given the new ball by captain John Compston who was feeling very positive for the day as he had taken a few paracetamols and didn’t have a hangover which instantly spread panic and fear amongst the squad.
Merchant struck early when had Ermington’s opener out LBW; had it been any more plumb he would have been given shares in Hartleys Jam.
Guy Speed was the first change bowler and struck in his first over, caught behind by wicket keeper Elias McGill. Mark Trevethan was bowling from the other end and struck in his second over with a ball that ripped through bat and pad and clipped the leg stump, bamboozling the batsman to have Ermington 39-3 off 9 overs and leaving many to question if it was the new ball of the century.
Ermington steadied things over the next six overs, adding 31 runs. Compston should have had a wicket when one lifted sharply off the pitch, caught the bat and looped high into the air. Unfortunately, McGill entered a blinking contest with the sun and lost heavily, leaving him temporarily blinded and running in circles beneath the dropping ball. It brushed his glove, which by then might as well have been a giant foam finger from the Gladiators crowd, before falling safely to the ground as McGill continued wandering around with no idea where he was.
Fortunately, this wasn’t too costly and McGill made up for this when he took a great low catch of Trevethan’s bowling to give him his second wicket.
Compston bowled with extra pace and looked increasinglythreatening, and his persistence finally paid off with a superbcaught-and-bowled that exposed what proved to be a lengthyErmington tail. Sensing the chance for more wickets, he did what any honourable captain would do: kept the ball firmly in his own hands and made sure no one else got a turn. It was John’s ball, and nobody else was invited to play. In fairness, the decision proved justified, as he went on to take two more wickets including the wicket of his neighbour who he took great pleasure in removing. Unfortunately for John the wicket comes at a great cost as he will now need to find someone else to take his parcels in for him when he’s not at home.
Speed returned to complete his allotted overs and produced a superb inswinger to claim his second wicket of the day. Merchant then wrapped up the innings in emphatic fashion, sending the middle stump cartwheeling with the final ball to bowl Ermington out for 108. It capped a strong day for Merchant, whose only mistake came during an awkward high-five with Ben Lane. The pair missed hands completely,grabbed at each other instead, and somehow ended up holding hands while spinning in circles in a doomed attempt to style it out, ultimately ending up looking like work-experience Morris dancers.
For Modbury it was a very solid performance with the ball backed up by a great effort in the field. Sam Price decidedtoday was the day he was going to use his hands rather than his shins to stop the ball which unsurprisingly was much more efficient.
Ermington put on a great tea which had the seal of approval from James ‘Slaps’ Sloman who had made a fully recoveryfrom a season ending injury in just a matter of days and seamlessly adopted into his new role as a specialist fielder.
With 109 needed from 30 overs there was a very surprising amount of positivity around the team that the total would be chased with the batting line up available.
Dan ‘The T20 Nightwatchman’ Clayton, newly christened by Slaps, was promoted back up the order to open again with Guy. The pair are beginning to form a solid, unexpectedopening partnership and put on 35 for the first wicket across nine overs. Speed struck two fours and a glorious six overdeep square leg before being bowled for 22 by a straight delivery that kept low, bringing McGill to the crease.
McGill and Clayton added another 17 runs to the total taking Modbury to 52-1 off 14 overs and well on target for the winning score. Clayton was then caught out for 10 and McGill soon followed for 12 following a truly torrid time against some 1mph bowling that he couldn’t get off the square before eventually attempting a disgusting swipe across the line that promptly bowled him.
What happened next will long go down in folklore for those who witnessed it.
Sam Price faced 12 balls and did not score a run. We are not even sure if he hit any of those 12 balls or just watched them go past him but he appeared to posses some sort of forceshield around him that prevented the ball from hitting the stumps. At the other end Merchant was smartly scoring runs and keeping the scoreboard ticking over.
Eventually Price got bat on ball and scurried through for a single to avoid the dreaded duck. This run gave him confidence and in the next over he swatted one straight for four to hit his first ever boundary. Most would ridicule a batsman for raising the bat in celebration for hitting a boundary off a slow-paced Sunday village bowler, but this was a deserved raising of the bat and celebration from the sidelines.
The force field soon returned, with another 10 balls somehow missing Price’s stumps to the disbelief of all 22 players. Then, out of nowhere, he launched one back over the bowler’s head for four: a genuine cricket shot, a glorious boundary, and perhaps the first sign of Sam’s transformation into a cricketer.Perhaps. But cricket has a habit of humbling everyone, and two balls later the force field finally ran out of power. Price was bowled, leaving Modbury 87-4 and needing 22 from the final five overs.
With the chase almost complete, captain Compston and vice-captain Merchant finished the job in style. Merchant hit consecutive boundaries from the final two balls of the 25thover, leaving only six runs required. Compston then followed suit, dispatching the first two balls of the next over to the boundary to seal a six-wicket win for Modbury with four overs remaining. More importantly, Merchant has secured himself another red inker meaning he now averages 40 for the season despite only having a highest score of 32.
A fantastic win from Modbury and a great team effort. A midweek T20 against Holbeton awaits them next.
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