A Triumph Over Adversity

Following the malicious damage to the Field of Dreams’ wicket the night before the game, Keyworth and Gotham collectively put two fingers up to whoever wanted to spoil their last match of the season by relocating to a hastily prepared wicket in Clifton. Gotham needed to beat the ‘home’ side to secure promotion to Div A, and the Millers were playing for pride.

The wicket was as firm as SpongeBob SquarePants and the outfield as long as Rocket’s hair, so stand-in skipper Rob Baker was relieved to win the toss and elected to field first. From the off Rocket Rendu (7-3-10-2) was getting the ball to swing and seam, and with the ball not coming on, found a leading edge in the first over to make the perfect start.

From then on none of the Gotham top order batsmen ever looked really comfortable, and wickets fell at regular intervals leaving Gotham at 85-5. Had Keyworth held onto their dropped catches, it could have been 85 all out! The fielding display was abysmal; Bobby (15-3-51-1) had a five-for in dropped catches off his bowling, which one can imagine he was really pleased about!

At the other end, new spin partner Dave Hiller (3.3-0-23-4) showed him how to do it by getting 4 wickets in as many overs, but the player himself admitted it was the filthiest 4-for he’d ever got!

Dave Strong also contributed with 2-31 off his 9, and should have had 3 but for a Dave Hiller drop under a skier. Dave tops the catching chart this season, but he must also be top of the drops. Next season a serious effort is needed at nets to improve the Keyworth catching.

Gotham relied on the clean hitting of Simon North (42) and the nurdling of Tom Chamberlain (22) to post a respectable score, but at tea 166 all out off 45 overs seemed 15-20 short of a winning total, plus Keyworth were gifted 2 additional overs should they need them.

Marc Bailey supplied the tea, and due to the lack of a pavilion the players all mucked in to dine picnic-style. It was a very good effort all things considered, the egg mayo and ham salad sandwiches were good, but the mushroom pasta highlight went untouched as there were no forks!

After the break, the wind got up and the sun went in leaving the scorers ffffffreeezing and the players sitting in their cars. The opening pair of Bailey and Somekh found the going tough, but put away the bad ball. Marc was out caught for 9 and Dale was soon to follow LBW for 1. Rocket (21) set about the Gotham attack but seemed to be triggered LBW just when he was enjoying himself. Ben Elliott was well caught by the keeper down the leg-side in the same over, leaving the hosts struggling at 53-4.

It was a case of cometh the hour as Dave Strong cemented his place as Keyworth’s top all rounder by putting on an 89 run partnership with Adam (43). The opener had set himself a target of going the distance until, after hitting a century to fielders, he had a rush of blood and was run out by half the track going for a suicidal single, leaving 30 to get in the final 9 overs.

When Scooby (22 not out) went into bat about 20 minutes remained until the park gates would be locked. Tony decided he didn’t want to nudge it around, and he and Dave teed off with the latter trying to end it in style with two sixes, with the second one being miscued and caught for a magic match-winning 61. With 3 overs remaining, the winning runs came courtesy of 4 over throws just as the park keeper blew his whistle.

So, in the end although the win could not prevent Keyworth from being relegated, it felt like a victory over the vandals who thought they could prevent the match from being played.

In summary, 2009 was a season of two halves. The first 9 games yielded a paltry 35 points and the last 9 games produced 93 points. It was all too little too late, but with Newstead finishing the season as poorly as KCC had started it, the margin between staying up and relegation was a mere 8 points.