The season got off to a late start with an easy win in the Cup against Gas at St Catherine's. We skittled Gas for 66, Martin, Dan Johnson and Nicky getting amongst the wickets early, Martin also taking 3 catches. We easily scored the runs required, Brian top scoring with 19 not out.
Our next game was our first league game but was another easy victory, this time against BAS at Girton College. The Vue batted first and made 128-9, Diesel opening and making 26, Martin with a knock of 39. John Bowstead took 3-3 on his debut for the Vue, the best bowling figures of the season!
Our third game was our annual friendly against the Red Lion. Having never lost to them before, we were well beaten this time, only managing to field a team of 7 players. TC made 30 runs, but no-one took a single wicket as we lost by the full 10 wickets.
Our second league game was to be the first of 3 encounters with Napp this season. Napp posted an decent total of 137-3, the Vue response was poor, only reaching 96-6. The Newton's were the pick of the batting, Bob making 21 not out and Graham 27 not out. TC made 11 on what was to turn out to be his swansong for the Vue as he subsequently decided to leave the club and go and play for Little Shelford.
The next game was a friendly against a Milton side captained by Bob, who made 14 not out in Milton's 150-3. The Vue innings started well with a 3rd wicket stand of 38 between Martin (21) and Bruce (24) before Bruce was run out and Martin bowled by a wicked off cutter from Dan Coston. The innings then fell away to end on 113-8, despite a late 26 not out by John Green. Nicky and Diesel both managed to make ducks for the second match in a row!
Our sixth game was our second meeting with Gas, and the result was another victory for the Vue, breaking our losing run of 3 matches. However Gas put up a much better showing than in the cup game, making 119-7, with 2 wickets apiece for Steve Critchley, Dan Coston and Martin. The Vue's batting came good, with the skipper making 34 and Martin 31 not out, before Alex hit the winning runs in fine style with a boundary.
The most memorable moment of the match came toward the end of Gas's innings when there was a collision between Nicky and one of the batsmen, which resulted in a bit of verbal sparring followed by a bit of real sparring from Nicky who took a swing at the batsman, but fortunately like his bowling that day he was off target!
The next game was against the enigmatic TWI, who are apparently the Welding Institute and not the Women's Institute as the rumour had been! We batted poorly in this match, collapsing to 78 all out, the top scorer being Alex with 17. In TWI's innings Alex took a rare catch behind the stumps and John Bowstead took 2-16, but we still lost by 6 wickets.
Our eighth match was our second meeting with Napp and turned out to be a pretty one-sided affair. Napp, or to be more precise Mr K Smith, had a field day off our bowling, Smith made an astonishing 125 not out in Napp's total of 169-2. Needless to say the bowling figures weren't too healthy, Martin was dispatched for a massive 69 off 4 overs! When we batted, Bruce gave hope with a stylish 44, but once he was out, the fragility of the batting showed again and we were all out for 95.
The next match was BAS at home, and I after our earlier victory over them we expected to win. However BAS were a different side to the one we beat by 82 runs a few weeks earlier and managed beat us by 14 runs. Martin took 3-47 in BAS's innings of 145-6, and young Jamie Patton took his first wicket for the Vue - well done fella! Jamie Gawthrop (18), Bruce (24) and Martin (37) got the innings going but we weren't strong enough to finish the job and ended on 131-7, a very disappointing loss.
Cantab were the opposition for our 3rd friendly of the season, and this match continued the tradition of close, competitive games played in a very good spirit. We batted fairly well, the majority of the runs coming from Brian (34 not out) and Nicky, who smashed 4 sixes on his way to 49, when he stupidly ran himself out trying to get the strike back in the last over! Still 129-5 is often a total good enough to win, but on this occasion it was a whisker too little. We got Cantab down to their last wicket (Bruce was the pick, taking 4-35) and needing six to win off the last over. It went right down to the very last ball, when their number 9 managed to hit a four to clinch the result.
We finally snapped the losing streak at 4 games with a victory over Robert Sayle
at Pembroke. With a very weak side and only 9 players, we looked doomed as we
collapsed to 37-4 in the 7th over. However this brought Alex and Graham together at
the crease, who went on to make a partnership of 105, the best of the
season. Unfortunately neither of them got the 50 they deserved - Alex was out for 41
off the last ball of the innings while Graham was stranded on 49 not out! By then we
had 142-5. Alex even managed to take 2 catches as Robert Sayle collapsed to
90 all out, Bob and Graham doing most of the damage with 3 wickets each.
The second match in our cup run was amazingly the semi-final - we has a bye
in the first round so only had to win one game to get here! It was against Napp who had
already beaten us twice, the second
time in acrimonious circumstances, so everyone was well up for this one! Nicky
finally got Rick Handy and his mate Lee Chipchase to turn out for us, and they made
all the difference. Rick made a majestic 75, repeatedly driving the bowlers
with ease, and hitting 6 sixes in the process. That was the best score by a Vue
player all season. Martin chipped in with 29 as we posted a good total of 146-4.
However Napp are a strong side and were keeping close to the required run rate.
The turning point came when Nicky noncholantly took a superb catch above his head
at the square leg boundary. After that it was nip and tuck, but thanks to good
tight bowling from Chip we held on to win by 2 runs and go through to the final!
Nicky's catch wins the Golden Moment award because it was a quality catch
and it was taken in this crucial grudge match against Napp!
Napp were upset about us using new players in the game and complained to the league about
it. We were informed we were supposed to register players with the league (which
we'd never been asked to do before) but got away with a telling off.
Our last league game was the return against Robert Sayle. This game was played on
extremely wet ground at Latham Road, and partly in driving rain too! Robert Sayle
were poor again, staggering to 70 all out, Martin picking up 3-25 and Bob 2-8. We knocked
off the required runs in under 11 overs, just before it got dark and too wet to carry on.
Bob was top scorer with 27 not out in our 74-2.
Our opponents in the final were to be the White Swan, who were apparently
to become champions of the 1st division of the Business House League (we are
in the 3rd and bottom division!). After a lot of rain the pitch at Churchill
was very soft, but the skies cleared to give us a fine evening for the match.
We again had the services of the Mildenhall boys, Rick and Chip, but were
without the skipper, John Green, so Martin had to fill in again. The toss was won
and we batted. Rick and Chip batted well, making 57 and 37 respectively, but the
scoring rate was a little slow because of the very slow wicket. The Swan must
have been pleased when our innings closed on 107-3, a low score, but not impossible
to defend.
The Swan batsmen paced themselves and although it took until the last over for them
to reach our total, it had not been in much doubt, as we were unable to get the
breakthroughs we needed to slow them down.
So a disappointing end to the evening cricket season, but we can be pretty
pleased that we have had our most successful year in the 4 years the club has been
going - reaching the cup final and probably securing promotion by finishing second
in our division with a record of 4 wins and 4 defeats.
A Sunday friendly was arranged against Milton, however the turnout
was very poor, making the game something of a non-event. The Vue could only field
8 players, and that was including Chuck, young Jamie and his even younger
brother! We lost the game but a mention goes to Bruce who smashed an impressive
78 and John Green for 55.
The awards were dished out in a prestigious end of season dinner held at
the Cambridge Curry Centre on Castle Hill. The celebrity guest was Andy Duncan of
Cambridge United! (and his mate)
Players Player of the Year - Martin - consistent batting, a few wickets and stand in skipper on quite a
few occasions.
Best Bowling - Bob Newton - 6 wickets at average 10.5.
Best Batting - Martin Charlesworth - 220 runs at average of 27.5.
Most Improved Player - Alex Gray - a couple of good knocks with the bat and impoved keeping.
Golden Moment - Nicky's catch against Napp in the semi-final.
Best Catch - Bruce for a towering catch taken at deep square leg in a game at Churchill.
King of the Ducks - a disappointing season for ducks really. Nicky and Diesel lead
the way with 2 each.
Best new player - Jamie Gawthrop
Other mentions - Chuck for dependable and efficient scoring, John Green
for being skipper, Nicky for all the organisation of fixtures, venues and the hardest
part, getting the teams together.
Cup Semi-final
August
The Final
September
Awards