HM Treasury - 4th July 2007 - Regents Park

Mirroring the fortunes of the England One Day Team, the Carib Beer XI seem to be a team in transition, consistently failing to live up to the sum of its parts, and swingly wildly between 1 easy victory and several horrible defeats. Today saw what was we hope is the nadir of our less than auspicious 2007 campaign, a sorry ten wicket defeat, and the first by such a margin in our entire history. Losing our first few games, then slumping to a horrible defeat against the Bank of England, suggested that this season is not likely to be our most successful. However, this was followed by a convincing victory last week, and a welcome return to form of our Captain and Best Batsman Martin Haigh, suggesting that a turnaround in our fortunes may have been just around the corner. Today's game was the return match against the Treasury on our home turf and we hoped that, although they are, on paper, a better team than us, they were, this time around, bereft of their home advantage and official changing rooms. Although boyed as we were by the fact that we had avoided a heavy defeat earlier in the year against the same opposition, we were to be sadly disappointed as we sunk to the heaviest defeat in our history, for the second time this year.

Ringer wise, we welcomed the assistance of floppy hatted fielder Ringer Bailey, and taking advantage of recent Kolpak rulings, Martin had managed to secure the services of Bath resident, occasional batsman and useful full toss bowler Quentin Edwards, fresh off the train from the west country. Of the Carib Regulars, we were without the services of Line and Length bowler Rob White, Statistician Gordon Berry and New Member Steve Turner, and we were all more than pleasantly surprised to see a totally injury free Richard Harris turning up at the ground, after enduring an arduous but ultimately injury free trek through the park, and we hoped that this would remain the case for at least the next two hours.

The day of the match was one of heavy rain, cold and cloud and although this had brightened up by the evening, the occasional rainsquall continued to threaten to derail the match throughout, making the ground a tricky and unpredictable proposition for all concerned. Our Captain Martin Haigh again tossed up with the opposition captain, and promptly lost, for the fifth time this year, to maintain his 100% failure rate. Although he claims to have been practicing his tossing at home, the benefits of this have yet to filter through to his on field tossing, and his tossing ability this year remains of concern to the wider Carib community. However, to everyone's surprise we found ourselves batting, likely to be the quickest route to the pub, and trudged off to decide the batting order. Continuing to lead from the front, our Captain, Manager and Best Batsman, Martin Haigh decided to open the batting, this time opting for veteran opening bowler Carib Rogerson as his partner in an attempt to allow the slow scoring underachiever some time at the crease.

Initially, against some early short pitched bowling by Treasury opener Shearing, our Captain Martin Haigh looked like a batsman at the top of his game, smashing a fine 8 runs from the first over and getting the innings off to a flyer. Unfortunately, from the other end, veteran opening bowler Rogerson again failed to live up to the promise shown in the nets, and badly letting down his Captain, Team Manager and Carib Best Batsman Martin Haigh, allowed himself to be bowled for a paltry 1 run in only the second over, bringing riven haired blaster Carib Cordey to the crease. Perhaps aware that time was not likely to be an issue, Mr Cordey played a careful and watchful innings. However, just when he appeared to be loosening the shackles and ready to begin scoring some runs, he was cruelly adjudged LBW by part time injury free umpire Rich Harris. At the other end, our Captain, Manager and Opening Batsman Martin Haigh continued to score freely and as yet, the innings didn't appear in danger of collapse. However, in a cruel turn of fate, Martin received a totally unplayble delivery that all but rolled along the floor, taking out one of his stumps in the process, and rocking the Carib innings with Martin's third dismissal of the year.

We hoped that next man in, Veteran Middle Order Hard Hitting and Heavy Scoring Man of the Match Recipient Glen Rayner could turn things around for us, and initially, we weren't to be disappointed, failing as he did, to be dismissed for a full 7 balls. From the other end, floppy hatted fielder Ringer Bailey also promised great things. Unfortunately, on this occassion, both were to be dismissed for low scores, and the spectre of a another team batting failure reared its head. A surprisingly injury free Rich Harris fell soon after for nought, as did New Member and Keen Wicket Keeper Andy Bowen and it was left to Tour Manager Andy Weaver and Vice Captain Barry Willis to finish off the innings and try to see us through to a useful total. Both were eventually to hang around for far longer than usual, and although they both failed to achieve very much, their slow scoring did see us inch towards, and then past, the 60 run mark. Tour Manager Andy Weaver eventually edged one behind bringing Bath resident and our Captain's friend Quentin Edwards to the crease. After travelling all the way up from Bath for 5 minutes at the crease, and after scoring a solitary run, he found himself out and New Member and Official Umpire Michael Lee, hastily recalled from his position at square leg, found himself with the task of rescuing the innings. Several resolute forward defensive shots later, and with the score one run higher than it was before, our 20 overs came to an end, with the team still languishing on a poor 69 runs, a score hardly likely to threaten the Treasury Batsmen.

Veteral Opening Bowler and disappointing Batsman Carib Rogerson opened the bowling with Bath resident Quentin Edwards and almost immediately, the Treasury batsmen began to accellerate towards their target. Taking three overs each, the score was around 20 runs after 6 overs and the Treasury Batsmen looked worryingly untroubled. Vice Captain Barry Willis and Our Captain and Best Batsman Martin followed up and also went wicketless, as did vixen haired northerner Carib Cordey, who can usually be relied upon to break even the most stubborn of partnerships. An over from Tour Manager Andy Weaver saw the Treasury score barely 10 runs from their target, and our hearts leapt into our mouths as we watched Injury Prone Rich Harris attempt to cut off a scoring shot, only for him to pull up lame after covering a distance of 10 feet from his original favoured fielding position at third man. Luckily he was able to limp back to his mark, as the injury on this occasion appeared only temporary.

With around 7 runs left, and both openers retired, and with not a single wicket lost, our Captain Martin Haigh threw the ball to Rich Harris imploring him not to lose the game during the over, in order to allow Emerging Bowling Talent and Middle Order Bludgeoner Glen Rayner to bowl an over before the game ended. After an over that went for only three, and left our somewhat injury prone spinner in perfect health, the ball was thrown to Man of the Match recipient Glen Rayner for what promised to be an exciting end to the game. Repeating the accuracy that has become such a trademark of his bowling, he was the first bowler to induce a false stroke from one of the new Treasury batsmen, causing one of them to spoon up a catch to mid-off. However, mirroring the team's performance in the match, Occassional spinner Rich Harris unfortuately spilled the chance, denying Glen Rayner, and the team, the chance of taking a single wicket in the game. Two runs later, and Mr Gooch had again completed a memorable spell, but four runs had been scored from the over, and we found ourselves on the end of a hammering and very little in the way of positives to take from the match, with the possible exception of another fine over from Mr Gooch and the inauguration of New Member Michael Lee's batting average, scoring as he did, his first runs in Carib Colours.

In deciding the Man of the Match award, Mr Gooch, himself a candidate for the award, and lone candidate for the award last week, magnanimously proposed that Vice Captain and occassional line and length bowler Mr Willis should be the recipient of the award this week, after his fine 29 ball 13. There being no other proposals, the award this week rests with our Vice Captain, who incidently, will be compiling the next Match Report in Webmaster Rogerson's absence.

Bath Resident Ringer Edwards trudges out to the middle	Vice Captain, Mr Willis, on his way to his Man of the Match innings	His partner at the crease, Tour Manager Andy Weaver.	Mr Willis arrives at the crease	Keen Wicketkeeper Andy Bowen attempts to breach the in field	Mr Bowen after being dismissed for nought.
Phil Cordey, struck on the leg and dismissed	Tour Manager Mr Weaver hits out	Carib Cordey bludgeons another single	Mr Cordey and Mr Lee admire Mr Gooch's striking	Mr Gooch in full flow, on his way to a fine nought	Mr Gooch squares up to plunder the bowling, during his fine nought
Marting losing another toss	Mr Willis hones the team's fielding skills prior to the game	A dejected Carib Beer XI after another defeat	Mr Willis misses another one	Resolute defence from Tail End Stalward Michael Lee	More Resolute Defence from Official Umpire, Michael Lee
Bath Resident Ringer Edwards during his innings

*Balls faced in brackets