Indigestible pudding

Easton Cowboys C.C. Saturday XI v Keynsham C.C. 3rd XI

The young scorer who accompanied the top of the table Keynsham 3rd XI was quite forthright in explaining the make-up of his team (not to suggest that they were all wearing mascara): Apparently, some of them usually played for the 2nd XI but "hadn't been doing very well" and had been demoted, thereby altering the appearance of the side that the Cowboys had managed to beat back in June.

Still, the Cowboys had a new addition too, welcoming back Gary for the first time this season, to significantly enhance an already pukka team playing their penultimate game of the season and still in with a chance of promotion from Division 3.

Torrential rain the previous night had left the wicket at the Fry's ground like an undercooked chocolate sponge. Winning the toss was paramount. Losing it was unfortunate.

Ev and Justin opened the batting and kept the ball out for the first few overs, grabbing a single now and then until Ev lost his off stump. The following over, Ben lost his leg stump and when Alan went to a faint edge in the next one, 17-3 wasn't a good place to be.

After ten overs, Gary and Justin had pushed on to a healthier 30-3, the former masterfully lashing the ball to the boundary several times but then Justin fell and RichG entered stage left. A promising partnership ensued, Gary riding his luck in being dropped two or three times, although bizarrely, it was his good fortune that led to Garner's downfall, when a catch that everybody assumed would be taken was labouriously dropped, by which time Garner at the non-striker's end had turned to stare at the trees, out of his ground and was run out from behind. Not so much a Cider Moment as a Mogadon Moment.

Just before the halfway stage, the Cowboys were 51-5 and in need of some watchful, applied batting to last the distance. It didn't really come. Gary finally holed out, Joe and Gretch tried their best, your correspondent managed to bat out a few overs without hitting the ball off the square until attempting a heave he took a divot out of the chocolate sponge with the bat before lamely connecting with the ball and sending it back to the bowler. Neither Rog nor Rob troubled the scorer much either and the Cowboys' innings spluttered out in the 30th over with only 59 on the board.

It wasn't even considered practical to take tea between the innings, partly because the urn wouldn't have been switched on yet. This could have been a tactical error, as a long walk back to the pavilion and some protracted teamanship might have opened the window on some dark clouds, heavy rainfall and match abandonment.

On the other hand, not being one to mess about and with the wicket still giving a lot of assistance to the bowler, Joe led the Cowboys out to defend the meagre total, hoping for some early inroads into the Keynsham batting line-up.

The left and right-handed opening pair looked solid and powerful, attacking the bowling from the start and punishing the occasional bad, and good, ball.

Joe bowled tidily into the wind, eventually inducing the right-hander into a top-edged pull, the ball looping and spinning high towards square leg where your correspondent was not going to spill it. Roger took a far less regulation catch a while later and earned some Cider Moment nominations for a blinding one-handed diving pluck at a ball driven off Ev's bowling. Your hack had a go after Joe and found the seam movement and swing rare and exciting, but although beating the bat (in between the boundaries) and demanding nods of appreciation from the opposition batsman, he couldn't dislodge him. Gary threatened with the ball too, back in the groove and generating pace from a few steps, thumping the ball into Gretch's swift hands but unable to halt the Keynsham progress.

To be frank, the reporter didn't look at the scoreboard once since shortly before the end of the Cowboys' innings, so unpleasant was the sight: It had been a burden, literally, ever since he'd had to carry it from its usual home at Frenchay several hours earlier (although car transport was also involved). At the time of writing the score hasn't been posted on the website, nor is the scorebook available, but suffice to say, Keynsham reached their target in the 13th over, inflicting an eight wicket defeat and heavy blow to the Cowboys after five wins on the trot.

Refusing to fade away quietly, they returned to the nearby Keynsham home ground, where Gary was voted Man of the Match and the entire team was fined at least once for being rubbish. Post-match analysis continued long into the night for some back at The Plough, one conclusion being that it all went wrong the moment that someone started singing Phil Collins.

Scorecard