Nowton 2009

Well, if there is a Hassidic Jew on a pushbike charging towards a tent, someone is apprehended by the police while stuck in a barbed wire fence at 5.30 in the morning and there is a visit by the Queen of Togo, it must be the Nowton cricket tour. Another enjoyable August Bank Holiday weekend came and went. While success eluded us on the pitch the overall weekend was another enjoyable way to end the season.  

The weekend got off to a good start with Jim and Kieran from the Elephant Wanderers arriving at the clubhouse on the Friday night to complete a sponsored ride on behalf of multiple sclerosis sufferers. This has a particular pertinence for our team following the recent travails of Phil Parsons. The Branch cricket team raised a creditable £140. We retired to the bar and drank to our success. Unfortunately that was about as much success as we had over the weekend.    

Despite some fine individual performances we never quite had the rub of the green and lost each of the three games we played in the four team tournament. The favourites, the Nowton Wuffings, won the tournament, followed by the Elephants, the Nowton Abbots and then us. Somehow there seemed to be something familiar about the wooden spoon placing. The pitches were dry, slow and unforgiving. It would be an act of cruelty to refer to individual bowling figures so they remain secret in the scorebook. 

In our first game we were comprehensively outplayed by the Wuffings. The home team batted first with the fifty coming up in the fifth over. McGirr limped out of the attack and into the bar and, nerves and ankle shot, and stayed there for the rest of the weekend. Steady bowling from Neil Campbell, Mark Stewart, skipper John Howey and St John Costelloe clawed back some wickets and restricted the Wuffings to 199. That was a target that was always going to be demanding but the early loss of debutant star batsman Steve Devenport was fatal. The Wuffings bowling was both penetrative and varied and only some late thrashing by Steve Trow allowed us to limp along to a respectable 137. Mick Coad retired again. Consolation was found in the bar. 

In the Sunday game we batted first and set a respectable target of 178. The highlight of the innings was a pair of outstanding 50s by Steve Devenport and Dermot Lewis. Steve’s 90 was the second highest  individual innings by a Sunderland batsman at Nowton in 27 years of visits. Unfortunately we found the Abbots in good form and Nowton legend Paul Arnold in fine form as he played a beautifully paced unbeaten innings, also of 90, to see the Abbots home in the last over of the innings. Again consolation was sought in the bar. 

In our final game of the weekend we lost by the narrow margin of 10 runs to the Elephants. The emotional trauma of the weekend and the terror caused by his impending marriage paralysed Neil Campbell who could not be revived until after the game was over. Batting first the Elephants set an imposing total of 172. Unfortunately our team’s top order was sawn off by some unusual umpiring. The Elephant’s opening bowler, Chopper Harris, was bowling left arm over the wicket and pitched the ball outside the leg stump. He somehow managed to have Luke Marson and Geoff Lambton LBW. He also had Dermot Lewis LBW off his bat. John Howey was then dismissed by a ball that Barnes Wallis would have been proud of - though the umpire failed to call no-ball. Steve Devenport hit another 50 before fatigue got the better of him  and a feisty stand between Mark Stewart and Geoff Hardy almost guided us home. Eventually we failed to meet the target by a mere 10 runs. A worthy but unsuccessful effort.  We retired to the bar for consolation. 

That defeat marked the end of the season. Unfortunately it was not representative of the season as a whole. We won more than we lost and we kept the team going for another year. The team provided opportunities for over 30 Branch members. Next year we will try to improve on that. The season will include two tours and games at grounds of historic interest - Leyton County Ground - and tremendous pubs - the North Star and the Trafalgar.    

As a post script reference should be made to speculation that David Trout’s cricket life with the Branch has finally expired. Following  a weekend of characteristic consistency that would have alerted the interest of the RSPB, David Trout has disappeared. His batting pads were found with the team kit, attached was a note simply saying “I can’t go on”. Farewell to the late David Trout.

John McGirr