Chalking up the points

This weekend looked a very tough one on paper, Saturday’s league match against the big spending West Indian Cavalliers followed by a tricky Derbyshire Cup First Round tie against Spondon on Sunday. In the end, both games proved be relatively straight forward, with an emphatic six wicket win against ‘the Cavs’ on Saturday followed by a comprehensive 62 run victory over Spondon.

While Sunday’s victory was extremely pleasing and will hopefully be the start of a good cup run through the second half of the season, it was Saturday’s result that will have sent shockwaves around the league circuit.

West Indian Cavalliers boasting seven players with first class experience, two of whom are former Test stars, arrived at Newdigate Street expecting a tough contest from a Kimberley side who had famously turned them over on the same ground a year before. They were not, however, quite ready for the exceptional spell of bowling that Matt Wright delivered, ably supported by Dominic Wheatley and Richard Adams, to dismiss them for a paltry 63. Wright’s control of length and line was just too good for the experienced opposition line up, and was a perfect example of how to go about taking wickets on a pitch which offers you just a little a bit of assistance. He did not go chasing wickets, but stuck to his disciplines, keeping the ball in area which made it hard to score, and in doing so forced many batsmen in to taking a risk which proved very costly. I was delighted for Matt, although it now looks an uphill battle in our personal duel to finish with the best average!

One of the big disappointments of the day was an incident during our run chase. After losing Dan Birch early on, Akhil Patel and Jon Terry put together a very useful partnership to take the score to 31-1 before Saqlain Mushtaq came into the attack. The former Pakistan Test ace, was quick to make an impact dismissing Patel who pushed and missed at one outside off stump. Mushtaq had already come to the attention of the observant crowd before his first delivery however, as he had a strange white substance covering his hands. With a nose that senses a bit of wrongdoing, new batsman Orgizovic asked the umpires to take a look at what was going on. After a discussion between them, and with the bowler, the mystery substance which was being topped up from the left pocket was no longer being applied.

Chalk is often used by gymnasts to help with grip...and scurvy

I decided to enquire with the umpires after our victory, just what was going on. They informed me that Saqlain had been wearing chalk on his hands to treat a skin condition he has. Being someone who is always keen to learn about medical treatments, I have been scouring the internet to try and find the medicinal benefits of chalk for the skin. Unfortunately so far I have drawn a blank, although it was used to treat scurvy in the Middle Ages. I did however, find it was very good for drying out the hands and materials to assist with grip. Still it was pleasing we chalked off the runs and can look forward to a trip to Plumtree this week. It is important we keep chalking up the points through July if we are to stay in contention at the right end of the table. Weather permitting of course!