Spinning in the rain

Oh dear. The reception that Gareth Batty received on his return to New Road was as warm as the weather!

A very partisan crowd hailed GB with the traditional greeting reserved for one who has jumped counties. Interesting that Steven Davies didn’t get the same kind of treatment from his former club, and was applauded for his very good innings of 81. Do I get the impression that GB may have rubbed a few people up the wrong way during his time at New Road?

I know a very small idiot minority still harangue Ramps for leaving Middlesex, but how many years ago was that?!? Surely to god they’ve got over it by now!

Of course, the Rampants are rather partisan. That Darren Pattinson nonsense back in 2008 had many of us twitching apoplectically in our chairs for weeks. We even came down to the Oval on the last game of 2008 with the purpose of glaring at him from the boundary! Just for a bit of a laugh, we quite fancied chasing him Benny Hill-style across the pitch, but I don’t think Bill Gordon would have liked that. And besides, there remained the possibility that DP may have actually enjoyed being chased by a hoard of women around the Oval...

Having made the long journey to London, with the tongue-in-cheek intention of seeing Pattinson being subject to a right royal cuffing for his gosh-darned impertinence, we arrived late at the Oval, only to find he’d been dismissed 5 minutes earlier! Actually the irony made me smile.

And as for Murray Goodwin...*growl* Basically, we don’t take kindly to people dissing Mr R, be it from the boundary or on the pitch!

Back to the CB40 match. We never got to find out what reaction Batty would have got when going out to bat as Duckworth Lewis kicked in, putting Surrey well ahead. The skies opened, the crowds departed at 191-3 to Surrey, and Churchy’s teeth rattled with the cold (I’ve never heard shivering on the radio before, poor man). A very fine performance by Steven Davies and Usman Afzaal, with good back up from Spriegel plus a tiny cameo of 13 from Ramps and an even more bijou turn from RHB all contributing to the score. Rao (Ralph) Iftikhar Anjum starred with the ball for Surrey in the first innings, keeping the score down to a respectable 235-7.

I still can’t quite summon up a lot of enthusiasm for this tournament. I don’t know why that should be, because I think the team are rather good collectively speaking and may do well in it. I also love the new strip. But I preferred the 50 over games...maybe I’m a stick-in-the-mud.

Highlight of the game: the crowd laughing at Tim ‘the Viscount’ Linley when he thought he’d taken a wicket, ran off to celebrate, and then realised he hadn’t...

Oh, and I’m afraid Spriegel’s got a nickname at last, courtesy of my mother. Having walked in on the commentary she was convinced his name was Matthew Treacle. I’m buying her an ear trumpet for Christmas...