Seconds have tough day at Ashby
Fri 31 Jul 2015
By Pete Johnson
We arrived at what is locally known as The Bath Grounds, home of Ashby Hastings CC, to find the outfield somewhat damp, but the Umpires were hopeful of us starting on time at 11.00am, as opposed to yesterday’s delayed start of 12 noon.
There was just a sprinkling of spectators positioned on the boundary’s edge at the Bowling Green End of the ground, the majority of whom had brought along their own folding chairs.
Rosemary and Chris arrived in good time to secure their customary position adjacent to a sightscreen. Marilyn and Mel were also ‘on site’ again having travelled down from Lancashire, fresh from enjoying a gourmet meal in the local Wetherspoons the previous evening. You cannot beat a Wetherspoons; at their prices the more you drink, the more you save!
The scorers at Ashby are housed in a proper old fashioned scorebox of yesteryear. To egress this structure you have to take a downward trajectory onto a strategically placed beer crate, before landing on terra firma.
This is somewhat quite challenging for two scorers of sixty something, who are actually nearer seventy than sixty. The top brass from the Antiques Roadshow, and the Health & Safety Executive would drool over our accommodation. There will be further reference to the scorebox later.
Oh yes, we have a cricket match on!
Lancashire resumed on 10-0 in their second innings, the not out batsmen being Luis Reece and Harry Dearden. Twenty wickets had fallen on day one, Lancashire having made 157 in their first innings, Leicestershire replying with 72.
Lancashire had an overall lead of 95 runs after the flurry of bowling activity but the second day proved to be one for the batsmen as both sides lost three wickets apiece.
It was good to see Matt Boyce assisting in the players pre match warm up, and taking the role of Lloyd Tennant’s wing man, staying with us throughout the day.
Another cloudy, cool and overcast morning greeted the players as they took the field, Alex Thompson having replaced the injured Will Holmes for Leicestershire.
Ollie Freckingham and Liam Hurt opened the attack from the Railway End and Bowling Green End respectively. Freckingham bowled five overs, only going for ten runs in his spell, and Hurt bowled a spell of six overs for eight runs.
Skipper Dan Redfern rotated his bowlers throughout the morning but was unable to achieve a breakthrough. Thompson, Atif Sheikh, Andrea Agathangelou, and George Corbett were all used without success but they all stuck well to the task in hand.
After about half an hour of the morning session, a carpenter turned up to repair the lock and door of the scorebox, it having been broken into a couple of nights previously. We were diligently scoring away whilst the carpenter went about his task for over 40 minutes.
We had wood shavings filtering down on our computers, accompanied by feverish banging with an industrial sized hammer, and the whirring of an electric drill, whilst colourful expletives pierced the morning air.
It was akin to being part of Nick Knowles BBC 1 show, DIY SOS. Whilst all this was going on, Dearden went to his 50 (3x4,1x6) from 110 balls. Lancashire went into lunch on 118-0 from 42 overs, both batsmen playing a real grafting innings.
Then immediately after lunch further misfortune fell upon the Lancashire Scorer. After I had eagerly digested my lunch I returned to the scorebox with one of the Umpires who required verification of over rates etc.
I duly obliged, and the Umpires and players took the field. Chris, the Lancashire Scorer reappeared, and could not find his glasses, which he had left in the scorebox over lunch. After searching high and low for them, I said ‘one of the Umpires was in here over lunch he has not picked them up has he?’
At the end of the 2nd over after lunch I got on the radio to the Umpire in question, and he had put them in his pocket. At the end of the next over a Lancashire player kindly ran onto the field to retrieve them from said Umpire.
Amidst all this mayhem Reece went to his 50 (5x4) from 128 balls, from the fifth ball after lunch. Dearden and Reece had taken the score to 174 when Dearden (85) was caught low down at short mid-off by Redfern off Freckingham.
It was just reward for Freckingham, who always keeps coming back for more. The name Freckingham conjures up an image, to me, of a sleepy village in deepest Norfolk.
Liam Livingstone joined Reece, and the left-hander went to his 100 (12x4) from 209 balls. In the eight overs immediately before tea both batsmen went. Reece (101) was first to go, lbw to Corbett, and Livingstone (48) soon followed caught close in on the leg side by Agathangelou off Sam Evans, who had replaced Corbett at the Railway End.
Lancashire went into tea on 253-3 from 78 overs and they had a quick dart after tea adding a further 61 before declaring their innings on 314-3 with Jones 35* and Bohannon 33*. Hurt not getting a wicket, but only going for 31 from his 13 overs. Freckingham picking up 1-37 from 13 overs to go with his 5-for in the first innings.
Leicestershire required 400 to win from a minimum of 114 overs, a rate of 3.5 per over. County had the perilous task of facing 18 overs before the close. They closed on 42-3, having lost Evans (0) lbw to Lester.
Kurtz (4) was bowled after offering no shot to Kerrigan, and Redfern (12) was bowled via his pad, again off the slow left arm of Kerrigan. Agathangelou (20*) and nightwatchman Corbett (0)*occupying the crease at the close.
