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And so to Stanley, Co Durham, on a balmy summer's evening, and a fixture that CCC retained little hope of salvaging anything from, having been comfortably beaten by 8 (that's eight) Beamish players the week before. On top of many regulars being unavailable, the team had to fight the appauling traffic, the navigation to a ground tucked away on a housing estate, and a soundsystem sitting next to them on the clubhouse steps!
In truth the latter, along with the small crowd that watched throughout, worked in CCC's favour, appearing to spur them on to one of their special, unlikely, but infinitely memorable performances.
Skipper Simon was late, caught in traffic, and by the time he arrived CCC was batting. Most grounds have one short boundary, this one has three, and Rian (60) and Nick (56) exploited it to the max, putting on a century opening partnership, and hearing "I feel good" on numerous occasions from the soundsystem. Peter survived two balls before trudging back to the pavilion to "Bye Bye Baby" by the Bay City Rollers, whilst Simon W struggled with the low sun on the east-west facing strip. It was left to Kamran and Matt to blast a quick 50 from the last five overs to give CCC an excellent 188-4 from 14 overs, their biggest score since the abuse of the Aidan House attack in 1998.
On such a small ground and against such a good top 4, CCC knew they would have to bowl well. Rian (1-60) was better than his figures suggest, but it was Kamran (2-29 and no boundaries) and Matt (2-33) who took the plaudits, whilst Tim bowled the difficult middle spell with intelligence. The ground fielding was also intelligent and the positioning perfect, but the game was in the balance till the excellent McVittie holed out for 72 to a brilliant one handed catch at long off by Rian. The batsman was unhappy as he thought Rian had stepped on the boundary. In the absence of cameras you have to take the fielder's word for it; and it should be said that Rian is one of the least likely people to deceive the umpire. The last two overs were comfortable as Beamish ended with 160-6, and the soundsystem fell silent.
A fantastic, memorable game and a win that should all but ensure CCC's second division survival.
CCC 8 Beamish & East Stanley 2
Team: Nick, Rian, Peter, Simon W, Kamran, Matt, Simon E, Guy, Roger, Tim, Cliff
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