Magic Matches

In June 1993 Rowner renewed their fierce rivalry with Hendy Ford in Regional East Division 2. The fixture was traditionally a tight one - in 1985 Rowner had won by 6 runs while after a crushing defeat in 1990 by 136 runs, Rowner won by 2 wickets in 1991 and by 1 in 1992. At an overcast Rowner Green the stage was set for another blockbuster.

The sides were evenly matched : Hendy had the Wolfes, father and son Len and Leo, both fine players, and Tony Keith, belligerent moustachioed seamer, a regular in the league averages. Rowner`s side that day was reassuringly familiar ; Frazer, both Kemps, Ward, Collins, Bob Bowman, Steve Smith, along with the much vaunted Rowner tail of Gardner, Mugford and MacNeil. Andy Lilley, missing due to his back operation was scoring. Hendy won the toss and elected to bat. Here is Rowner`s bowling analysis.
   
         

Steve Smith`s first 9 overs went for 21 runs and his last 3 for a further 16. Hendy made a creditable 177-8, a good score on a far less benign track than we see nowadays with the Reader ball swinging both ways with the merest of encouragement. Robinson, in at number 4, batted 27 overs for 53 before Simon Harrison bowled him in the 40th over. Ian Collins was wicketless. He took only 5 wickets all season and would at the end of the following year finally concede that his troublesome back had ended his remarkable Rowner bowling career. Scouse Frazer bowled a typically dour spell and for the umpteenth time went for less than 4 an over when the slog was on. You could almost put money on him doing so.
So how did we fare in reply?

Having bowled 9 overs in the Hendy innings Scouse went out to open the batting and showed what an adaptable cricketer he was by scoring an attack-blunting 38 which included 19 singles - he could bat both aggressively or defensively, according to the match situation. After we reached 72 for 1 in the 25th over he was caught and wickets fell steadily thereafter, although Ian Collins had replaced Scouse at the crease and was ominously playing himself in.........

With four overs remaining we needed 6 an over and the pressure was incredible. It had already accounted for most of the Rowner tail which was usually good for cheap runs in a slog but which didn`t often cover itself in glory when the crunch came, tending to melt away under pressure (and despite that, I am proud to add that if you look at the batting line up it started at number 7).

So Leo Wolfe and Tony Keith were bowling and we had two wickets in hand. Mac was run out for a duck and Steve Smith joined Ian at the wicket. The last over - 10 to win. Three balls left, 5 to win in the gathering gloom. And then Keith ran in, bowled, and there came the magical moment in a magical match - Ian smashed him over mid on and over the pavilion for a huge six, one of those he hits which just keeps going up and up, clearing the pavilion roof by yards and securing the win with two balls and one wicket to spare. There was uproar amongst the watching Rowner players as the tension evaporated. We`d done them again ! HURRAH ! 

Over to the man himself. " What a game this one was !...I remember Brian`s 6 and Mark`s 4 easing the pressure as they had the field so deep. Me and Mac put on vital runs even though I think I ran him out !

" Last over I hit a 4, bit of a slice that, over Cover where no fielder was. The bowler I hit the winning 6 off was the only player of their team not to shake my hand. I remember the roar when I hit the 6 and people walking past actually stopped to watch the end to make it a bit of a crowd. Nellie said he would eat one of his testicles if we won.

" This was one of the great games. I seem to hit a lot of 6`s ! You were right about my back, that was it for me. I swung the Dukes miles and not the Reader at all. I had forgotten about Simon Harrison, he was also a very nice chap. (This was Simon`s only full season with Rowner although he returned to play once for the seconds in 1995)

"The other thing I remember was that we were miles behind the over rate. I thought we needed 70 off 10 ? Maybe my mind playing tricks". (Absolutely not, spot on - in fact at the end of the 32nd over we were 91-4, some 86 runs behind ! ).

Some interesting footnotes;12 of the 17 wickets to fall in the match were clean bowled, and many bowlers of that era still maintain that the Reader swung much more than it`s replacement the Duke`s ball - I know I never swung a Duke`s and I could bowl a big inswinger with the Reader. In the 1993 season Rowner finished 5th, having won 10 and lost 5 of our matches. Ian finished second in the batting averages with 651 runs at 50.08. Jim Kemp was closing in on his 1000th run for Rowner as the 93 season ended. Rod Kemp played his only two league matches ever for Rowner and a young Robert Bowman played his fifth and sixth Rowner Innings that season, improving his career average to a mighty 2.75. Within 8 years he had scored 7 hundreds.        

On an overcast 11th May 1985 Rowner travelled to Riverside Park to take on Old Tauntonians in the opening South East Division II fixture of the 85 season. On a wicket described as Green/Dry (?) John Ward won the toss and inserted O.T`s, throwing the ball to John Barfoot to open the bowling for Rowner. A young Steve Smith no doubt waited at Fine Leg to bowl the second over. This is what happened.

These were the days of course when bowlers could bowl unchanged throughout a whole innings if the captain so desired. Had the O.T`s batting not capitulated so spectacularly it would not have been a surprise to see Steve Smith bowl 21 overs - he did in mid June against West End whilst Scouse Frazer bowled 18 overs against Tichborne Park a couple of weeks later and then 17 against Hamble taking 7-129 in total in the process.

Rowner were therefore set 92 to win, a seemingly comfortable target on even the most tricky `80s track when bowlers held the upper hand on most occasions. It wasn`t quite that easy as we will see..........

How many times have you played in a low scoring match when the team batting second and chasing a low total struggles ? Tony Johnson, our President, and Bob Bowman, Father of Robert and Martin and a Rowner Stalwart for another 12 years were dismissed cheaply and Captain John Ward, later Club Chairman and recently Honorary Life Member who finally hung up his boots in 2005, can still regularly be seen around Rowner Green on a Saturday (usually around tea-time) and who still represents Rowner in the annual HCL quiz, fought for 45 minutes for a dogged 8 before Ian Collins was joined at the wicket by Tommy Underwood.

A typical Rowner counterattack put the result beyond doubt after 22.3 overs which indicates the fury of Ian and Tommy`s assault. Ian of course scored 400 League runs for the 1st XI last season (2009), whilst it would be another huge leap forward for our records to have more performance information on Tommy, who Ian cites as a class act and who I can remember posting a good score against our 2nd XI at Cams Alders around 15 years after this for, I believe, Portchester.

So this is what the archive is all about - documenting the efforts of our predecessors and current torchbearers and celebrating the enduring nature and qualities of RCC. We should remember that this match took place almost a quarter of a century ago ! More notable match scorecards will be posted in the future and lets hope we are shooting more teams out for 91 in 2010 ! LONG LIVE ROWNER CC !