The Twenties in 2005 — an overview.
That the season consisted of three wins and four losses is a manifestation of the guts, abandon and determination with which this year's cricketing duties were prosecuted. Mixed in amongst this heady cocktail, there was also a smattering of skill, and a not inconsiderable degree of brash incompetence - which is not to say that this was a season consisting expressly of low points. Indeed, there were highs; great highs, in fact - not least during the Twenty's fielding session in the opening game against Locksbottom (and here, my legal proof reader advises me to go no further).
The overseas issue
One notable high-point was the continuation of the overseas player contract system, started several years ago, and which led happily to the inclusion of antipodean all rounder C Cohen. One deportation later, and the Twenties were in need of some bolstering in the talent department. How lucky it was therefore, that to the team's rescue came L Willis, a devilish good batsman and dazzling twirlyman to boot, who took no time in getting off the mark with a commanding 72 in the opening game. This near match-winning performance was nothing short of 'nearly match-winning', and set many minds at rest concerning the talent pool, which at one worrying point during the off-season had been looking decidedly shallow. Mr Willis is a fine player, and it is a joy that such talent is currently being clutched to the bosom of Mother Twenty.
The upper order - techniques under the microscope
Batting has commonly been considered the team's weak suit, followed closely by the bowling and then the fielding. It is interesting to note therefore, developments in the upper order. Intensive training sessions benefited Lloyd Baker's technique, if not the bat owned by Maxwell Scott. Gruelling sessions on the bowling machine helped free the arms and get them working across a more appropriate plane than the one they had described previously to such disastrous effect. The tutoring certainly had a beneficial technical effect, in that it encouraged the team batting totem to deliver his considerable heft in a ball-wards direction, a technique previously removed from the gritty chiseller's array of motile function. With the capacity to keep the elbow high-ish and the head over the pitch of the ball, the Baker staying power increased noticeably from the previous year, allowing his some attritional stands against opening quicks which were to benefit the Twenties.
To the surprise of many, including himself, perhaps the greatest moment of the Baker season, and perhaps even that of the team, came at the Beck's XI game in Chelsea. Baker is usually to be found standing at first nicker, and occasionally wider. It was in fact, standing at this very position in the Twenty Minuter's inaugural season that Baker took the team's first catch, which was also the team's first wicket. It was perhaps with an atavistic sense of the importance of that catch that Baker, again positioned at first nicker, took what many regard to be the greatest catch they had ever seen. Stevens, bowling at an excellent lick, sent one down to J Gibbon, a sticksman by all accounts or excellent heart, but one that will think again before attempting to pierce a defensive line containing H Lloyd-Baker. The Stevens delivery found a length, and Gibbon prodded forward, finding the thinnest of edges, sending the ball low and wide of Baker at slip. What followed was nothing short of extraordinary. Baker took off backwards and to his right, diving flat and in a downwardly motion, right arm extended. The ball was flying fast and low and with devilish swerve on it due to the glancing blow it had received from the batsman, and yet the outstretched Baker hand and it came together in joyful cricketing union. That Baker was still in mid-air when he took the ball only served to make the moment all the more jaw-dropping. As well as this, the caped snicksman had the wherewithal to cushion his fall with the left hand, in doing so preventing a heavy landing that might well have jarred the ball from his hand. Seeing Baker holding the ball aloft and being mobbed by ecstatic fellow team mates was one of the moments of the season.
That other half of the Twenties opening partnership, Maxwell Scott, had a season of hard choices. The jumpy slasher had trouble settling, and his opening few sorties saw maximum effort rewarded with minimal return. Some cruel circumstances conspired to keep the MS scores on the low side, but a drop down the order to the number five slot for a non-Twenties fixture saw the true Maxwell talent come to the surface, as he belted all comers in a delicious, almost Thorpian innings that approached 30. Beer flowed and the Maxwell success was greeted warmly by all, who assured the glowing thumper that they always knew he had it in him. The triumphant return to the Twenties line-up, however, created problems for selectors. Should Maxwell Scott be played down the order, as his predilection for heavy scoring so evidently suggested, or must he stay as a member of the opening pair so as not to bugger everything up? This is an ongoing dilemma, and a question for the captain in conference with his assistants. The season, however, continued in high spirits for Maxwell Scott, and the Althrop game saw him put down his battered Kook in favour of the umpire's coat and hat. An umpire of panache, wit and tabs, Maxwell Scott was every inch the professional, conveying to the field that six have been sent down with the pronouncement "Over!" with perhaps shades of the west country creeping into the voice by way of umpirely affectation. And who would begrudge an umpire a smidge of character? Who would take away Shep's hopping up and down on the Nelson, or Dicky Bird fearing the end of the universe on 333 for 3? Exactly. None of us. And so, with tab on, lager in pocket, and on one notable occasion, a concealed radio about his person complete with earpiece and the capacity to receive cricket scores from the ether Maxwell Scott proved an excellent umpiresman, who employed his cricketing wits to the full in that noble and not unchallenging line of duty.
Jim 'Gentleman Jim' Greayer has often been referred to as the elegance within the Twenties, a team that would otherwise lack that particular attribute were it not for his presence. For while others favour ill-fitting shirts, poorly starched and creased cricketing trousers and - it shames me even to write it - black trainers - Mr Greayer is always the pinnacle of elegance; sideboards shaved into fashionable but unostentatious order, 'aviator'-style shaded spectacles, spotless England cricket shirt, and most crucially of all, excellent trousers. To see 'Gentleman Jim' stride out to bat, immaculately dressed, Newbury stick in hand, his face a picture of concentration, is to see all that is great about this blessed pursuit we call cricket. What is more, beneath the well-refurbished exterior, there lurks a deeply intuitive cricketing mind of the highest order - a deeply intuitive cricketing mind which was called upon by the Twenties at a not inconsiderably sticky juncture when the team skipper - of whom more later - cried off due to a severe bout of namby-pambyism, leaving HMS Twenty Minuters without a helmsman for the crucial fixture at Chesham. But of course, who should stride languidly up to take control in that desperate time of need, but Greayer. Providing not only the captain's input but also several last minute numbers-making personnel (who proved yet more excellent, cricket-loving types), this was, from the outset, Greayer's day. Smart bowling changes, and most significantly an unshakable faith in the left arm speed-smith T Godsal (again, of whom more later) were the defining traits of a captaincy of skill, insight, and bloody-minded perseverance. Despite making concerted efforts to have himself taken off, T Godsal ended with match-winning figures of 4 for 21. Whereas others were doubting the exactitude of the Godsal radar, Greayer's Nostradamus-like insight meant the spell continued, and as a result the game was won by a commanding 76 runs. Greayer, the Fixtures Secretary and in many ways the logistical engine room of the team, was also responsible for arranging the only game of the season that featured a sodding great barrel of beer parked on the boundary by the pav. All hail the fix. sec.
The middle order - progress, or delusion?
Twenty's captain T Groom started the season, one felt, with much to prove. The open stance at the crease, the flashing Gray Nichols blade, the plump thigh and determined forearm had, in previous seasons, not yielded the results that many suspected lurked in that not inconsiderable frame. In short, the lad Groom was due a decent number, and if this 2005 season was anything, it was a countdown to that one, coruscating innings. The season did not start with quite the fireworks that one would expect from a man so adept at 'talking himself up' as the common parlance would have it. One detected about the skipper a slight drop of the shoulders after an opening innings of nine was followed by a soft dismissal at Catford for 2. Though the Groom batting in these incidences lacked what one might term 'flair' the captain's mantel still hung well on the Groom épaules in spite of this somewhat arid start, and the Catford game, despite a modest showing with the bat, saw the skipper steer the team to victory with a commanding performance in the field. It was at Catford, incidentally, that the problem of so-called 'stone drifting' was first detected by the hawk-eyed overseer, a problem that was to surface over and over again as the season progressed and which Groom, try though he might, was unable to rectify, owing in no small part to certain defiant elements within the Twenty's pace attack who roamed freely and without anchor.
But for the jéfé, it was the Burgess Park game which heralded the season's turning point. An inspection of that particular track revealed a rough, dry, bouncy south London runway of the tightest-packed Surrey loam imaginable. A brute, in other words, but one from which, inexplicably, the top Twenty's quicks were not able to extract any decent zip, allowing the opposition to clock up 172. Blistering hot weather and a lack of tea (unforgivable) might well have caused other captains to wilt. Not so Groom. The top five were uprooted for thirteen, and the great ship Twenty Minuters was heading perilously close to the rocks. When MacLean was caught on three, the stage was set. Groom stepped up, and delivered a staggeringly hard fought innings of 25 not out, which the be-domed dead batter eeked from 43 balls. It was a wonderful knock, and though the game was eventually lost, there was no doubt that the Groom game was finally beginning to come together.
Althorp was perhaps the Skip's finest fielding hour. Long, long in the history of this happy band of cricketsmen shall the following entry in the scorebook be cherished -
H Marshall c Groom b Blenkin 32
It was a superb catch, with the galloping Groom ruthlessly mowing down the daisies to pluck the glimmering knacker out of the air at mid off, and send the New Zealand test batter back to the shack. That the game was lost by 224 runs in no way expunges the brilliance of this superb take.
With an adequate 12 in the penultimate game, the Final game of the season versus the Pilgrims seemed made for Groom. It seems entirely just and apposite than the individual who has provided in many ways the backbone of the team for so long should bow out on a superb innings of 62, which, though your faithful correspondent was not in fact present at the ground during its construction, I am assured by those that were was really rather tasty.
Groom - the wide stance, the piercing cricketing mind, the end of season half ton, those extraordinary (alleged) leg spinners - it has been a strong season for the skip.
Another coming of age story witnessed this season was that of C Stevens, that quiet assassin of the middle ranks. 'Oddball', as he is affectionately known, started the season with an unremarkable 12. Not all that remarkable. Not really that remarkable at all. In fact, if it were not for the fact that your faithful correspondent had just this moment remarked on this innings, then it might never have been remarked upon ever again. Moving on swiftly, it was the Catford game which allowed the latent talent of this taciturn, shaven-headed ponderer to come sharply into focus. Batting with Elwes, Stevens cracked an authoritative 34, before playing 'round one that straightened. Though back in the hutch, observers could see clearly that the expansive ability within the lissom Stevens frame could only be concealed for so much longer. The Beck's game was yet another excellent showing, and, with a brutal and almost dismissive 44, Oddball took on all comers in an innings of verve, muscle and forthrightness. Standing in the middle, new short-handled Slazenger in hand, Stevens sent the ball to all points of the compass, with measured footwork and a natural eye for the ball, his style all but took the game away from the Beck's bowling attack. It is a measure of the prominence attained by Stevens during this season that, when he was finally caught on the sixty-yard long off boundary, the Twenties finally knew the game to be up. For C Stevens, there was time for just one last hurrah left in the season - a brisk 41 against the Pilgrims, before again his pegs got pushed back. There is an expansiveness about the flow of the bat, and a steeliness in the eye that tells us the runs will be flowing with equal vigour for Stevens next season. Steven's stellar season saw him cross the finish line as the season's top scorer, with 150 runs.
With a stolid bowling performance this season, Oddball has, without doubt, arrived as an all-rounder. With a deceptive run up and whippet-like delivery stride, Stevens generated at times prodigious swing and movement off the seam, due in large part to an excellent wrist position at the moment of delivery. A perhaps unconventional approach conceals a wholly conventional arm, and the whole bowling package has the potential to make serious and far-reaching inroads into opposition batting line-ups. The pinnacle of ballsmanship came for the bearded sixpence-hitter when he took 4-36 against the Beck's side on their beautiful Chelsea ground. He finished the season with a bag containing eight opposition wickets, a haul to match all but one of the Twenty's 2005 bowling performances.
A fifty against the youth of Catford turned out to be something of a false dawn for Elwes, who this year experienced difficulty with the in-swinging pitched-up delivery. Failures to fire at Burgess Park and Beck's were gross disappointments. The fact that both innings were terminated without score only added to the humiliation. As a batting proposition, Elwes' outlook was severely dented at the Althrop game, where his bat suffered a fatal exception due in part to the attentions of Chris Cairns, who sent him down a faster one, splitting the willow asunder, and in effect murdering - yes, murdering - a companion that had been with Elwes since childhood.
Ed. - despite some spells with the ball perhaps a smidgen below par by his own high standards, fans of the Elwes method were nonetheless blessed by a breathtaking opening display of swing bowling against Beck's. Unplayable in-duckers and out-nippers saw early wickets tumble and talk of putting on joke bowlers seriously being entertained by Groom. Alas, the lacquer came off the new knacker and the Beck's middle order dug themselves out of a hole and into a match-winning position, but Elwes's display - the figures 6-2-18-3 could never do it justice - will live on in the annals of 20s history. The self-deprecating Elwes feared this was "a season of broken promises, dreams and bats", but a new blade and the cheerful demeanour Twentys fans have come to expect from the bespectacled wonder bode well for a glorious 2006.
Benjamin Godsal came into the 2005 side, after a fortuitous escape from the wilds of Shropshire early in the season. His arrival in London mean that Godsal (the God, or Potter) was now available for comment, and offered a possible answer to the problematic issue of who would take control behind the stumps. It was more with the bat that Godsal shone.
The God's opening game - against the Corridor CC - was a sign of the potential of the lad. Opening alongside brother Tom, Potter shot a blistering 55, before gifting a sporting catch on the boundary to make way for others. His is an interesting style, based more on timing and footwork than on pressure in the forearms. The typical 'Potter Punt' involves a foot being placed some 18 inches down the track and the bat being brought through with a wristy flourish. The effect is not entirely dissimilar to the sight of VVS Laxman lofting one back over the bowler's head. A natural cricketing brain makes Godsal a nasty piece of work for ballsmiths to uproot, as he proved against the Corridors and again with some determined swatting against the Beck's side at Chelsea. Potter also contributed with the ball, sending down a nifty combo of medium pace and nippy twirlers that, though they have yet to net the God any scalps, have proved both economical and entertaining.
It was late on in the season that Robbie 'Chesty' Scott finally gave wind of the full potential lurking within his mighty frame. A man of considerable size and with forearms toughened from years of throttling papists on the mean streets of Glasburgh, Chesty is as fine a physical specimen as one could ever wish to find. Though yet to fire on all cylinders for the benefit of the Twenties, there is one, as it were, extra curricular innings that deserves mention. Appearing on the menu of a side performing in Gloucester, Chesty was sent out upper order, with express instructions to send the bean into the middle of the following week. Chesty duly obliged. Oh how he obliged. The innings was a triumph of hand-eye coordination and utter brutishness, as the juiced-up biffer flogged the bowling attack for 130 runs not out off what was commonly held to be: "no more that 65 or 70 balls." The last over faced by the broad man with the broad bat was carted for 4,4,4,6,6,1. Chesty - we salute thee!
Further contribution was made to the middle order by E 'Yorkie' Clark, who provided stout glovesmanship and determined Yorkshire defence as well as one or two items of amusing cajolery behind the stumps (most notable - the unrepeatable exhortations of the Burgess Park game). Though he did not play a full part in the Twenty's 2005 season, he still managed a hearty and significant contribution to the team effort, not least his wonderfully defiant 32 at Burgess Park, an innings that included one superb maximum over the bowler's head. It is hoped that the man with the flash roller-skate will resurface next year for some more sport.
The quicks - coming of age.
The Scott action has long been a thing to exact both wonder and terror from observers in equal measure. A skittering run up and tight wind-up, followed by a lashing delivery stride, the Scotto effort ball remains the very embodiment of the phrase 'left arm - with alacrity'. A formidable opponent, Scott has been measured in the mid-70s mph, and has in his time been known to put the hurry-up on some of the all-time greats, not least Darren Bicknell, to whom Scott administered a brutal seeing to in the nets at the Oval, eliciting a "crack!" from the Bicknell shin that your faithful correspondent will assuredly take with him to the silent ground. In short, speed has never been at issue when it comes to the Scott bowling package. Speed, he has. In spades. The issue here, with the hirsute meteor chucker, has always been consistency.
This season has seen this issue addressed, and - to a greater extent - remedied. Gone are the days of three beamers followed by an unplayable in-swinging yorker which, though admittedly effective, never quite made for a relaxing day at the races. A more measured run-up has perhaps been the most effective tool in reducing the range of deliveries offered by the 'Henley Hurrier' perhaps attributable to a pre-season friendly played in Shropshire, where conditions dictated that Scott should come in off a curtailed run up. This reduction produced a startlingly consistent display of pacemanship, and this new, measured approach, when transplanted into the service of the Double Crossers, has been quick to pay dividends. The opening game of the season, for example, saw Scott collect 4-52. Although the 15 overs contained an unfortunate 12 wides, there was no doubting that Scott had hit the ground running. He collected two notches in his second game but sadly other obligations took him out of circulation for the mid season stretch.
The Althrop game saw difficult bowling conditions due to unfavourable batsmen, but after an eye-watering spell against New Zealand test batsman Chris Cairns, Scott was rewarded by the genial Kiwi with the exhortation: "Jeez mate - you're fast." The Scott cheeks flushed with pride at this commendation from a man who, in his time, has brutalised some of the very best. A spread of bowlers at the Beck's game did not see Scott used as extensively as is usual, but his opening over against that team was in many ways a Scott classic: the 70-plus mph away-swinger on a length, the straightener, the beamer "sorry, batsman - sorry," the other beamer, "sorry, sorry, sorry, " the one that goes away from the right hander, and then another beamer, but one that this time ducks at the last minute, nearly takes an inch of skin off the batsman's back and ends up splaying the timbers far and wide. A brutal but effective bowler, and not inconsiderable contributor with the bat, Scott's control is coming, as is a very nasty ability to move the ball at pace.
When appraising the cricketing works of Adam 'Yips' Curtis, the word 'extraordinary' is a particularly useful one. It must however be pointed out, before any misunderstandings occur as to the lad's degree of talent, that Curtis finished this season as the squad's top wicket taker, bagging a season's haul of nine - a superlative effort. Like his opening partner Scott, Curtis can produce a dizzying array of deliveries at will, frequently tying the sticksmen up in knots before firing down the snorting in-ducker to shiver the timbers. Despite the Curtis effectiveness being beyond dispute, it is informative to note his absence from the "All-Time Performances" section of the Twenty's records department, an omission that points to a man achieving consistent results at a steady pace, rather than wickets in clutches. It is perhaps for this reason that skipper Groom has turned to Curtis as his ace in the pack on numerous occasions this season, and not, it has to be said, without some modicum of success.
The first game netted the be-capped sidler one wicket, and the second game, versus Catford, saw Curtis finish on figures of 3-18, a massive performance that sent the team rocketing for the finish line. Versus the Corridor CC, he went home with one-for, as he did at Althrop, levering a tidy-looking opener from the crease before he could fully settle. At Beck's he polished off a brace, and bagged one in the Pilgrim's game. Yips also showed no little form with the bat this season, the highlight being the dismissive four he struck at the Beck's game, a glorious, fighty manoeuvre executed off the front foot in answer to some hostile pacery. Curtis is, and remains, the only Twenty to own two fully functioning cricket bats.
Dark of eyebrow and with an inky mane, Piers Cannon is the epitome of the tightly-wound quick. Perhaps the most orthodox of the quicks, this right arm over gate-prober is capable of generating swing and consistent length. The crowning display of Cannon's capability came at Locksbottom, when he went through the opposition like a dose of salts, collecting integers to the effect of 4-29. A corking display, this fiery competitor has had a good season, though it might be fair to comment that there is a certain amount of frustration brooding within the Cannon features. Self-flagellation - happily, exclusively of the verbal variety - has become a feature of the Cannon game, where highly inventive streams of admonitions are to be heard emanating from fine leg, following an unsatisfactory over or below par item of fielding. It should of course be noted that the abuse in question is exclusively aimed at himself - Cannon remains the consummate team man.
Another excellent display with the pod came at the Corridor game, where Cannon slung down a spell during which he captured three for a leakage of only eight. It was a rough-hewn, buccaneering performance from Cannon, a bowler who, when he starts to get the upper hand in the inner game, almost invariably starts to perform with vim in the outer. A solid 25 at the same game proved the highlight of the season with the bat, but Cannon knows, as do all those who serve with him, that this is not representative of the talent he harbours as a batsman. He remains fifth in the list of all-time bat-wielding Double Crossers, with a career contribution of 127. It will not surprise any should he add to that count substantially next season.
The guest performers - our pleasure, dear boy
Jonny Blenkin was one of this year's guest players, and a fine contribution he made too. Debuting at Catford, he hammered a lusty 10 not out before running out of partners in the batting stakes. His afternoon was not over by a long shot. Gladly accepting the ball, he sent down seven overs and one ball, in the process gathering a harvest of 3 for 9. It was then that the Double Crossers knew that a significant force had arrived on the scene. Blenkin appeared again for the game in Althrop, where he veritably shone with his invaluable contribution. If recalled correctly - the moment was an emotional one - Blenkin sent down a looping medium pace bean, which spat on New Zealand test batsman Hamish Marshall. Deceived by the crafty Blenkin bounce, the cricketing great shanked the rising ball to mid off where the catch was snaffled. JGM Blenkin of Earlsfield, London, S.W. and Hamstreet, Kent, remains the only Twenty Minuter to have taken the wicket of an active test-playing cricketer, and being realistic about the whole thing, it is grossly unlikely that the feat will ever be repeated. This incident is a leading contender for the 2005 Twenty Minuter Moment of the Season award, which this year is kindly being sponsored by Matthew Maxwell Scott.
Tom Godsal was another guest player this year, turning in a top showing at Chesham where with a combination of strong-armed batting and vicious bowling he was instrumental in taking the game away from the gracious, but cowed hosts. A thundering 20 struck by Godsal, T off not many balls at all helped put the enemy on the back foot. The ball was sent deep into the adjoining woods on numerous occasions on that humid day, before eventually the laconic boomer was trapped in front. However, it was the Godsal, T contribution with the pill that sealed the game. With a whirlwind of varied deliveries, his left arm over action produced lightening quick nippers which at times verged on the unplayable, and by the time the outsized chanteuse had broken into full voice, Godsal, T had scored four hits for the loss of 21. The Twenties sincerely hope he will choose to partake again next year.
Further contribution came from Jules Cochrane, a deceptively wily performer, who turned out at the Burgess Park game an unknown quantity, and who then proceeded to snaffle two in eight balls. The highlight of the game however, remained Cochrane's indecision over his manner of batting. There was much amusement as, striding with confidence to the crease he, at first, took guard left-handed, before changing his mind at the last minute - much to the confusion of the fielding side - and deciding to face in the traditional, right-handed manner. There was much dashing in the outfield, and harrumphing from an opposing side dismayed at being made to shuffle their pack to such an extent. Eventually Islam, the young Burgess quick, came in to remove Cochrane first ball.
In summary
2005 was yet another superb season, with some high quality batting, fielding, bowling and teas in evidence. The Baker catch, the Blenkin wicket, the Groom half ton - all superb moments, produced by tenacity, determination and no little skill.
Though in these shortening days and lengthening nights inactivity may lead to boredom, moral remains high amongst the Twenty Minuters, and the men are looking forward to another big push, expected to kick off some time in May 2006. The word among the rank and file? It can't come soon enough.
