Saturday

The Finnish Tour. Day Four.

So, we came into the final day needing to take seven more wickets, and then score whatever target they had set us.

The Tom/Frangelita combination was again successful (I can’t describe Fran’s athletic display, you had to be there to see it) as their opening batsman (who was on 98 by this time) fell: 167-4.

I managed to bowl their next batsman: 183-5.

Realdoc achieved an LBW: 260-6.

At this point, snow stopped play for 38 minutes, and we took an early lunch (Lincolnshire sausage [my favourite] sandwiches, supplied by one of our travelling spectators).

Frangelita may have eaten too many sandwiches, for (amazingly) she dropped a catch off Phil’s bowling straight after lunch.

Fortunately, Richard managed to do his job, taking a clean catch off my leg-spin ball: 290-7

Two overs later I took the new ball, and achieved an edge to Jona in the slips: 309-8

Realdoc’s googly clean-bowled a bamboozled batsman: 311-9.

With her next ball, she finished their innings, a catch being held by Medusa in the slips; 311-10.

We needed, therefore, to score 197, in the 28 minutes before tea, and then the final session of the day. Not impossible, but we would need to score quickly. Richard said he was tired, so I juggled the order a bit, to give us a chance at a slog, but with a respectable tail, should we collapse and need to play for a draw.

Vicus was bowled early on in our reply: 21-1.

Tea came when the score had reached 36-1. Pammy’s flight arrived from the USA just in time for her to join us at this point. She and Tom went for quick word of encouragement behind the changing rooms, before he went out to bat.

Still needing 163 to win, I instructed our players to be as aggressive as they liked in the final session.

Jona was out LBW as the score reached 64-2.

Tom was scoring very freely, so I fed him the strike as much as possible, before edging a catch to the slips: 113-3.

Sadly, Carol was bowled first ball; 113-4.

Tom was caught going for a big shot: 127-5.

71 runs needed to win, and just 59 minutes left on the clock.

I told Phil that he would have to abandon his normal elegant style, and go for a slog, which he did with gusto, putting all his weight behind the bat. Strangely, he wasn’t out immediately, Medusa’s being the next wicket to fall, caught in the slips: 144-6.

Realdoc was out in the same way: 159-7.

39 runs needed to win, three wickets in hand, and just 15 minutes left in which to win, lose or draw the match (and all three results still possible).

Phil was finally bowled, trying to hit a six: 186-8.

12 to win. Five minutes and just 2 wickets left.

When Richard was bowled with the score still on 188-9, you could cut the atmosphere in the ground with a knife (yes, freezing fog had descended).

We needed just 10 runs to win the match, but had only two minutes in which to score them, before the match was scheduled to end – but all they needed to do was to claim our last wicket, and they would win.

At this moment, Cherrypie decided it would be a good idea to streak across the pitch. Had she done so, our time would have gone, and the match would have ended in a draw.

I had a split second to decide – let her, or allow the game to reach a natural conclusion.

Cliff hanger on top of cliff-hanger.

Of course, I did the gentlemanly thing…

…I hit her on the head with an empty vodka bottle that happened to be lying there.

At that very moment, on the pitch, the final over started, with two balls which Frangelita could only block. However, the third ball was cut perfectly for four. She edged the next ball, and she and Ivy ran a quick two. Two balls left in the entire match, and four runs still needed. The bowler runs in…

…and young Fran drives it cleanly back, all the way to the boundary.

We win!!

Hurrah for us!!!

Friday

The Finnish Tour. Day Three.

After a solid breakfast, Richard and I strode out to the crease. Sadly I didn’t stay there very long, being clean bowled: 114-4.

Carol and Richard now decided to take the Finns on, driving and cutting in an amazing fashion, with sixes raining down on all parts of the ground. When Carol was finally bowled, we were only two runs short of a first inning’s lead: 183-5.

Frangelita was dropped off the first ball she faced. She then took us past the two hundred mark with a series of fours. At lunch we stood at a respectable 225-5.

Lunch was reindeer sandwiches (again) and turkey soup (again).

Richard’s 50 came up in the first over after lunch.

Frangelita was bowled as the score rose to 238-6.

Richard got stuck in the nervous nineties, and was then bowled, having reached a personal best of 93: 299-7.

At this point, with a lead of 114, I decided to declare.

I rather hoped that we would make a breakthrough before tea, but their openers turned out to be more dogged this time (although one of them did spend a little while curled up on the ground, after I hit him in the box). At tea they were on 65-0.

Nothing embarrassing happened during the tea interval, probably because I had given Ziggi and Cherrypie permission to leave the ground and go on a tour of the bars of Espoo (they have already sampled, and been barred from those of Helsinki).

After tea, Tom made the first breakthrough, Frangelita performing a forward roll, handspring and double pike as she moved from Square Leg to catch the ball: 76-1.

I held on to a nick from Tom’s fastest ball of the day: 92-2.

Phil and Carol were knocked all over the ground in their short spell, but our spinners were more effective, Vicus clean bowling his man on: 143-3.

No more wickets fell, and they ended the day on 163-3 – a lead of just 49.

Our batting figures (sadly, an up-to-date bowling analysis wasn’t ready as I went to print) are shown below:

Thursday

The Finnish Tour. Day Two.

For the benefit of those who don’t know (or can’t remember) let me just explain that I play this game on my computer, inserting the names of the various bloggers who (quite literally) make up the team. I then report, entirely faithfully, exactly what went on – I have not added to, or taken away from anyone’s scores (mine, for instance, are well below par – perhaps it’s the cold weather). Even the cliff-hanging ending on the final day really happened – but you will have to wait until Saturday to read that.

So, then, on to the match:

We have too many players in the squad now, so as I looked around the hung-over faces in the dressing room, I knew that sadly a pair of them would fall, as I had to tell two of our players that they would be in reserve for this match.

I then marched onto the pitch, lost the toss, and was told that the Finnish team had elected to bat.

Tom and I opened the bowling.

The first wicket fell when Frangelita did a back-flip, and caught the ball one-handed off my bowling: 10-1.

The first change of bowling brought our spinners on, both Vicus and Realdoc managing to make the ball turn, despite the hardness of the wicket (it was completely frozen). Eventually an edge flew from Vicus’ bowling straight into the gloves of Richard (our keeper): 32-2.

The third pair of bowlers used in this match were that pair of old workhorses, Phil and Carol. They plodded in, without success, so I returned to our openers, immediately striking as my slower ball caught an edge, and flew to Ivy in the slips: 82-3.

Two overs later, an identical ball shot into Jona’s hands, and amazingly stayed there: 86-4.

At lunch, with the score on 93-4, we felt we’d done a good morning’s work.

They came out with a little more determination after the break, and pushed the score on, until Vicus achieved an LBW: 138-5.

Vicus broke through again when an edge went straight to Phil, dozing in the slips: 147-6.

The next over saw Realdoc taking her first wicket for BMCC, when she made the ball move a foot off the wicket, and clean bowled her opponent: 149-7.

Our third pairing finally got some reward for their labours, when one of Phil’s balls was edged to Medusa: 180-8.

In the gulley, I held on to a ball driven off Carol’s bowling: 185-9.

I rounded off their first innings with a ball edged to Richard; 185-10.

We came off the pitch, congratulating ourselves on a job well done.

Our openers were going to have a nervous few overs to face before tea, so I asked them to be cautious. Tom clearly heard every word I said, hitting the first ball for six. Fortunately, no wickets fell, and we came in for tea at 12-0.

There was a little awkwardness in the tea pavilion, as the players watched one of our supporters being led from the ground by the stewards. Apparently Cherrypie had drunk a little too much vodka, and her merry vocal renditions of rugby songs were embarrassing nearby spectators. I will have a word with her later.

After tea, Tom’s was the first wicket to fall: 46-1.

Vicus was caught at Long Off, trying to match Tom’s six: 73-2

Jona was clean bowled: 90-3.

Richard and I, though, held up any further collapse, and were still there at the close of play: 102-3.

Our new scorer, who likes the view, loved the set of pencils that we’d all clubbed together to buy her for Christmas, and has prepared this summary score-sheet, showing the current position of play.

Wednesday

The Finnish Tour. Day One.

Well, the first surprise we got when we arrived here was that the Finnish National Cricket Team were expecting to play a three-day match, rather than the usual one-day slog to which we are used. Fortunately, most of the team (and the supporters too, come to that) seem to have let themselves go over the autumn, and have sufficient layers of subcutaneous fat to see them through three days outdoors in Finland.

The second surprise was the light level. Isn’t it dark here? Finland only gets half an hour of sunlight in the whole month of December, you know. We knew that we’d have to play the match under floodlights - I just wasn’t aware that they would be giant sunlamps. Anyway, it’s clearing up my SAD nicely, thanks.

The third surprise came when we started to unload the tins of Quality Street that Carol had brought to nibble on during breaks. Phil had eaten the lot before he got off the coach.

Fortunately, our band of supporters have brought along plenty of turkey sandwiches, and lots of mince pies, so it seems that we will have enough calories to survive.

The fourth (and I trust final) surprise came when we were told that the match doesn’t actually start on Boxing Day, but will in fact be played from mid-morning today.

Yesterday was not a waste of time, however, as Taiga the Fox had made arrangements for us to sample the highlights of Finnish culture.

Vicus particularly seemed to enjoy the fish-slapping contest.

Sadly, we missed Sleepyhead Day, where the laziest person in the towns of Naantali and Hanko is thrown into the sea (I think we all know who would be the contender for the title in our team, don’t we?) and the annual wife-carrying championship held every July in Sonkajärvi.

I’m not sure that the rest of the team can remember much of what followed, as it appears that most of Finland’s ancient customs and cultural highlights involve drinking large quantities of alcohol. Our most recent (medical) recruit to the team particularly embarrassed herself. However, if the team over-indulged, they were nothing to our travelling band of supporters. I will leave it you your own imaginations to picture Ziggi and Cherrypie singing to a karaoke machine, and a room-full of their new (imaginary) best friends, at 4 am.

Your tee-total captain, however, kept a clear head, and was up with the lark this morning (actually, the lark itself failed to put in an appearance) and ate a hearty breakfast of piimä with musesli, purro with ligonberry jam and some tasty reindeer sandwiches.

As I write this, I am still waiting for the rest of the team to appear from their tents (I am sorry that Taiga only had one spare bed in the house for me, but I’m sure the others will enjoy the bracing country air).

Assuming that they do, I shall post a report of the first day’s play in the match tomorrow.