HORSES ON WRONG END OF RAIN

AFTER MORE than two generations out of it, Findon have become a principal force in this nationwide competition with two semi-finals in two seasons. On Sunday, their defeat to the Welsh club champions and undoubtedly the better side, in front of 200 people in a coastal village of The Vale of Glamor-gan, suggests they have again lost to the eventual champions.
By The Newsroom
Published 13th Aug 2004, 11:52 BST
Updated 8th Jun 2018, 01:19 BST

Sully Centurions are hardly a village cricket team, however. They are a side assembled from players of Glamorganshire 2nd XI and the Wales and nearby minor counties. They have thrashed capital city Cardiff on route towards becoming almost certainly next month the first team to retain the South East Wales Premier League title. They are in the Welsh Cup Final against Pontardulais at Sophia Gardens on Sunday. And the Lord's Final of the NVC is their intended icing on the cake of their 50th Anniversary season.

On Sunday, they played like a talented but pumped-up, prickly and abusively aggressive Sussex League Division 2-quality side without the disciplinary restraint imposed by the disciplinary code of that league and its firm and well-prepared umpires.

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Findon are used to being sledged, though perhaps not in the dying overs when the match is already over.

The umpires failed to intervene any further than the conversation of concern they conducted with Sully captain Jamie Sylvester as early as the second over of the Findon reply, and the long word one of them had in the ear of Australian bowler Nathan Gage after he followed through to silly mid-off, after his first ball, to stand, arms outstretched ,incredulous as that umpire rejected his appealed for leg-before against a disdainful Graham Waller.

When clever off-spinner Jamie Sylvester, subsequently setting a disgraceful captain's example, stood long and stared hard at the umpire in vain after hitting Nick Gifford on the pad, absolutely no action followed.

If the umpires failed the spirit of the game in this toothlessness, they had already betrayed the physical integrity of cricket when long-threatened rain finally arrived in the 32nd over of Sully's innings. Increasing to steady and heavy, the rain soaked everything, bowling and fielding was a farce by the 35th over and the batsmen were able to sweep the game beyond Findon.

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The umpires said they had continued because a rain-affected match could not be completed without a 40-over first innings and at least a 20-over reply. Plainly, they should have brought the teams off and resumed later, but were unreasonably stubborn in adhering to their plans.

Instead, Jamie Sylvester and Gage smashed John Rogers, Toby Kingsbury and Nigel Waller for 81 runs off the final six overs to post 251 for four. The highest total Findon have chased in these two NVC campaigns is 193, by Linton Park in the previous round.

If rain curtailed Findon's reply, they would win if they scored at more than Sully's 6.275 runs an over in their innings, whatever its length short of 40 overs. Rain delayed their reply for 20 minutes, did not return, and they were bowled out for a defiant 214.

For full report see The Worthing Herald.

Related topics:Cardiff