The curse of BT

I used to play for BT in my (much) younger days. They're a good side and, since I've been playing for North West Water, I can count the number of times we've beaten them on one hand.

It was with some trepidation then that I approached last night's encounter at Oswestry School, my first outing of the season. My worries were well-founded, we ended up being beaten comfortably despite getting into a very good position half way through their innings.

Again we fielded a slightly weaker side than usual - Gareth and Brian Cole, Carl Dulson and Huw and Geraint Jones - were all unavailable, which meant our task was that much harder.

I have to say that I was pretty nervous before the game. I blame my brother. A couple of weeks ago we had a conversation about how sensible it is to keep taking part in team sports as you get older. Basically, my brother Baz - who plays football not cricket, by the way - was saying he was worried he had lost his pace. I know the feeling; as I said in my final blog of last season, it's not much fun struggling to find any kind of form and it does make you wonder if you've lost whatever scrap of ability you once had. So when the first ball of my spell disappeared back over my head - landing just short of a six - I almost retired on the spot. More of that later...

Back to the game, we won the toss and batted first with the ever-elegant Dave Ryder and rising star Rory Jones starting strongly. They added 30-odd for the first wicket at a decent pace before Rory departed and our collapse started.

First Mike Stokes and then a helmeted Steve Daulby were dismissed, before skipper Justin Evans attempted to steady the ship with some powerful strokes. Unfortunately his time at the crease was cut short and I arrived at the wicket with Dave still holding the innings together.

Dave was the next man out, our eagerness to take quick singles leaving him stranded in the middle of the pitch, as I went on to notch up 11 before attempting one quick single too many and finding myself a few yards short. To be honest, I felt pretty good at the crease - better than I had done for some time - and, if I could just work out to score off my legs, I might have made a useful contribution.

By this point, Jamal Penrose and Dave's son Dominic were at the wicket and we limped on, edging towards 80 before Jamal was out and Ian Lloyd - a late arrival due to confusion over dates - arrived and took us to 83 before being caught out with the last ball of the innings.

That total didn't look like being enough, especially when I opened the bowling and my first delivery was smashed to long on. However, I managed to redeem myself by bowling four dot balls before having Phil James caught by Jamal at square leg. As if by magic, all thoughts about retirement disappeared, even if it wasn't the greatest dismissal of my career.

Ian took the new ball at the other end and bowled their other opener with his first delivery. It was a great start and we suddenly sniffed a chance. I bowled another couple of overs - ending with figures of 1-11 - while Ian was even more miserly at the other end.

When Steve picked up a third wicket leg before - beating their man for pace - we were looking good. After 10 overs, they were 35-odd for three and we were in a promising position. Steve was bowling as well as he has done for some time - he's quick and, being left handed, he causes problems for most batsmen.

Justin was unlucky not to pick up a wicket with his teasing leg spin, but BT consolidated through brothers Ant and Gareth James, before the latter unleashed a flurry of boundaries to take his side to victory with three overs to spare.

It was a desperately disappointing end to the match for us. We'd done well for so much of the game but our total was again a little bit below a decent score and, to be fair to BT, they paced their innings just right.

So it's on to the next game - Cae Glas at our home ground, Whittington, next Wednesday. Hopefully our fortunes will take a turn for the better.