The Arctic Avengers Strike Again
Haddenham Womens Hardball Cricket Team took to the field in sub-zero temperatures on Sunday to take on the mighty Chesham CC in a double header.
Match One saw Chesham bat first and they posted a seemingly unassailable 274 for 4. It would have been higher had it not been for a couple of beautiful catches, and two amazing run outs. When Vicki and Laura took to the field to bat for Haddenham none of us expected what was about to happen as they put the Chesham bowlers to the sword, hitting boundary after boundary. Unfortunately the Chesham bowlers were quite good and several straight ones missed the Haddenham bats and clattered into the stumps which negated most of the boundaries.
Anyway, the tone was set, the crowd went wild, and the hand warmers were distributed to ensure nobody's assets were frozen. The Haddenham Glacial Gladiators were going for the big W and they weren't going to let a few wickets get in their way. Emma, Claudia and Sarah batted positively and steadily built the score towards what had seemed an insurmountable target, and with the game in the balance it was Gemma who poked her head above the north face of the Eiger and smashed an exquisite 14 off just 16 balls which left Claire F and Gayathri to ensure the win as Haddenham finished on 295-4. An absolutely brilliant performance that left the 10's of
fans choking on the ice in their not so hot chocolates.
As the action hotted up the weather got colder and Chesham brought in some reinforcements in the shape of a couple of England players for Match Two. But nothing intimidates the Haddenham Polar Pioneers these days because they have a couple of secret weapons of their own.
Chesham batted first, and batted very well amassing 297/2. It would have been more but if it hadn't been for Karina's impressive fielding which got a massive thumbs-up from everybody watching. After a steady start it was Laura who took this game by its frozen scruff and scored 18 off only 13 balls, most of which were no-balls (to the fans if not to the umpires).
Over-head smashes are seldom seen in a cricket match but we saw quite afew and all that was missing was for the umpires to call Game, Set and Match. Going into the last pair the game was still in the balance and despite Claire F's 13 off 16 Haddenham finished just 3 short of their target.
So it ended up one win apiece which was just about fair as the two sides were very evenly matched. It was a brilliant day and the games were played in a great spirit, partly because of the superb tea laid on by the Haddenham women, and partly because the matches were played between two proper developmental teams which made it very enjoyable. As the handwarmers had long since lost any semblance of warmth the team departed for the cosy Whistler, leavinginspirational coach Tim Chowns to survey the tundra-esque scene of yet another historic win and to dream of next year's pre-season tour to Siberia where it's bound to be a bit warmer.
Tim Chowns
