Monday July 5 2004
Twenty-20 Cricket, Luton
Match Correspondent: John Kirwin
Imagine the scene – the coach has collected the reprobates from The Plough and we are on our way to Wardown Park, Luton for the Twenty-20 Cricket match between Northamptonshire and Worcestershire. A few choruses of “The Wheels on The Bus” and we’re there. The weather looks a bit iffy, but who cares? We are here to enjoy the spectacle of the first Twenty-20 match played at Wardown Park – history in the making.
A large crowd is already gathered and a long walk to the far side of the pitch yields some seats for the more elderly and infirm (i.e. drunk) members of the group. Those amongst us who are still thirsty and capable of walking disappear into a tent festooned with adverts for beer.
The match turns out to be rather one-sided: Worcestershire wins the toss and opts to bat first. Two England stars open – Vic Solanki and Graham Hick. Solanki is caught behind on only his second ball but Hick goes on to score a magnificent 116 not out – with 11 fours and 6 amazing sixes, two of which results in the ball being lost in a garden adjacent to the ground. His ton was reached in 70 minutes off only 60 balls. It’s a great shame that he never quite managed to achieve that sort of performance when wearing an England shirt – the man is class. Worcestershire complete their 20 overs just before the skies darken and a heavy and prolonged spell of rain soaks the ground and the spectators. Golf brollies are quite handy in circumstances such as this.
Northamptonshire’s innings is cut to only 11 overs, Messrs Duckworth and Lewis providing the mathematics for the total needed to win. A score of 80 for 8 fell 21 runs short of the required total, the highest individual score being only 17 by Johann Louw , so a fully deserved win for Worcestershire.
A full scorecard can be found on the Internet at
http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/tt/0/tt77.html
Such was the success of this event that we are planning another trip in 2005, probably to Milton Keynes for a planned Northants fixture. Watch this space!
