May 18, 2013, by ICCSR
The glorious reign is over – NUBS staff defeated by the Undergraduates
The staff’s glorious (one-year) reign of holding the NUBS staff-student cricket trophy came to an inglorious end on 8th May at Grove Farm cricket fields, on the banks of the Trent. In a ruthless display, the undergraduates reclaimed the trophy, winning by 9 wickets. Winning the toss, the staff struggled in the seamer-friendly conditions, but fought through to post a respectable 82 all out, the last wicket falling at the very end of the allotted 20 overs. It all started brightly, with James Jarrett and Marek Korczynski putting together an opening stand of 23. This was as good as it got, however. Soon, Jarrett played forward at one that held up, and was nicely caught and bowled by Titmarsh. Next ball, Titmarsh bowled the redoubtable Chris O’Brien. With the ball swinging alarmingly at times, the staff began to look to the sky for some help. But the hoped-for helicopter bringing the missing big-hitters of Bailey, Lambert, Storey and Devlin failed to appear. Phil Bonstow, on debut, was dogged in defence, but fell for 3 to ‘Cornish’ when trying to push the scoring rate. When Captain Dave Paton fell second ball to the same bowler, it was backs to the wall time. Malay played remarkably fluently in the circumstances for his 8. Foreman took his second wicket in two balls when Cormac Bryce, also on debut, aimed for glory rather than the ball and was comprehensively bowled. Steve Wilcoxson fell to Bates for 1, and it was left to Shaun Goldfinch to contribute to a last wicket stand of 15. Marek Korczynski was left unbeaten, having nudged and nurdled his way to 25.
The main discussion in the break between innings centred on the failure of the university-catered lunch to arrive when expected. Suggestions were made that the Business School budget should allow us to eat instead at the neighbouring Sat Bains restaurant, but, budget-holder, Dave Paton pretended not to hear. After the break, the sun came out and the bowler-friendly conditions changed dramatically to become a batting paradise. How else to explain that Chris ‘line and length’ O’Brien was swatted dismissively for three boundaries in his second over, and that ‘Cornish’ (who had an uncanny [and suspicious] resemblance to Freddie Flintoff) needed only 6 balls to hit 21 before retiring?, In short, the student’s powerful batting line-up made short work of the target, hitting the winning runs in the ninth over. Newman was impressive for his 22 (retired), and Fordes made 12. The staff generously bowled out their overs to let the rest of the students have a bat, and began to assert some control in the field. Wilcoxson, Bonstow and Paton each picked up a wicket, with Korczynski pouching a diving catch, running in at cover. Bmac made 11, Titmarsh 11, Ganz 13, Baines 1, with Gittins and Robin both not out 6 when stumps were drawn.
The bitterness of defeat was sweetened by the late-arriving lunch which featured some delicious little scones, which were topped with jam, cream and strawberries. In the sepia-tinged sugar rush from the scones, it was generally agreed that we didn’t need Sat Bains’ 2 Michelin Stars after all, that Dave Paton was lovely for organising the game, and that cricket was the real winner of the afternoon.
By Marek Korczynski, Professor of Sociology of Work and HRM at Nottingham University Business School
Photograph taken by Britanglishman and reproduced under creative commons CC BY 2.0 Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/britanglishman/4591053777/
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