The parable of the labourers in the vineyard is often said to be ‘problematic’. You know the one – it’s about the workers who are paid one denarius for their day’s labour, and get annoyed when the vineyard’s owner gives the same money to the layabouts who turn up an hour before sunset. The ‘problem’ is that most people who hear it think it sounds very unfair. It does not help that the message – about the last being first and the first being last, and all that gnomic stuff – is rather hard to get your head around. It certainly doesn’t seem to have much to do with toiling unrewarded in the hot sun.
There was a lot of toil at Bentworth, and a fair amount of sun, and at points in the day it felt as if it we might not be departing with our denarii. We won the toss and elected to bowl – a novel approach for the Skipper, who has noted that in recent matches we have tended to do better when chasing down a total.
We opened with our left armers: Leo (34 for 3) and Sepia (17 for 0). Sepia, bowling around the wicket, did exceptionally well, landing it in the most awkward of spots – you know the one, just short of where you can get at it – and varying the flight in such a way that they simply could not get a handle on him. The opposition scored just 17 off his 9 overs, and he was very unlucky not to get a wicket. It was a critical achievementnonetheless, in that it forced the Vagabonds to take risks in the latter part of their innings. (Their captain said afterwards to Sepia that he was ‘the most annoying bowler I’ve ever faced’. Sepia, who is not a man short of repartee, disingenuously asked whether it was his bowling or he himself that was annoying. Their skipper tried again. ‘Well, it’s too risky in a match situation but if we’d been in the nets I’d have smashed you into the next town’. Sepia: ‘And which town would that be?’)
The first wicket came reasonably quickly – caught behind by OC off Leo in the fifth over. It was a superb wicket-keeper’s take, low and in front of the pads, seemingly plucked from the tips of the close-mown grass. But then the hard work began. Over after over came and went, the runs slowly but steadily mounted, and all the efforts of Leo, Sepia, Simon (45 for 0) and Rupert (42 for 2) seemed in vain. But sometimes you do have to labour in the vineyard, and in the hot sun too, and sometimes the last absolutely does turn out to be first – because Caspar, the Racqueteers’ newest and very much youngest recruit, was the hero of the afternoon. First, he claimed the opposition’s dominant opening bat – then on 72. (He was caught by OC, a skied ball that OC confidently claimed – ‘Gloves!’ he shouted, running across to short leg; and before you knew it, the ball was nestled in them.) With his very next ball, Caspar claimed an unequivocal LBW. He later got two more – a satisfying clean bowled and a nick, caught behind by OC.
Rupert’s legspin claimed two further wickets, both caught. Julian’s (12 for 1) late wicket was a catch, too – and a special one. It was not just that it came in his first over, and in his first spell for the Racqueteers in a little while, but because it was taken by his own dad. Sepia might not have taken a wicket as a bowler, but taking a catch in the field for your son is surely even more satisfying. And so to Leo, who was first and last in another, literal sense. He’d taken our first wicket as a medium-pace bowler. Switching to off-spin in the game’s last stages, he tidied up the last two wickets for us.
It was a good performance in the field, but the Vagabonds had really put on some runs in the later stages of the game. There were overs that went for 10, 11, 12, 14, even 17. Our hosts ended up on 194, all out. This meant we needed to score roughly 5 an over, in reply. Leo (13) and the Bard (24) set about building a platform, but in the teeth of consistently accurate bowling from the Vagabonds’ opening bowlers the labour was somewhat slow. Coming down the hill, their left-arm slow-medium (also bowling around the wicket, curiously enough) achieved dramatic outswing, while their pace man, charging up the hill, succeeded in putting the ball right on the danger spot again and again, and at a fair clip. A lot of defensive work was needed. Conscious of the ticking clock, the Bard finally drove into the hands of their fast bowler in the sixteenth over, and Leo fell to a tough LBW decision only two overs later. This put us on 37 runs (yes, the Vagabonds had not given a way a single extra, by this point) as our 20-over countdown began, with two wickets gone.
It was enough to make a draw enticingly viable, but to win would now mean scoring almost 8 runs an over. The Skipper (16), however, is not a man to duck such a challenge, and when the first-change bowlers came on he saw his opportunity. One over went for 16 runs, including three fours from the Skipper – two stroked through the covers in his inimitable style. He was unlucky to be caught (fairly spectacularly) at point. The Vagabonds now seemed to scent blood. Jolly (0), Sepia (2) and Jules (0) didn’t manage to get themselves established, meaning that between the Racqueteersand what looked like probable perdition now stood two men: OC (32 not out) and Simon (20 not out), the latter on loan to us from St Cross.
They are good batsmen to have in this situation: both are strong, imposing and apparently unflappable. The Vagabonds only came close a small handful of times, and as we neared the end of our final 20 overs they struck out with growing flair and confidence – OC in particular repeatedly sending the ball to the boundary, chastened. They took us past 100 with four overs to go, giving rise to cheers from the watching Racqueteers. Thereafter, they put on a remarkable 35 runs – launching a Mexican wave from the spectators that, if modest in size, was notable for its enthusiasm.
It was the first time that the Racqueteers had not lost to the Vagabonds, and a draw, in such circumstances, is a kind of victory. We were neither first nor last, then, but I think every Racqueteer went home feeling as if he’d earned his denarius.
The Racqueteers Cricket Club 
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