Results round-up
The npower Village Cup quarter-finals were taking place as TWC went to press and none of the remaining eight teams had been to a Lord’s final before. Folkton & Flixton, near Scarborough, were the most northern of the remaining sides and were up against West Yorkshire side Streethouse. To the west Great Eccleston were carrying the hopes of Lancastrians while Stockton were representing the Midlands. Propping up the south were Dinton in Buckinghamshire and Glynde & Beddingham in East Sussex. But in the summer when the Ashes came to Cardiff what price a Welsh winner? Two teams from Pembrokeshire, Cresselly and Miskin Manor, faced each other in the quarter-finals, so there will be at least one Welsh semi-finalist with chance of reaching Lord’s on September 14.

Water hazard
Eynsford did not make it out of their Kent group this year but their 2009 campaign will be long remembered thanks to a spectator’s fielding against Limpsfield Chart in their regional semi-final. Eynsford’s ground is bordered on one side by the small River Darent, where kids often fetch the ball from its shallow depths. Eynsford’s Paul Smythe takes up the story: “One of our regular spectators attempted to stop a ball that was rolling slowly but surely for the river. As he collected it he tripped on a stone and fell in slow motion into the river. But he appeared to hover horizontally above the water and in that time managed to throw the ball back before entering with a mighty splash. All the players and spectators collapsed laughing as our nearest fielder helped him from the water whereupon he sat down and watched the rest of the game. It will forever be known as the Del Boy moment.”

On the day the Cardiff Test was petering out to its bore draw matters were being concluded more decisively two miles north of Watford. Langleybury were playing Dinton for a place in the quarter-finals of the npower Village Cup. Lord’s, but a blurry image in April, was coming into view there too.

Langleybury, like England, were hoping to stir memories of days past, though not as far back as 1934. This was about the spirit of ’96. That was the year the club reached its only Lord’s final, losing to Caldy by six runs. Some of the members of that team could be found on this day among the 200-odd spectators.

In the 37 years of the Village Cup Langleybury have taken part 36 times and before 1996 had managed five semi-finals as well. Since then there had not been even a quarter-final. No wonder captain Lee Channer was stuck in the toilet for most of the morning.

Langleybury qualifies as a village because of its church and school. The parish has precisely one resident – the vicar – himself a former club player. But the ground is hardly hidden behind hedges in a forgotten part of the world: it lies directly off a busy A-road with the roaring M25 not far off and the railway running alongside. But do not underestimate the effect of a circle of trees with a church peeping through. This day camels were posing as cows grazing on a field nearby. They seemed almost offended by a visitor’s surprise. A circus was in town.
The match was nearly a derby, Dinton having to travel not much more than 20 miles from their home near Aylesbury. Through a string of contributions Langleybury put together a par total of 192 for 7. The cricket from both sides was altogether different compared with the early rounds of this competition – less clunk, more class. Shots were played with immaculate straight bats and bad balls were a rarity. Late cuts, reverse-sweeps, thin edges, diving attempts at one-handed catches, direct hits, wicketkeepers standing up to pace and whipping off the bails, slide-and-throw fielding, umpires in white coats: all were commonplace and signs of a striking upturn in standards.

But most of all it was the batsmen’s timing. Cover drives played with a minimum of force sailed to the boundary with fielders hardly blinking.

As tea was being taken a very tall young man who looked a handy fast bowler came into the pavilion. It was Steven Finn of Middlesex revisiting the club of his childhood after an early finish to the Championship game up in Leicester.

All know Finn here. Six years back he was playing for Langleybury in the Village Cup as a “little skinny lad”. “There’s an expectation every year because the Village [Cup] is the biggest competition that you play in,” he says as he watches Dinton ominously bide their time with a wickets-in-hand approach. “You can see that by the people here – you don’t get this on a Saturday. It’s a better crowd than we get at some of our Championship games.” As he talks, Matt Fry, a member of the ’96 team, pauses for a word as he passes along the boundary. “4th Team Player of the Year if I’m not mistaken.” “2002,” adds Finn.

The chances of Finn’s club making further progress began to look as likely as a draw at Cardiff. And while England played out dot ball after dot ball in Wales, Dinton’s young captain, Ashley Smith, was putting together an entertaining innings of control and style.

Two wickets for one run had the locals chirping but Smith maintained his cool and sealed a comfortable victory with a clip through midwicket for four that was as elegant to watch as Monty Panesar’s dive for the crease off the last ball at Cardiff was not. For Langleybury the shadow of ’96 looms large for another year.

Benj Moorehead is editorial assistant of The Wisden Cricketer