As it turns out I did not have to go to Blacksburg and umpire the CCVT-TCC match all by myself, because the match did not take place. TCC players found themselves caught in a bind between the requirements of their employers to work on Saturday and the requirements of the League, and were unlucky to find that this depleted their roster too much.

Although the TCC team wanted to go to Blacksburg and play, there really is a limit to how small your team can be without the match becoming a farce and in the end the TCC team decided that their number of available players crossed that limit. Attempts to find alternatives were unsuccessful, and so CCVT advances into the semifinals to play CCC at Shiloh.

On Sunday I went to High Point to umpire the match between HPCC and RCC, and was joined by Dave Kumar, who did a splendid job. It is so much easier to do a good job as umpire when you have to stand at the bowler's end only every other over; we try to make that the norm in playoff matches, and I hope the day will come when that can be the norm in all MACC matches, to have two umpires alternating overs. You get better umpiring that way.

HPCC won the toss and put RCC in to bat. There was a heavy dew on the athletic field that persisted through most of RCC's innings, and perhaps this contributed to HPCC's decision to bowl first. However, they themselves had to wrestle with a wet, slippery ball, and all the HPCC bowlers had red hands by the end of the innings.

Without a detailed scorecard, I cannot give much information about individual statistics, but there was little controversy in the first innings. The RCC batsmen were all cleanly caught or clean bowled, except for one LBW; I gave Vipul out when he swiped at a ball going behind him and there was a clear tick before Mark collected the ball at wicket-keeper. It seemed to me that the bat was closer to the ball than the pads were, but as soon as my finger went up I realized that I did not see the ball hit the bat. I checked with Dave to see whether he had any more information for me, but seeing that there was no convincing evidence that Vipul was out I reversed my decision. Vipul was walking off the field in acceptance of my decision, which was the pattern for the whole day. Although as I said most dismissals were obvious and clean, the Spirit of Cricket was alive and well in both teams, and if every bowler didn't get every wicket he wanted all decisions were accepted with good grace.

Both teams must also get credit for avoiding time-wasting. There was practically no time lost to setting fields, as both teams seemed to be experienced enough to know where to go. We could have started the match early, since everyone was there and the field was ready to go by 10:00, but because of the dew and a feeling that we should wait, we didn't start until promptly at 10:30.

The Flicx pitch was predicted to be a batsman's wicket before the match, with the bowlers unable to get any good bounce off the pitch, but this meant that scoring by both sides was more methodical than free, with few spectacular hits. I don't know who was high scorer for RCC, but if I recall correctly Samay batted through several partners and I suspect it was him. The highest wicket stand was 20 when RCC went from 24/4 to 44/5, and nearly all, if not all, of the RCC batsmen made their contibutions as RCC were all out for 76 in 28.1 overs. Lacking only 11 balls of being a complete 30-over innings, this innings was completed in an hour and 40 minutes, ending at 12:10. HPCC Captain brought himself into the bowling in the 17th over with five wickets down and dismissed most of RCC's tail, taking four wickets for 15 runs.

The captains agreed on a 30-minute break but after everyone grew tired of waiting for 12:40 we resumed at 12:34. High credit goes to both sides for their lack of time-wasting. It should be more common in the MACC to start the second innings before 1:00.

HPCC began the chase and lost one opener in the 3rd over at 8 runs, but this did not deter their methodical chase for the victory total. RCC were unfortunate enough to miss 2-3 chances early and allow the score to go to 37 before the second wicket fell. Some of the chances were difficult, but still it would have been a very interesting match if they had managed to hold those catches. For at this point RCC began holding catches and bowling very well. The second wicket fell at the last ball of the 10th over, in which HPCC scored 10 runs to take the score from 27 to 37. But with tight bowling and an occasional wicket they managed to keep the HPCC batting attack from scoring more than 4 in any over from the 11th through the 22nd. Of course 4 an over was enough to win, defending only 76, but RCC put up a good fight and didn't give anything away. As I said, it would have been interesting to see how the match would have ended if those early catches had been held.

Shami came in to join Ghias at the beginning of the 22nd over with the score on 59, and evidently at that point HPCC decided that the innings had gone on long enough. RCC brought back their opening bowlers, but Shami and Ghias scored 17 in the next two overs to tie the score, and the match concluded in the 24th over shortly after 2 pm.

In such a low-scoring match it was perhaps inevitable that the bowlers would be in the front running for Man of the Match. Although Samay from RCC was given consideration for effective bowling and staying at the crease while batting, and Naseem Ahmed opened the batting for HPCC and stayed there for 24 runs, in the end Dave and I selected Ghias-ur-rehman as the Man of the Match for taking 4 wickets for 15 runs while bowling and perfectly timing a beautiful six while batting.

So HPCC will host CLCC in the playoff semifinals.

Best of luck to the four teams remaining in the playoffs, congratulations to NCSU, TCC, ANZACS and RCC for making the playoffs, and thanks to the other six teams in the League this year for keeping it interesting,

Ron Knight