For Rehan

Last weekend, one of the club's most promising juniors, Rehan Amin, tragically lost his father. Dr Amin was well known to many of us, offering gentle words of encouragement to his son and others, and quietly and knowledgeably observing Rehan's development, culminating in Rehan's 3 wicket haul on his debut for Cheshire u12s only last Friday, after which, Rehan and his father came to support the Bulls in their match against Alderley Edge.

Before tonight's game, a minute's silence was observed at the ground and the Bulls players, led by Chris and Matt, wore black armbands as a mark of respect and as a tribute to a fine man. Our thoughts go out to Rehan, his mother Nazish and the whole Amin family.

A chill wind blew softly across the hallowed turf this Friday evening as the Bulls hosted the u13s from the historic town of Stockport, where the confluence of the Goyt and the Tame forms the mighty River Mersey, along whose banks hundreds of men, women, boys and girls clad in white play this beautiful game of human chess throughout the languid summer months, ourselves included. The River Mersey, whose winding passage west has for centuries formed the historic boundary rope between Lancashire and Cheshire, and which snakes its way from Stockport in Cheshire, through Didsbury, south of Old Trafford and eventually into the Irish Sea past the wondrous city of Liverpool, only a generation ago itself part of Lancashire, and still sometime home to Lancashire County Cricket Club.

The visitors strode out to face a very tight couple of opening overs from Seb and Will, sharp fielding by debutant Liam ensuring that runs were kept to a minimum. Louis and Jamie then came on as first change and acquitted themselves well, although the Bulls were strangely lacklustre in the field and the Stockport batsmen accepted this invitation to get the scoreboard moving. At the halfway point, Stockport were heading for a big total and had still not lost a wicket. Raheem then turned to Ayan, who turned the ball, but it was the simultaneous arrival at the ground of Rehan which turned the match.

The Bulls were delighted to see their totem Rehan back amongst them and were visibly lifted by his presence. Ben Lowe picked up 2 in an over – an LBW and then a bowled. Ayan took his maiden Didsbury wicket thanks to a fantastic catch by Louis and then Rehan, having been clapped onto the field by his teammates, duly splayed the stumps in his first over. Ollie neatly executed a run out after good fielding by Ben L and Raheem bamboozled the Stockport batsman with his slow ball, nipping the top of leg. The Cheshire Cats' grin had faded to a grimace as they finished on 113/6 from their 20 overs.

In reply, the Red Rose men were immediately pegged back when Harry was out for a duck to one that cut back, bringing Raheem to the crease with Seb. The two set about steadying the ship and did that and more before Raheem was out to what will surely be the unluckiest dismissal of the season. Seb cracked (another) superb drive straight back down the track, only for a Cheshire paw to divert the speeding ball onto Raheem's stumps. Rehan came in at 4, immediately showing his strength, and he and Seb struck up another valuable partnership to keep the Bulls in the hunt. Rehan fell to a good catch from a steepled drive, followed by a frankly outrageous catch to see off Seb, cracking another beautifully timed drive in an altogether commanding innings of 24. This brought together the two Bens. America can keep their Jen-Lo, because we have got Ren-Lo. With a run a ball required with 30 to go, Ben L the leftie and Ben R the rightie guided the Bulls home, calmly ignoring the entreaties of the home crowd to run singles and instead nonchantly driving and cutting boundaries just when it seemed the cause might be lost. With all-rounder Ben Lo at the other end, it was left to Ben Ren (24 no) to cut the winning boundary off Stockport's demon quickie with just 3 balls to spare, seeing DCC home on 114/4 off 19.3.

At the end, the boys of both teams mingled in the middle, shaking hands and chatting happily, then wandered from the field of play and over the boundary rope, a gaggled mix of Cheshire and Lancashire lads.

A special mention to Will and Harry, who selflessly gave up their places to allow Rehan to bat and bowl – and to the Stockport coach and team for doing the same. The gesture by the two DCC lads exemplified the wonderful camaraderie that this group have, and their collective compassion for a fellow team mate. The gesture by Stockport reminded us that this was, after all, just a game, to be shared and enjoyed.

Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.

In loving memory of Dr Muhammad Amin.