Produced by Cricket Statz - www.cricketstatz.com
Last updated 15-Jul-2007.
Match Report
Yet again I lost the toss. Was put in on a track that looked good for
batting, but still quite wet. It proved to be difficult to start off with,
we lost Ozzie first ball, 5th of the innings, bowled. In came Clinchy, who
struggled to pick up the pace of the wicket. Evo and Clinchy put on 34
before Clinchy was a judged LBW for 18. In I came, was starting to feel
good before I too fell LBW. The bowler saying sorry, after chucking down
five wides then the straight one. We were 51-3 after 15 overs. PJ and Evo
then put on around 50 in the next ten. Both were getting into their stride
before Phil was hit in the head. Evo charged the spinner, nailing it
straight at Phil at the non strikers end. It hit him on the side of the
head so hard, the ball ended at point! We sent Phil straight to the
hospital to get checked up. Number 6 was Danny O, he seemed pretty shocked
when I told him number 6. He had got a bit of stick from Les and Robbo
refering to his batting is similar to watching paint dry! (Renamed Dulux).
Dulux duly responded. Evo and himself carried on the good work putting on a
massive partnership. Evo fell in the last over for a superb 113. His
second 50 came off only 31 balls, a great knock! Dulux finished on 66 from
just 55 balls, hitting 3 hefty sixes, as we closed on 248-4. I have to be
honest, I thought that would be enough, barring in mind how we have bowled
in recent weeks.
We started off as well as ever. Dulux bowling Mayes for 1 in the second
over. Then they put on a massive stand. Skipper Rogers hit some big ball,
but was also on the fortunate side. Brearey (who was a first teamer who'd
got off holiday today) showed his class in scoring a chanceless 115. I got
the second wicket, Dulux catching Rogers on the boundary for 102 (189-2
from 29.1). Brearey finally fell to Jason, ct Millward. Jason had bowled
superb all day, after telling me he wanted to bowl seam from now on (don't
think so). They eventually reached their target in 40 overs.
It was a little dissapointing, bowling never clicked. We didn't bowl badly,
but we never bowled as well as we have. As I said, Jay bowled fantastic and
Tom's figures didn't reflect on how well he bowled in his first spell. It's
all about how we react to a defeat. Let's bounce back and win next week.
Bondy
Another match report!
As I seem to start all my reports the same way, that is Bondy lost the toss, I see no good reason to change it and neither did Bondy. We were asked to bat and this week the honour went to Andy Evans and Ossie, and also like most weeks the opening partnership didn't last too long, this week the unlucky batsman was Steve, being bowled for a Golden. Enter the run machine that is Clinchy, but even he found it difficult to score with some accurate bowling added to that the ball swung around a bit. In fact it took Clinchy 10 balls to get off the mark, meanwhile Andy was also finding it hard work. The longer they stayed in the easier they started to find batting and a partnership was developing, but with the score on 35 Clinchy was a judged LBW, harsh in my opinion as the bowler was left arm round and Clinchy being a leftie, added to that I've heard more convincing appeals from a silent order of monks, the umpire did well to hear the polite request. Captain Bond was next to the crease and also found it hard work, it was looking like a good toss to win for the home side. The one amazing thing about Bondies short innings was an all run 3 which for those of you that know Bramshaw is fairly unusual, 6,4 or 1 being the order of the day normally. Phil was next in, during this time Andy was playing his way into some form with his natural ability to time the ball starting to come to the fore, one shot that stands out was a square drive, that looked like a defensive prod at the ball but in fact seemed to accelerate up the hill and finished off a good 10 to 15m past the boundary. Phil carried on from last weekend and his first four scoring shots were 4s from 11 balls. Andy having brought up his fifty was also starting to attack and in the 27th over hit a crisply struck on drive only to see it thump into Phil's head. Phil had to retire and went off to hospital; he had scored a good 25. Bondy had decided to put me up the order to number six after my swashbuckling efforts on previous weeks or was it because Matt the destroyer wasn't here (sunning himself on some beach in the Med). Steve Roberts for some unknown reason had christened me Dulux, something to do with watching paint dry or some such nonsense. Andy and I put together a decent partnership of around 143 runs until Andy was out to the first ball of the last over for an excellent 113 and I got myself another red ink with 66 off 55 balls, quick drying paint I'd say. We had made 248 for 4 Jason with a one not out, though there seemed a lot of pad in it to me.
The wicket was getting easier to bat on and so it was imperative that we got early wickets, Les and I opened and with my first ball their opener played on. That was our only success for a long time, the other opener chanced his arm and on another day would have out early but the number 3 played a great innings only giving one chance, when he finally got out caught by Dan off Jason for a very good 115. The other batsman fell like so many have to the Bondy long hop, He had so much time why he decided to hit it straight down my throat at deepish mid wicket I have no idea. He had scored 102, as I had said he did chance his arm and should have been caught by Dan off Tom's bowling, who bowled well and was probably the fastest bowler on show all day. That partnership for the second wicket was worth 180 and won Bramshaw the game, they finally passed our score in the 40th over. 500 runs and only 7 wickets, not a bowlers ground. We will play worse and win so no one should be too down, roll on next week. And finally Phil came back from the hospital and had been given a whole list of things not to do (one of them being no sport) so of course he came back on and fielded for the last few overs. I hope the headache goes away soon Phil.
