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Last updated 14-Aug-2007.
Match Report
1st X1 v Locks Heath 11th August
What a shame! A game full of brilliant cricket, that was blowing up into a classic finish faded away with SACC well beaten by the better side on the day.
Poor Neil still couldn't win the toss and the visitors elected to make first use of a beautiful batting track (Take a bow, Bob) However our openers bowled so well that L/H couldn't get going. Joe, in particular went at 2 an over and looked excellent. Matt was a little less effective and was duly relieved by Keith who dropped straight into his usual tight line and still the batsmen struggled though, significantly, no wickets yet. Chris Grayston came on for his first bowl in the 17th over (Score 55 for 0) and soon had Stokes caught by Joe. Next over Pete took a good catch off Keith to get a dangerous Mike Boyd out for 40. Chris was going for 5 an over so he was relieved by Fred who also settled down to a tight line. The stalemate continued with neither side getting on top. Then Chris caught the very classy Alex Richardson off Fred and this brought skipper Scot Jones to the crease. Initially he struggled too. After 33 overs they had only 105 on the board. At this point Scott determined to have a go at Keith, smashing a rare half-volley for a massive six and with his batting partner joining in Keith's 11th over went for 20 and he was taken off. At this point we lost our way as Neil searched for bowlers to keep the final overs under control. Fred went for 30 off 3 overs and was also removed. Joe came back and went for 26 off 4 overs. Pete was tried, with calamitous results, 2 overs, 2 for 25! And so Matt bowled the last over for 7 runs. Locks Heath had gone from 105 to 228 in the last 15 overs. We had taken wickets continually but they refused to let it slow them down, Pete Bleak particularly hitting a very violent 46 off 31 balls! I have an observation here about Pete's bowling. He showed all the signs of a very unpractised cricketer, no balls, beamers, long hops and several very good deliveries. Maybe next summer a few visits to the weekly practices might help!
228 was not, in my opinion, an impossible target. And with the start Pete gave us it became definitely feasible. As I slagged off my youngest for his bowling, it's only fair to say that his batting was quite superb. This was a better innings than last weeks 121 v U.S. He gave only one chance, keeping it on the ground most of the time but scored so quickly that for a while there was speculation that he might get to 50 before Lester scored a run! Mind you, Pete was hogging the strike quite ruthlessly, but when he got the chance, Lester pitched in and it is, after all, a game about partnerships! The opening bowlers were beaten out of the attack at 63 for 0 off 12. Now came a crucial time as L/H had Bleak and Watts bowling slow. Ben Watts quickly bowled Lester with a big turning offie which sliced through his defence. Chris joined Pete and the momentum slowed as mid on and mid off went back and the batsmen pushed the singles to keep things turning over. However in the 26th over Pete hit one hard and straight and Watts took a brilliant c&b inches off the ground. Next over Chris tried to hit Bleak over the top, got it all wrong and was also c&b. It was crisis time and tragically both Matt and Neil tried the same straight six shot and were both caught at long off. Wrong shot boys! It was now 139 for 5 off 32 and hope was not entirely extinguished but it was getting difficult. Andy Evans gave us hope for a while with a series of beautiful drives and the two spinners had finished their spells, but Alex Richardson came on as the 3rd spinner and promptly had Andy stumped by Matt Light who had kept superbly and actually outdid Simon by standing up to their medium quicks. Locks Heaths opening bowler also returned and bowled much better than before (or maybe he just didn't have Pete to bowl against!) Simon batted really well but he and all the lower order perished trying to dig a win out of nothing. So defeat by 30 runs was a sad end to the game but things got worse as we heard that St. Cross had lost and we could have gone into a promotion spot if we had won!
Neil struggled with his bowling options, not helped by his own injury, but I must repeat my view that the opposition played very very well indeed.
Umpires - good performance by Dave again and by general consensus, Paul Sparshot of Locks Heath is the best "opposition" umpire the team have encountered this season.
