Before a short match report a few thank yous
1.To Dave Green for making the pitch playable after the rain
2.To Robert Wornham for the splendid outfield
3.To Simeon Green for getting the team together as match manager even though he couldn’t play
4. To the Wastell Family for cleaning scoreboard and tea towels
5.To all who helped with Tea and clearing up afterwards
Now to the game
Back to playing old fashioned declaration cricket – from experience of this it’s a big help to win the toss and bowl first, our skipper remains a poor tosser and we lost the toss so the Strollers were asked to bat first on a difficult track .
We lost the experienced Ian Bandy quite early but the Zahir and Amajit batted well together until Zahir was caught for an excellent 20. Messrs Gallo and Kay hit a few before returning to the hatch. Amajit was bowled for 23 and the Strollers were 91 for 4 after 28 overs. Enter Henry Hughes for a blistering 37 and Paul Wastell for a quick 31. Daniel Williamson ran brilliantly with the skipper. Inman managed to hit the last ball prior to tea for 4 to bring up his 50 and the strollers declared at 205 for 9 of 43 overs at tea.
Now for the moments that cost the strollers the game – in a timed match you need to have a quick tea and bowl lots of overs at the opposition – the sausage rolls, pork pies, cakes, crisps and sandwiches were too much and tea took too long !!
We bowled well, a great catch by Richard Kay off Daniel Williamson, and a great stumping by Ian Bandy from Lucas Gallo plus a wicket for Mercedes saw Pirton at 82 for 3 from 19 overs at the start of 6 o’clock and 20 overs – all results possible. The evergreen Dave Green bowled well with no luck but slowed the scoring rate – Amajit bowled well taking two key wickets, 5 overs 9 runs 2 wickets but couldn’t move their obstinate skipper .
Henry got a wicket, Inmans flight, guile and rubbish 3 wickets but Pirton held out for 115 for 9 from 39 overs
So a drawn game but the Strollers did well and avoided defeat for the first time this year – indeed nearly won