Harwell International – Victory

Yesterday saw our first win of the season, against my old team, Harwell International. Although most of their team was borrowed from Wantage Saturday side and Andy Henson. This does not detract from our victory at all. We played the best we’ve played so far this year. Superb fielding, bowling and batting led us to a great win.

David and Graham were the batting stars putting on a partnership of 141 between them. David playing some fine strokes against some tough bowling to score 53 not out and Graham using his usual batting finesse to get a fabulous 75 not out. There were some brutal moments when Graham smacked the ball back to the umpire, Tweekey, who seemed to be asleep and took the ball on the upper arm without making any attempt to get out of the way. Sharp intakes of breath and cries of “ooo” could be heard from the opposition fielders. David must have wanted to take revenge on Tweek’s behalf as several overs later he drove the ball back straight into Graham’s stomach leaving a nasty bruise within seconds. These events cost us 8 runs. In future, if anyone else wants to use their bodies to trap the ball, please do so when we’re fielding.

With a good total of 183 for 3 on the board, we had the challenge of bowling Harwell out to win. Without taking all of their wickets, the game would have been a draw. Peach 2 for 38 off 9, Wooloff 2 for 9 off 5, Bulpitt 4 for 9 off 4 (awarded man of the match by opposition captain. This was contraversial as Graham’s 75 not out and 3 catches were outstanding). There were lots of good moments. My favourite was Peachy’s forward diving catch. Noone dropped a catch although there were a few that came close but weren’t really catchable.

We won with an over and a bit to spare. David tried hard to get his dad out, but couldn’t quite manage it. Peachy did the honours to win the game.

The game was really enjoyable all round. Everyone contributed which made it more fun.

IMPORTANT BIT… Apart from those people who played yesterday, please let me know if you’re available next week against Crowmarsh at Home. Please also reply if you’re not available as it helps me to know who to ring if we’re short of players. Thanks.

One final point to note: I’m not sure who was scoring at the time, but according to the score book Byron Pople was “Bowelled” Wooloff. I’m not sure that this is one of the regulation methods of taking a wicket, but it worked in this game. Perhaps Lurch can describe how he managed this.