Sunday 3rd May 2009, Cold Ash, Away – Win
As we turned up at Cold Ash, the weather was looking good for the first friendly match of the season. It was a little cloudy, but reasonably warm with the sun breaking through every now and then. The pitch was a little slow, but there was a new artificial wicket that was providing a good consistent bounce and a little turn for the spinners.
I set the president for the season and lost the toss and Wantage were put in to bat. Chief and Longdog marched out and it wasn’t long before Chief was marching back again with his head a little lower than before having scored a solitary single run. Moobs joined Longdog and together put on a very successful partnership of 74 runs, with some lovely boundaries and three beautifully struck sixes, before Londog was bowled on 37. Moobs wasn’t messing around. He wasn’t showing any respect to the bowlers. After seeing himself in for 5 balls he hit 4, 4, 6 off three consecutive balls, then settling down into a more comfortable rhythm.
Moobs was out the ball after Longdog playing a horrible sweep across the line to a straight one. This brought two new batsmen to the crease, Pippy and Circus. Pippy settled in to a steady well crafted innings while Circus decided to go for the shorter quicker innings hitting a two and a six before being dismissed before being caught. Peachy came in and then came back starting the season with the first of possibly many ducks. Pippy was eventually bowled for 23. Bill Ross scored a tasty little 13 runs before being run out.
Danger Angel scored 25, playing proper cricket shots eventually getting caught. Colin MacKinnon got 2. Finally, the 35 overs were seen out by Raffles and myself. Raffles showing us where PoD learnt how to bat with some lovely shots and me scoring 5 from the two balls that I faced.
With everyone having a bat, we set a challenging target of 180 for the loss of 9 wickets.
|
O. Haine |
Bowled |
1 |
|
D. Wooloff |
Bowled |
37 |
|
J. Mabbett |
L.B.W |
34 |
|
R. Martin |
Bowled |
23 |
|
B. Martin |
Caught |
8 |
|
A. Peach |
Caught |
0 |
|
B. Ross |
Run Out |
13 |
|
S. Bulpitt |
Caught |
25 |
|
A. Mercer |
Not Out |
16 |
|
C. MacKinnon |
Caught |
2 |
|
S. Bramley |
Not Out |
5 |
So, after a nice tea, Danger Angel opened the bowling and second ball the opening batsman edged it and Bill took a sharp catch at first slip above his head (champagne moment). A great start to the innings. DA continued to bowl efficiently and Circus doing the same at the other end. DA took a lovely catch from Peachy’s bowling.
Longdog chased a ball to the boundary and tore a muscle in his thigh making him hop after the ball and collapse on the boundary line. That was it for him for the rest of the game and possibly for a few more games after. Not a good start for the new Saturday skipper.
Pippy managed a comedy dive while he was keeping wicket, flying horizontally to his left to stop a ball (Pigs Ear). Not having kept wicket for years, it was a good performance behind the stumps.
All the remaining wickets were bowled or run out. Everyone got a chance to bowl except myself, which was probably just as well. With 5 overs to go, Cold Ash were starting to creep uncomfortably close to the 180 run target with some strong middle order batting. DA and Circus came back to finish the match and bowled beautifully taking crucial wickets and only letting Cold Ash get 171 for 9.
|
|
Overs |
Maidens |
Runs |
Wickets |
|
S. Bulpitt |
7 |
1 |
28 |
3 |
|
B. Martin |
6 |
0 |
13 |
2 |
|
A. Peach |
5 |
0 |
18 |
1 |
|
B. Ross |
5 |
0 |
24 |
0 |
|
A. Mercer |
4 |
0 |
24 |
0 |
|
J. Mabbett |
4 |
0 |
27 |
0 |
|
C. MacKinnon |
2 |
0 |
13 |
0 |
|
O. Haine |
2 |
0 |
18 |
1 |
A great close game, some good opponents and nice banter. DA won man of the match for his batting, bowling and catch. Roll on next week!