Swinbrook (H) – Telegraph Cup

The match began the usual way with Wantage’s illustrious leader partaking in the ritual of tossing a coin and then asking the opposition’s captain what he would prefer to do. We were put into bat and after a short interlude Wantage was one wicket down. Chappers managed bat on ball and was not given out LBW however he was given out caught. Barry scored a 40 before he was caught out but not before having an altercation with a bowler who said that Barry was a good batsmen when he played straight and Barry replied with, “wish I could say the same about your bowling”. Good old Baz. The rest of the top order did not manage to get in as the wicket was slow which made Swinbrook’s slow bowlers hard to get away, if you manage too, if the ball was not hit over the boundary without a bounce it was unlikely to reach it.

The middle to lower order managed a stand when Timmy and Ryan scored a hard worked 70 odd before Timmy lost his wicket. Ryan, however, managed to endure all the uneven bounce and wide eyed hit me balls to get through to the final over. Chief scored a single off the second ball to put Ryan on strike. Ryan took a couple of steps down the wicket to get to the pitch of the ball and stroked the ball back over the bowlers head for a six. That meant Ryan needed 6 runs to score his 50 which he managed in the next ball. Wantage ended on 181 for 9.

After a delightfully fruity tea thanks to Dave it was now Swinbrook’s turn to bat. Wantage opened the bowling with Ryan and Will Harvey. Swinbrook did not put up much of a fight and did not seem very interested in scoring very quickly. Mr Channel took a couple of wickets and Barry manage 4 wickets for not many more runs which left Swinbrook well behind the rate. A total of 82 was all they could amassed. A mention has to be made about the run out from a direct hit from the boundary on one stump as that was all that could be seen from that particular angle. This was the champagne moment of the match. Wantage are through to the next round.

~Ryan Martin