Theale & Tilehurst 2nd XI vs Holyport 2 12th May 2001

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Report by PK

After the dismal weather of late it came as a refreshing change to roll up to the ground on a beautiful, scorching hot summers day. The two captains set out to the wicket to complete the formalities, resulting in T & T electing to take the field. Rumor has it on a wicket that looked quite good, the only reason behind this decision was the home captain did not fancy batting first on a wicket that only the previous night was covered in water thanks to yet another thunderstorm.

The two opening bowlers both bowled well at the onset, ably assisted with some sharp fielding by the rest of the team with the first 6 overs being maidens. The first breakthrough came during the 12th over with Roger Puri getting an edge from the oppositions opener and keeper Alex Moore taking a regulatory catch. Osman Mahmood should come in for a special mention here - unluckily not taking a wicket during his first spell of bowling (6 overs for only 4 runs) - and finishing with figures of only 7 runs from 8 overs. Dermot Healy coming on for Osman after his sixth over continued to keep it tight and bowl some truly unplayable deliveries - resulting in making a second breakthrough in only his second over with another good catch from the keeper Moore.

Healy soon added another wicket after only another couple of overs which brought in a batsman who made his intentions known right from the start. Fairly agricultural strokeplay began some resistance from Holyport who had now lost 4 wickets for only 25 runs - the latest being a fine catch from Dave Cumming fielding at gulley who could not believe his luck (or the bowlers) after a fairly wide delivery from Puri outside of off stump was skillfully diverted by the remaining opening bat straight into Dave's hands. Puri then took himself off after the 20th over to make way for Mark Mason from the school end, who immediately began bowling his medium pace inswingers to great effect, eventually taking the aforementioned agriculturist with a ball that was intended to land in the children's playground but ended up by bowling him cleanly. Healy continued to bowl well and grabbed another couple of wickets (including the opposing captain) taking his tally to 4 before eventually being taken off by the skipper after the 32nd over. The opposition after only having turned up with 9 players were now 7 wickets down (but effectively 9) for 72 runs.

Stubborn resistance had been met at the beginning of the last stand until David 'warnie' Withington was brought on from the road end. Bowling only a couple of rather ambiguous deliveries he interspersed these with some really memorable ones completely bamboozling the batsmen. Finally on his 17th delivery he put one on leg stump which the batsmen duly came out to defend only to see it spurt past him with rapidity and take his off stump. Final score for Holyport was 100 all out in 36.5 overs.

After tea, the T & T openers came out to begin work on chopping down the deficit, secure in the knowledge that we had a maximum of 53 overs to be bowled to us. Unfortunately, things did not start too well with debutant opener Cameron Coldman being bowled in the 3rd over with the score on 3. This was quickly followed in the 7th over by Alan Pyke being extremely well caught after middling the ball - and upon entering the clubhouse - openly stating his amazement that the fellow had managed to hang onto it.

Dave Cumming was next in and began solidly, taking singles where necessary and taking care of business with any slightly wayward delivery that happened to come his way. Alex Moore having seen 2 quick wickets fall from the other end obviously had decided that shoring up and supporting Cumming's fluent strokeplay was called for, and this he duly did until being given out leg before during the 17th over with the score on 30. The fall of this wicket brought out Mark Mason carrying the new Slazenger that young Moore had only just finished knocking in. He obviously did a good job with the bat as during the 18th over T & T saw their first boundary from Cumming's which spurred the two batsmen into aggressive but a reasonably safe (only one chance was given by Dave, but was firmly hit and the fielder duly responded by not being able to hang onto it) push towards the required target of 101. Both batsmen began freely taking runs by hitting a further 10 fours supported with quick concise running during the next 10 overs.

The match tied at 100 was decided with a firm push from Cummings past mid-on for the required single. A good 4th wicket unbeaten partnership of 71 between Cumming 45* and Mason 33* (only 4 short of the 2 XI record) had seen the 2 XI to their first victory of the 2001 campaign.