Theale & Tilehurst 2nd XI vs Crowthorne 19th May 2001

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Report by PK

For those of you that remember the friendly match last year against Crown Wood at Braybrooke park in Bracknell, you can probably guess the trepidation some of us felt at re-visiting the ground to play Crowthorne in a league match.

As Captain I accompanied my opposite number to the middle noticing with quiet discomfort that whilst walking across the outfield that each footstep seemed to cause me to sink lower into the ground !! - there are definately not going to be too many boundaries today - After making an erroneous call of heads we were promptly put into bat - they must of been reading my mind on that one.

It was soon apparent that our reservations on the wicket were quite correct with the ball seeming to do all sorts of things, from rolling along the ground to passing a few noses - all this from relatively good length balls. It was obvious that this would be a low scoring game and so it proved to be. Derek Partridge on his first outing of the year proved how application and hard graft can extend an innings lasting until the 23rd over before being caught for 19 - I have to say here that it was probably worth a fifty on a normal wicket. Steve Pyke was the next notable effort, absolutely crucifying a few deliveries only to get the odd single from them. The ball, if hit along the ground soon began to find that once off the square - the outfield just acted like an formula one braking system.

Alan Pyke hit for me the shot of the day - a rather large six wide of mid-on - in a cameo innings of 13 before being well caught by the wicketkeeper. All things being considered we did well to reach the total off 100 before being bowled out.

Crowthorne's reply began well enough with the first wicket falling in the 14th over - lucky for us the they were finding the wicket equally difficult to score from - this going to the old campaigner Dermot Healy. Osman Mahmood bowled especially well - 22 runs from 13 overs and unlucky to only get the 1 wicket. A little bit of fantasy league insider information here - Ossie has now bowled 31 overs in league games this year and has only been taken for 50 runs.

Mark Mason also bowled well - a tidy 7 overs going for only 15 runs kept Crowthorne struggling for runs.

The next noteworthy was yours truly - I would like to say that I bowled like a demon and was just completely unplayable but that would be a downright lie - as it worked out - coming on after Ossies first spell of 6 overs for which he had only gone for 4 runs - I utilised the pitch condition to my advantage, bending my back a bit and trying to bang the ball in on a rather just more than full length with the occasional slower delivery thrown in. I managed to get all the luck that the others had not - and aided by two catches from Pyke senior at slip (one of them truly memorable with the ball travelling at what seemed like a zillion mph) - somehow contrived to obtain figures of 5 wickets for 5 runs off 10 overs. It has to be said - I was starting to like this wicket - but only if I could bowl in both innings.

The end of the game was tense - with the opposing skipper 30 no and during the last over needing 7 to win - Ossie bowled the last over well - holding up under the pressure assigned to him and keeping the final score to 99. A hard fought game in which the sportsmanship of both sides was excellent under exacting conditions - and though not having won the game I was satisfied with coming away with a winning draw.