Theale & Tilehurst 1st XI vs MWE 26th May 2001

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Report by Mr Ed

This was a memorable victory for the club, and one of the best games of cricket I've played. We have rarely performed well against Mortimer West End, and to beat them at their ground was fantastic. Twenty-nine points in the league is no bad thing either.

Things started off badly for T&T however, with James Codd out for a duck in the first over. The innings continued to falter with myself and Martyn Pyke both out bowled driving loosely, and it was only Dennis Robertson of the top order who made any sort of contribution making a determined twenty-eight. At sixty-one for seven we were in any number of clichés you could care to think about, another below par batting performance looking like it would consign us to another defeat to MWE and continue our poor start to the season.

The situation however was not entirely helpless; Chris Lemm, who had batted so well against Broadmoor earlier in the week, was next man in, and the alcohol-inspired performer had been on the razz the night before. Chris got off the mark with a streaky edge for four, and both he and Brian Cooper enjoyed some luck early on, but gradually through a combination of aggressive running and clean hitting from Chris, they began to form an excellent eighth wicket partnership of eighty which allowed us to reach 163 in our forty-five overs. Gary Watts of MWE should be applauded for his stamina in bowling all the way through the innings taking four wickets in the process.

After such a bad start, getting to that total was a fine effort and ensured that the team was on the up when it went out to field. However, on a good track, against a strong MWE batting line up there was still an awful lot of work to do. When a team is not playing well, all the luck seems to go against them, however today things were finally going our way. A Hobart was needlessly run out which gave us an early wicket to keep the momentum on our side. Shortly afterwards Phil Jenkins took a splendid catch down the leg-side to dismiss Searancke.

MWE kept pushing the score along, with Patel looking particularly fluent, but we were continuing to bowl and field well. Mo then made the breakthrough bowling out Patel and we then took three more quick wickets with some fine catches held by Chris, myself and James.

At the drinks break, MWE were in trouble at 79-6, but with Steve Honour and Paul Belcher they had two batsmen who had scored plenty of runs against us in the past, so the match was very much in the balance. It seemed almost inevitable that these two would put some runs on and of course they did. After a splendid spell of sixteen overs in which Mo Iqbal had taken three wickets, 'Count' Johnson was brought onto bowl giving his cape to the umpire. Initially even Andy couldn't make the breakthrough and with only seventeen runs required with four wickets still intact, MWE were looking the firm favourites.

At this point I made my most significant contribution to the match. At the fall of the previous wickets, Martyn and myself celebrated with reenactments of famous goal celebrations, including Bobby Charlton (v Mexico '66), Maradona (USA WCup '94), Strachan (Mexico Wcup 86), Heskey and Michael Thomas. During the seventh wicket partnership I couldn't think of my next routine, and I was concerned that if I didn't come up with one soon we'd lose the game. Eventually I came up with Bebetto, and sure enough shortly afterwards a great catch from Steve Pyke diving forward broke the seventh wicket partnership.

Nigel Halliday took a fine catch coming over his head, to keep us in with a shout of winning. With only two wickets required, Dennis proved that our fielding was not infallible and dropped a chance he would normally have taken. The match went into its final over with us still requiring two wickets and MWE needing seven runs, but with Paul Belcher still at the wicket. Andy's first ball was spooned up into the covers and the catch was greatly received by James, however the batsmen had changed ends and now the dangerous Paul Belcher was at the strikers end. On the third ball, Paul hit a lofted on-drive, which looked at first that it might go all the way for six, but the reliable (in catching if not in timekeeping) Martyn was underneath it and the catch was held. Victory by six runs!

All very Boys Own I'll have to admit, but this was a great game of cricket, which we won after looking dead and buried, and the win was all the more enjoyable as it was against our bogey-team. The team spirit on the field was tremendous, the bowlers performed well, the fielding was excellent with eight catches been taken overall, and the side was well led by Brian. Obviously we are still having problems with our top order batting, but I think this will now improve now we have the confidence of a great win behind us.