Theale & Tilehurst Friendly XI vs Englefield 24th June 2001

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Report by Fingers

Do you ever get that feeling that Sunday mornings aren't supposed to be quiet and relaxing? The first one in weeks when there hasn't been a colt's game and the anticipation is of a leisurely breakfast and read of the paper. What a mistake.

The 'phone rings and Eddie Newman, the Englefield captain, says he's only got 8 players. What do we do? Well, on a day with clear blue sky and the promise of a Mike Orriss tea (and what a great one it was) we certainly play. Countless 'phone calls gets one more player. A rushed lunch, what happened to the quiet Sunday morning?

At the game Bob Williams kindly agrees to play for Englefield to help them out and Brian Cooper embarks on a 67.3 over fielding marathon so that they have ten in the field. Captain James Codd wins the toss and hurriedly elects to bat on what looks like another flat Theale batting track.

Theale and Tilehurst get off to a flier with 45 on the board in the opening five overs. Codd and Moore continue on to set a new opening wicket record of 128 for the club in friendly cricket. The partnership was finally broken by a run out that had been trailed some overs before, it seemed that the batsmen had decided to try and make the balance between bat and ball more even by agreeing that only one of them should run at any one time. It was, however, refreshing to see how the boy Moore handled missing out on the chance of a really big score. There was no sound of crashing bats etc. coming from the changing rooms following his dismissal, or so Dave Cumming would have said had he been there.

Codd continued on to his second hundred in three Sunday games and was again well supported by Robertson (60no) who reinforced his reputation of only being able to manage it once a week. Good late hitting from Mason (44) saw a club record score set for the second time in three weeks.

The Englefield reply got off to a disastrous start with Eckersley driving Lemm straight to cover, White being run out by a direct hit from third man by Cooper and Newman being bowled by a delivery from Mahmood that pitched on middle and hit off. Wickets continued to fall with Aslam taking 2-10 in a fine spell of outswing bowling and Mason and Cooper picking up a wicket apiece. The bowlers were supported by an excellent all round fielding performance.

A win by 227 runs is probably the largest that Theale and Tilehurst have ever had and as a record stands a good chance of surviving for some time. Thanks go to Englefield for turning up short and making a game possible, it would certainly have been frustrating not to have played at all.