Theale & Tilehurst vs United Services 21st August 2003

Report by Fingers

Tour number 2 of the season and this time it was against Crofty's colleagues at the United Services Cricket Club at Portsmouth (or Southampton if your names Eddie Ellis. Eddie followed me to the ground, unfortunately it appeared that midway through the journey I swapped cars and he was on his way to Southampton before he realised he was following the wrong car- Chef). There was an element of trepidation amongst the team in the pub over lunch before the game not quite sure what the standard of the opposition was going to be. Although that said it didn't seem to put us off our food, perhaps a contribution to the end result? However when we turned up to the ground, they had kindly put out markers for the fielding restrictions, we took this as an ominous sign - Chef On winning the toss skipper Fingers decided that in the interests of the game it would be best for the United Services to bat first. When Rudge clipped the first ball of the innings through wide mid on for an all run four I daresay there were a few people who suddenly thought back to Exmouth. It has to be said that the all run four though would have been a boundary four on any other ground in the known universe, the boundary being so large that if that much open space existed in Reading they'd put a housing estate on it. However, the fourth ball of Chef's first over yorked Rudge to give T&T a moral boosting early breakthrough. A disciplined bowling and fielding performance kept the United Services innings under some sort of control but at 85-2 off 17 overs a score of 230-240 at least was still looking likely. The introduction of Osman to the attack though prompted a flurry of wickets, including Crofty bowled leg stump, and this was continued by Fingers when he swapped ends for his second spell. This included Rags' first stumping for the club as his occasional wicket keeping stays quite regular. The innings closed with a great and typically nonchalant catch by Mike at long on. 167 all out was definitely something that T&T would have settled for before the start of the game. However, it could have been 20 less but for a freak bit of luck for Fargus. Off the final ball of Bob's spell the ball beat the bat and Rags went to throw down the stumps, the ball hit the stumps quite hard with Fargus out of his ground and with the square leg umpire starting to raise his finger the bail that had been dislodged came down and wedged itself between the stumps. The T&T innings got off to an excellent start with James and Ed both looking in good form, particularly Ed on the drive. At 96-0 off 23 overs the hard work looked like it had been done. Notable bowling was from Cleary "The Slug" , his 3 overs for 10 runs is far more complimentary than his team mates - Chef. This was forgetting of course the T&T ability to collapse and snatch defeat from any position. The introduction of Saunders in to the attack prompted the fall of wickets and there was two for Crofty as well. It was the addition of Clarke to the attack and three quick wickets from him which added to the panic in the T&T ranks. The run outs of Chef and Fingers off the first two balls of the penultimate over, before which we were still favourites, which were the final nail in the coffin. So, defeat by 11 runs but it was a very enjoyable game of cricket played at a tremendous venue. Our thanks go to our hosts at the United Services Cricket Club and we look forward to having a return visit next year.

BERKSHIRE LEAGUE SCORECARD
Home Team		United Services						Away Team		Theale abd Tilehurst
Date of Match		21 August 2003						Played at		United Services, Portsmouth

		Team						pts	Result	Team				pts
Result		Theale and Tilehurst							lost to	United Services					by 11 runs

1st Innings of		United Services												Rate Per Over
	Name	How Out			Who			Bowler		4's	6's	Score		Score		W	Bwl
1	W Rudge	bowled						Nigel Halliday		0	0	4	1	4		0	1
2	M Shaw	ct			C Lemm			R Williams		6	0	33	2	5		1	2
3	T Clarke	ct			E Choules			O Mahmood		6	1	41	3	11		1	1
4	M Saunders	ct			M Mason			O Mahmood		0	0	8	4	16		1	2
5	A Saunders	stumped			M Mason			B Cooper		4	0	22	5	26		1	1
6	A Crofts	bowled						O Mahmood		4	0	16	6	30		1	2
7	J Fargus	ct			M Toyer			C Lemm		3	1	28	7	31		1	1
8	M Claydon	ct			O Mahmood			B Cooper		1	0	7	8	41		1	2
9	G Lewis	ct			E Choules			B Cooper		0	0	0	9	47		1	1
10	R Gorman	run out								0	0	2	10	50		1	3
11	D Cleary	not out								0	0	1	11	56		2	4
							Byes	1					12	65		2	3
							Leg Byes	1					13	68		2	4
							Wides	3					14	75		2	3
							No Balls	0					15	80		2	4
									Extras			5	16	83		2	3
													17	85		2	4
							Wickets	10	Total			167	18	86		3	5
													19	86		3	4
Bowling			O	M	R	W							20	92		4	5
1	C Lemm		5.2	0	28	1							21	96		4	4
2	Nigel Halliday		8	0	42	1							22	101		4	5
3	B Cooper		8	0	37	3							23	104		4	4
4	R Williams		8	1	32	1							24	114		5	5
5	O Mahmood		5	0	26	3							25	123		5	4
6													26	127		5	5
7													27	128		6	3
8													28	132		6	2
													29	138		6	3
Fall of Wicket													30	142		6	2
	Score	Outgoing Bat				Stand of							31	147		8	3
1	5	1				5							32	156		8	2
2	56	2				51							33	159		8	3
3	86	3				30							34	166		9	2
4	92	4				6							35	167		10	1
5	114	6				22							36
6	128	5				14							37
7	142	8				14							38
8	147	9				5							39
9	162	10				15							40
10	167	7				5							41
													42
													43
													44
													45
2nd Innings of		Theale and Tilehurst												Rate Per Over
	Name	How Out			Who			Bowler		4's	6's	Score		Score		W	Bwl
1	J Codd	bowled						A Saunders		7	0	40	1	4		0	1
2	E Choules	ct			W Rudge			A Crofts		5	0	44	2	4		0	2
3	M Toyer	ct			M Shaw			T Clarke		1	0	19	3	13		0	1
4	O Mahmood	ct			G Lewis			A Crofts		1	0	5	4	16		0	2
5	M Mason	ct			W Rudge			A Saunders		3	1	19	5	18		0	1
6	J Morris	lbw						T Clarke		0	0	0	6	29		0	2
7	E Ellis	ct			J Fargus			A Saunders		0	0	0	7	29		0	1
8	Nigel Halliday	run out								0	0	0	8	34		0	3
9	C Lemm	not out								1	0	8	9	39		0	1
10	B Cooper	run out								0	0	0	10	40		0	3
11	R Williams	ct			M Shaw			T Clarke		0	0	0	11	46		0	1
							Byes	11					12	50		0	3
							Leg Byes	1					13	51		0	1
							Wides	9					14	59		0	3
							No Balls	0					15	61		0	1
									Extras			21	16	62		0	3
													17	68		0	4
							Wickets	10	Total			156	18	71		0	3
													19	75		0	4
Bowling			O	M	R	W							20	79		0	3
1	G Lewis		8	2	27	0							21	86		0	4
2	D Cleary		3	0	10	0							22	92		0	3
3	R Gorman		8	0	32	0							23	96		0	4
4	A Crofts		8	1	28	2							24	97		1	5
5	A Saunders		8	0	35	3							25	102		1	4
6	T Clarke		3.4	0	12	3							26	104		1	5
7													27	104		2	4
8													28	108		2	5
													29	113		3	4
Fall of Wicket													30	118		3	5
	Score	Outgoing Bat				Stand of							31	119		3	4
1	96	1				96							32	125		3	5
2	104	2				8							33	133		3	6
3	113	4				9							34	141		4	5
4	140	5				27							35	143		5	6
5	143	6				3							36	146		6	5
6	146	7				3							37	148		7	6
7	146	3				0							38	156		7	5
8	156	8				10							39	156		10	6
9	156	10				0							40
10	156	11				0							41
													42
													43
													44
													45