Theale & Tilehurst vs Holyport 25th April 2004

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Report by Fingers

The season got in to full swing with the first Sunday game of the season which saw the visit of Holyport.

Holyport won the toss and elected to bat so T&T took to the field with an attack that was more suited to the end of summer than an early season track with a bit of dampness in it to assist the seamer.

Bob and Rog shared the new ball and it was Rog who made the initial breakthrough with his third ball when Cox was caught at point by Mike Toyer. Rog had struggled with his bowling for most of last season and it was good to see him having regained his line and length and being very hard to get away.

The second wicket was some time in coming as Fowler and Morgan added 50 for the second wicket. The partnership was only broken when Edward took a very sharp catch at slip off Bob, the batsman certainly seemed incredulous that the catch had been taken.

A second 50 partnership followed with Cameron on his return to the side after a season away very unlucky not to take a wicket. The breakthrough came when White was caught at deep mid wicket by Dennis to give Fingers his first wicket of the afternoon. His second followed to the next ball when Dean was adjudged lbw. Without ever looking entirely convincing Fingers was on his way to a six-fer. Whereas the aerial shots off the other bowlers seemed to find the gaps those from Fingers on enough occasions found those with safe hands, there was also a stumping for Alex on his first appearance behind the stumps since he took a nasty blow in the mouth at the end of last season.

The Holyport innings ended on 178-9 which was in large part due to an excellent 64 from Paul Morgan and gave them a very competitive total to defend.

The T&T innings got off to a good start with Cameron and James adding 47 before James was out in the 13th over. The dismissal was not the highest quality piece of cricket, a slow leg stump full toss skied to square leg. Cameron soon followed and this heralded a fine partnership between Dennis and Mike of 100.

Mike seems to have found the shift from globetrotter to the world of work a bit tough. However, we thought the pay off might be having him for the full season. Needless to say Mike announced after the game that he's off to South Africa for two weeks so he won't be around for a while yet. Unfortunately in the process of his innings one of Mike's shots hit Bush in the mouth as he dived forward to try and make the catch, Pete kindly took him to hospital and we hope he is soon better and back on the field of play.

With the score on 152-2 only 27 were needed off eight overs and a straightforward victory seemed to be on the cards. I don't know if other teams get as nervous as we seem to in what would appear to be strong positions but whilst victory arrived it wasn't in the straightforward manner that it could have been.

When Mike was fourth out only seven were needed with 3 overs to get them but there was an air of panic. First John was run out going for a third (at least we got two from it) and this was soon followed by Alex being run out without facing a ball. As it was Ed struck the winning run off the first ball of the final over to eventually secure victory for T&T.