Theale and Tilehurst vs Marlow Park 8th August 2004

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Report by Fingers

At 39-6 in the twelfth over and walking back to the pavilion after a first ball duck Osman must have been reflecting on the wisdom of saying “we’ll have a bat thanks” on winning the toss, others were potentially reflecting on what the longest beer match they had played in was. For Marlow Park Howlin had bowled with good pace coming down the hill and Holland, having bowled a good line and length, was poised on a hat-trick.

Fingers survived the hat-trick ball but was lucky to still be at the crease when a leg side stumping chance was missed second ball after he over balanced. The good news for T&T was that Dopey was still at the crease so if someone could hang around there was still the chance of some runs.

The initial plan between Dopey and Fingers was survival, to bat some time and see where they got to. The change bowling was not as challenging as the opening bowling had been and survival moved in to run accumulation as the fifty partnership was raised. The 100 was then reached and T&T were threatening to get themselves vaguely in to the game. When the partnership reached 94 it set a new club record for the seventh wicket beating that by Chris Lemm and Mo Iqbal for the firsts against Reading Civil Service in June 2001.

However, the partnership was far from done. Dopey had passed fifty and was starting to play in a way that very few at the club can match, finding the boundary on a regular basis as the scoring rate accelerated. More landmarks were reached as the 150 partnership was posted, Dopey reached three figures (his third for T&T and eighth in all) and finally Fingers reached fifty.

The partnership was finally ended in the final over with 172 having been added in 32 overs for the seventh wicket as Fingers was bowled having a hit across the line to give Holland a well deserved five-fer.

Despite the recovery 215-7 probably only just represented par for the course and in reality was probably a few short. Os took an early caught and bowled but then Slater and Hatch came together to form a fine partnership for the second wicket. Bob was struggling with his length and Steve was suffering from having to bowl with the short leg side boundary. It was the slow bowling of Imran and Fingers that prompted a slow down in the scoring rate and led to wickets falling. During the last twenty overs of the innings the scoring rate required stayed at or around the five run per over mark but it looked like Howlin was going to steer the innings home for Marlow Park. When he went caught and bowled the game was open again and going in to the final over 8 were needed with two wickets in hand.

Two runs were taken off the first four balls of Fingers’ over but just as T&T were thinking they may get out of the game with a draw Holland took the long handle approach, swung the bat hard and sent the ball over the mid-wicket boundary for six to give Marlow Park victory with one ball remaining.

So ended an excellent game of cricket played on a good pitch and in a superb setting by the river. What was more there was even Dermot Reeve present to provide a commentary on the afternoon’s events (albeit those on the river in the dragon boat racing).