Theale & Tilehurst Friendly XI vs Eversley 16th April 2005

Report by Fingers

The first game of the season and a new man at the helm with new second team skipper Micky Mehta in charge. Due to heavy rain on Friday evening the pitch was very wet at the start and both teams no doubt were keen to win the toss and have a bowl. Micky lost the toss, leading to the inevitable "useless tosser" jokes and Eversley inevitably put us in to bat.

Micky and Dennis opened up and managed to survive the opening spells but on a slow pitch and outfield they were struggling to keep the scoreboard moving. When Dennis became the first to go in the 18th over the score had only reached 31.

Micky and Meady continued to make steady progress until things changed dramatically in the 26th over. Meady was out to the third ball of the over giving slip catching practice, Tim chipped the next ball to mid-on and to the final ball of the over Alex was run out going for a second.

This brought Chef to the crease and he gave the innings some much needed impetus. Having been on a coaches' course the week before and taught how to play the pull shot in to the ground he stoically ignored this advice and got the innings going with a one bounce four immediately followed by a six.

Unfortunately he wasn't able to keep it going and possibly get us up to 150 and when Micky finally went for a patient and well made 49 it was left to Rags to strike some late boundaries and get us up to 130.

If we could get early wickets this was a defendable total. Bob made an early breakthrough having Mission caught at point by a beached whale (or at least Dennis doing an impression of one). Just as his spell was coming to an end he took a second wicket which encouraged Micky to keep him going. Unfortunately by this time Eversley skipper O'Kelly was just starting to get in to his stride. He helped himself to 14 of Bob's final over and continued on his way towards 50 with some powerful hitting, including three sixes off Fingers as they had a good dual.

As it was Eversley eventually ran out comfortable winners by 7 wickets with lots of time to spare. However, one objective was achieved which was to get out on the field and start preparations for the league season.

BERKSHIRE LEAGUE SCORECARD
Home Team		Theale and Tilehurst						Away Team		Eversley
Date of Match		16 April 2005						Played at		Theale

		Team						pts	Result	Team				pts
Result		Eversley							beat	Theale and Tilehurst

1st Innings of		Theale and Tilehurst												Rate Per Over
	Name	How Out			Who			Bowler		4's	6's	Score		Score	W	Bwl
1	M Mehta	ct						C Elliott		3	0	49	1
2	D Robertson	bowled						J Collen		1	0	10	2
3	P Mead	ct			Mission			Shears		0	0	1	3
4	T Sethi	ct			R Elliott			Shears		0	0	0	4
5	A Moore	run out								0	0	1	5
6	Nigel Halliday	bowled						G Whelan		4	1	25	6
7	B Cooper	run out								0	0	1	7
8	M Mason	not out								3	0	20	8
9	P Jenkins	not out								0	0	2	9
10	A Rutter	DNB											10
11	R Williams	DNB											11
							Byes	2					12
							Leg Byes	4					13
							Wides	13					14
							No Balls	2					15
									Extras			21	16
													17
							Wickets	7	Total			130	18
													19
Bowling			O	M	R	W							20
1	C Elliott		9	2	19	1							21
2	G Whelan		10	3	13	1							22
3	O'Kelly		4	0	10	0							23
4	J Collen		5	0	18	1							24
5	Elsbury		6	2	18	0							25
6	Shears		5	0	24	2							26
7	Dylan		6	1	24	0							27
8													28
													29
Fall of Wicket													30
	Score	Outgoing Bat				Stand of							31
1	31	2				31							32
2	47	3				16							33
3	47	4				0							34
4	48	5				1							35
5	94	6				46							36
6	95	7				1							37
7	121	1				26							38
8													39
9													40
10													41
													42
													43
													44
													45
2nd Innings of		Eversley												Rate Per Over
	Name	How Out			Who			Bowler		4's	6's	Score		Score	W	Bwl
1	P Mission	ct			D Robertson			R Williams		-	-	6	1
2	M David	bowled						R Williams		-	-	16	2
3	A O'Kelly	not out								-	-	65	3
4	R Elliot	bowled						B Cooper		-	-	8	4
5	B Saville	not out								-	-	22	5
6	C Elliott	DNB											6
7	G Whelan	DNB											7
8	J Collen	DNB											8
9	Elsbury	DNB											9
10	Shears	DNB											10
11	Dylan	DNB											11
							Byes	3					12
							Leg Byes	3					13
							Wides	8					14
							No Balls	0					15
									Extras			14	16
													17
							Wickets		Total			131	18
													19
Bowling			O	M	R	W							20
1	R Williams		8	1	38	2							21
2	A Rutter		6	2	8	0							22
3	B Cooper		6	1	38	1							23
4	Nigel Halliday		4	0	16	0							24
5	M Mason		2.1	0	9	0							25
6	M Mehta		2	0	15	0							26
7													27
8													28
													29
Fall of Wicket													30
	Score	Outgoing Bat				Stand of							31
1						0							32
2						0							33
3						0							34
4						0							35
5						0							36
6						0							37
7													38
8													39
9													40
10													41
													42
													43
													44
													45