Theale & Tilehurst Friendly XI vs Old Basing 8th May 2005

Report by Fingers

It had become apparent that Old Basing were struggling for a team on Saturday. We drafted in an extra player and it was James in the end that volunteered to play for the opposition.

Old Basing won the toss and elected to field on what looked a decent pitch but with a very large outfield. Micky and Meady opened up against the youthful Turner and Charles. The bowlers kept it tight initially and Micky was the first to go when he toe ended a full toss to mid on. Things didn't immediately get any better and at 29-3 with Meady and Ed also gone there were concerns about where the runs would come from.

There was also another severe concern. The weather forecast had suggested good weather and I had dressed accordingly. As is often the case on Sunday Bob and I started the umpiring and what had been a nice sunny day started to cloud over, the heavens then opened and rather than just rain a hail storm started. There was a loud pinging noise as the hail deflected off Meady's helmet and Ed pulled away as the bowler ran up out of sheer confusion, why was he batting in hail? Fortunately the storm only lasted a couple of minutes but long enough for me to confirm that the correct attire for umpiring in a hail storm is not shorts and sandals. To add to the four seasons in one day theme it snowed briefly at tea.

Back to the game and things weren't getting any better. The nadir came at 70-8 when I joined Os at the crease. Os is developing in to a good batsman and a big score must be imminent. As it was he narrowly missed out again on a fifty as we added 56 for the ninth wicket and eventually got the total up to 131-9. This was probably below par for the conditions.

James opened up for Old Basing but unfortunately his prevailing bad luck was demonstrated yet further when Micky hung on to a catch at slip in the first over. Pope threatened briefly with a couple of well struck boundaries before Bob nipped a full length ball back in to him to take middle stump. In between Ian had taken an excellent diving catch at short extra cover to get rid of P Turner.

At the end of the 17th over the score was 40-5 when I came on to bowl. The first ball was a waist high full toss which D Turner hit straight to Stephen at square leg; however, the definition of quick bowling in Hampshire is obviously on a different scale and the ball was called a no-ball. Not to worry, next ball the same batsman chipped the ball to Os at mid-wicket. Then to the next ball Thane inside edged one that Ed took behind the stumps for a hat trick of sorts. To the final ball of the over Charles chipped a ball to Stephen at square leg for a genuine catch. Things were moving on at a pace.

Arsalan finished the game in the next over when he bowled Brown to secure victory by 88 runs, not exactly the anticipated winning margin when we had concluded our innings at 131-9.

BERKSHIRE LEAGUE SCORECARD
Home Team		Old Basing						Away Team		Theale and Tilehurst
Date of Match		8th May 2005						Played at		Theale

		Team						pts	Result	Team				pts
Result		Theale and Tilehurst							beat	Old Basing

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			P Turner			D Turner		0	0	2	1
2	P Mead	bowled						D Turner		0	0	13	2
3	E Choules	lbw						S Joseph		0	0	3	3
4	J Morris	ct			D Turner			S Joseph		1	0	9	4
5	S Wallace	bowled						S Joseph		0	0	5	5
6	O Mahmood	ct			S Charles			D Turner		3	0	43	6
7	M Mason	ct & b						A Vyas		0	0	1	7
8	I Reeves	ct			J Codd			A Vyas		1	0	7	8
9	A Ahmed	bowled						A Vyas		0	0	1	9
10	B Cooper	not out								0	0	23	10
11	R Williams	not out								0	0	0	11
							Byes	9					12
							Leg Byes	3					13
							Wides	3					14
							No Balls	9					15
									Extras			24	16
													17
							Wickets	9	Total			131	18
													19
Bowling			O	M	R	W							20
1	D Turner		10	1	25	3							21
2	S Charles		8	3	13	0							22
3	S Joseph		6	0	21	3							23
4	A Vyas		7	1	26	3							24
5	M Brown		4	0	16	0							25
6	B Thane		5	0	18	0							26
7													27
8													28
													29
Fall of Wicket													30
	Score	Outgoing Bat				Stand of							31
1	15	1				15							32
2	24	2				9							33
3	29	3				5							34
4	46	4				17							35
5	56	5				10							36
6	57	7				1							37
7	66	8				9							38
8	70	9				4							39
9	126	6				56							40
10													41
													42
													43
													44
													45
2nd Innings of		Old Basing												Rate Per Over
	Name	How Out			Who			Bowler		4's	6's	Score		Score	W	Bwl
1	P Turner	ct			I Reeves			O Mahmood		0	0	5	1
2	J Codd	ct			M Mehta			O Mahmood		0	0	0	2
3	A Pope	bowled						R Williams		2	0	12	3
4	S Joseph	ct			B Cooper			R Williams		2	0	10	4
5	D Turner	ct			O Mahmood			B Cooper		1	0	8	5
6	A Brown	bowled						A Ahmed		0	0	0	6
7	A Vyas	not out								0	0	1	7
8	B Thane	ct			E Choules			B Cooper		0	0	0	8
9	S Charles	ct			S Wallace			B Cooper		0	0	0	9
10	M Brown	bowled						A Ahmed		0	0	0	10
11	-												11
							Byes	0					12
							Leg Byes	0					13
							Wides	5					14
							No Balls	2					15
									Extras			7	16
													17
							Wickets	ao	Total			43	18
													19
Bowling			O	M	R	W							20
1	O Mahmood		7	3	16	2							21
2	R Williams		8	4	15	2							22
3	A Ahmed		3	0	11	2							23
4	B Cooper		1	0	1	3							24
5													25
6													26
7													27
8													28
													29
Fall of Wicket													30
	Score	Outgoing Bat				Stand of							31
1	0	2				0							32
2	16	1				16							33
3	23	3				7							34
4	31	4				8							35
5	31	6				0							36
6	41	5				10							37
7	41	8				0							38
8	41	9				0							39
9	43	10				2							40
10													41
													42
													43
													44
													45