Theale & Tilehurst Friendly XI vs Little Marlow 22nd May 2005

BACK

Report by Fingers

After the complete wash out of all three games on Saturday it was a relief to get a game in at all; it seemed that going east was the right thing to do as heavy rain in Reading would probably have made the game another wash out if it had been scheduled at home.

James was back at the helm and after winning the toss elected to bowl, probably due to the dampness in what looked an excellent pitch and a team that looked stronger in batting than bowling. Bob and Micky opened the bowling and there was an early chance when Ali edged one in the first over, the president just failing to get his hand underneath the ball diving (or falling depending on how charitable you are being) forward at first slip.

Ali and Armitage got the Little Marlow innings off to a decent start before Ali was the first to go. To the ball before there had been a big appeal for a caught behind turned down but Bob and Rags were not going to be denied as Rags caught Ali out of his ground with an under am throw to have him stumped. Micky made the next two breakthroughs as he bowled both Mahmood and Armitage of their pads as he found some prodigious in swing. Gordon was making his debut for the club and had marked the occasion by tweaking a hamstring chasing a ball out to deep mid wicket (full marks here to Spike by testing his commitment to the club by doing nothing to help him as the nearest fielder other than watch and see how long it was before Gordon would give up the chase). This necessitated a move for Gordon as he took up a posting at second slip and a couple of overs later he held on to a sharp catch off Bob for the fourth wicket.

After the new ball burst (perhaps slow controlled release of air would better describe it) the all spin attack of Chilly and Fingers was introduced. The partnership that most threatened for Little Marlow was that between Rashid and Sharif which Chilly ended when he had Sharif caught at long on for the first of three catches for Mike.

After this Chilly and Fingers worked their way through the Little Marlow batting line up. There was an entertaining diversion from Mansoor who stood very deep in the crease and to the first three balls he received swung violently and missed, alas so had Chilly. The fourth was at last straight and needless to say disappeared over wide long on for six.

162 all out represented a good effort in the field, four of the Little Marlow batsman had got in but had not been able to go on and play the type of innings needed to post a par score of about 220. In an extended game T&T had the best part of fifty overs to get the runs needed for victory.

[Just a note here on the lost art of scoring a cricket match; I know that all teams aren’t statistically minded but for the second week running the scorebook required major corrective surgery at tea. The scorebook showed Chilly with one wicket and me with five; much as I tried to argue that our collective memory of what had just happened must have been confused and we should go with what had been recorded by the independent observer it was agreed that Chilly should have his four wickets and me two.]

Eddie and James opened up for T&T and initially it was the president who was the more fluent. It was the twentieth over before the first wicket fell when Eddie was late on a pull shot and only managed to scoop up a return catch. Initially James was struggling for his form but was able to stay at the crease and wait for the bad ball to put away, this is illustrated by the fact that his 89 included 18 fours and 17 singles. However, once he had got past fifty his form started to return and he was able to play in the style which we all know that he can finding the boundary on a regular basis. Whilst this was going on Micky was very happy to play in a support role.

Having scored a century on his other visit to Little Marlow Mike was needless to say keen to get to the middle, with runs ticking away his chance was disappearing and as the president suggested it’s no good having lucky grounds if you can’t get to the middle; Mike replied by enquiring how many grounds the president averaged over 100 at. Micky obviously sensed this frustration on Mike’s part and with the scores level kindly got out so that Mike could have a bat. I’m sure that Mike was grateful and will treasure his two ball 0no as much as his previous innings on the ground, at least he maintained his 100+ average. Fittingly it was left to James to hit the winning runs just before the rain came, rain that had been threatening for the best part of an hour but which the batsman at the crease had been a lot less concerned about than those watching from the pavilion.