Theale & Tilehurst Friendly XI vs Wargrave 12th June 2005

Report by Fingers

This was a new fixture for T&T at the very pleasant Wargrave ground. On winning the toss James took the rare decision for a T&T skipper this year and chose to bat first. James and Fingers opened the batting and took the score to 31 before Fingers chipped Jeffery to mid off. James was looking well set before he was the next to go to the 1st change bowler Stegman. Stegman’s was a strange spell, a good first over that was quicker than either of the openers had been followed by two overs of aerosol bowling that forced the captain to take him out of the attack.

There was a good partnership between Micky and Ed who put on 87 for the 3rd wicket. Ed was particularly fluent on the cut and drive whilst Micky was playing very well off his legs. The breakthrough came when Ed was somewhat harshly adjudged lbw. Micky went just after reaching fifty and from then on there were useful contributions from all batsmen. Rog and John in particular contributed some lusty blows late on and the T&T innings finished on 216-8 in forty overs.

Picking up on Chef’s match report from yesterday the tea at Wargrave was also one where the ingredients were laid out but you had to make it yourself. Hopefully this is not a trend that will spread. Bob obviously felt the tea was lacking as he seemingly felt obliged to offer up a gourmet buffet to the batsman once the game had restarted. Stegman in particular took the opportunity to sate his appetite as Bob struggled with both his line and length; the problem was that on a very good surface once they had got off to such a start even when Bob did start finding a line and length the batters were able to get the ball away.

James took the only option available to him and changed the bowling at both ends. Fingers made a breakthrough in his first over and then two more in his second including Stegman for 50. This put a brake on the scoring and Rog soon chipped in taking the wickets of Singh and Jeffery in consecutive balls. From 83-0 in no time to 106-5 represented a real recovery and still left Wargrave a long way to go. Robinson and Clarke mounted a recovery before Rog had Robinson caught and bowled and then produced arguably the best ball of the day to clean bowl Clark. When Fingers then had Norris lbw Wargrave had subsided to 137-8 but both Rog and Fingers had bowled out their allotted ten overs.

The batting order for Wargrave was also appearing less than orthodox. Coombes came in at no. 9 and started playing some fine aggressive strokes in a partnership of 30 for the ninth wicket with Bell. Fifty were still needed when Coombes and Owen came together for the final wicket but it was obvious they were no mugs. The run rate was about 8-9 an over but they were just about keeping in touch until in the penultimate over Coombes skied one to deep long on; fortunately it was Ed under the catch which was taken safely to secure a win by 18 runs.

The Sunday side keeps its winning run going and this was one of the best Sunday games we have played in this year.

BERKSHIRE LEAGUE SCORECARD
Home Team		Wargrave						Away Team		Theale and Tilehurst
Date of Match		12th June 2005						Played at		Wargrave

		Team						pts	Result	Team				pts
Result		Theale and Tilehurst							beat	Wargrave

1st Innings of		Theale and Tilehurst												Rate Per Over
	Name	How Out			Who			Bowler		4's	6's	Score		Score	W	Bwl
1	J Codd	ct			C Lunn			A Stegman		4	0	23	1
2	B Cooper	ct			G Bell			S Jeffery		1	0	10	2
3	M Mehta	st			C Lunn			D Owens		9	0	51	3
4	E Choules	lbw						D Owens		6	0	42	4
5	S Wallace	ct			S Jeffery			G Bell		2	0	14	5
6	O Mahmood	st			C Lunn			D Owens		0	0	12	6
7	J Morris	lbw						G Bell		2	0	23	7
8	R Puri	bowled						H Singh		3	0	22	8
9	M Dixon	not out								0	0	1	9
10	P Jenkins	not out								0	0	1	10
11	R Williams	DNB											11
							Byes	5					12
							Leg Byes	6					13
							Wides	6					14
							No Balls	0					15
									Extras			17	16
													17
							Wickets	8	Total			216	18
													19
Bowling			O	M	R	W							20
1	S Jeffery		7	1	18	1							21
2	P Norris		5	0	23	0							22
3	A Stegman		3	0	25	1							23
4	D Robinson		5	1	31	0							24
5	D Owens		10	0	53	3							25
6	G Bell		8	0	43	2							26
7	H Singh		2	0	16	1							27
8													28
													29
Fall of Wicket													30
	Score	Outgoing Bat				Stand of							31
1	31	2				31							32
2	40	1				9							33
3	127	4				87							34
4	156	5				29							35
5	160	3				4							36
6	185	6				25							37
7	207	7				22							38
8	215	8				8							39
9													40
10													41
													42
													43
													44
													45
2nd Innings of		Wargrave												Rate Per Over
	Name	How Out			Who			Bowler		4's	6's	Score		Score	W	Bwl
1	C Lunn	bowled						B Cooper				23	1
2	A Stegman	ct			P Jenkins			B Cooper				50	2
3	A Jeffery	lbw						B Cooper				0	3
4	H Singh	ct			P Jenkins			R Puri				12	4
5	S Jeffery	ct			J Codd			R Puri				6	5
6	N Robinson	ct & b			R Puri			R Puri				18	6
7	M Clark	bowled						R Puri				14	7
8	P Norris	lbw						B Cooper				2	8
9	D Coombes	ct			E Choules			M Mehta				35	9
10	G Bell	bowled						O Mahmood				4	10
11	D Owen	not out										14	11
							Byes	2					12
							Leg Byes	3					13
							Wides	15					14
							No Balls	0					15
									Extras			20	16
													17
							Wickets	10	Total			198	18
													19
Bowling			O	M	R	W							20
1	O Mahmood		9	0	50	1							21
2	R Williams		5	0	51	0							22
3	R Puri		10	1	31	4							23
4	B Cooper		10	3	32	4							24
5	M Mehta		4.3	0	29	1							25
6													26
7													27
8													28
													29
Fall of Wicket													30
	Score	Outgoing Bat				Stand of							31
1	83	1				83							32
2	87	3				4							33
3	88	2				1							34
4	106	4				18							35
5	106	5				0							36
6	137	6				31							37
7	137	8				0							38
8	137	7				0							39
9	167	10				30							40
10	198	9				31							41
													42
													43
													44
													45