Theale & Tilehurst 1st XI vs Stratfield Turgis 25th June 2005

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Report by Fingers

After all the rain on Friday the preference had to be win the toss and bowl; put the opposition under pressure and try and roll them over for a low total (having seen the results for division 4 this tactic seemed to work in every game there). Fortunately Cat managed to carry on inspiring opposition captains to call incorrectly and had no hesitation in choosing to field. Inevitably we started with ten in the field as the DFS man obviously had problems again in getting off the sethi to get along to the game.

The lack of an extra fielder didn't hurt though and indeed the first wicket came from a run out. From the second ball of the game Danny Spence had played an imperious cover drive, but it wasn't to last long. He chipped a ball in the third over back to Lemmy but it just fell short as he dived forward to try and take the catch. With the ball now on the ground two yards away Danny decided there was a single, now to some bowlers in T&T he was probably right (it would take that long to get the winch out to get them back upright) but Chris popped straight back up and ran him out by three yards.

With the seconds not having a game Doc obviously realised that there were some Halliday wickets up for grabs: Martin Sandland got one that bounced a bit extra and gloved it to the keeper before A Sandland played an ambitious drive and similarly was caught behind. With Doc having taken a couple of wickets Lemmy announced that if he didn't take a wicket he would retire; very sensibly Cat asked him immediately if he would be available to umpire next week.

However, Lemmy was not to be denied as A Headford was caught at first slip off Lemmy, another dismissal to an overly ambitious shot. At 34-6 Stratfield were in very deep trouble. Shaun Spence though had seemingly been drifting down the order with a view to keeping away from the new ball and to see if he could do some damage later in the innings. He and Steve Clarke started to build a partnership until Lemmy got another breakthrough when Spence became a third catch for Phil behind the stumps.

The Strafield lower order struggled to survive against the T&T attack. Steve Clark was still there though and in the penultimate over showed what he could have done if only someone could have stayed with him; he hit Jamil straight back over his head for six and when he tried to drop the ball in to the covers for one to keep the strike timed it so well it went for four. The final wicket fell in the next over and left Clarke high and dry on 46 not out having carried his bat.

With Stratfield having been dismissed in the 31st over T&T were left with an awkward half hour to bat before tea. Shaun Spence worked up a good head of steam but generally bowled too short, he did get the first breakthrough though when James was adjudged caught behind in the final over before tea with the score on 22.

A couple of quick wickets after tea could have made it interesting but they did not come. It was left to Cat and Jamil with increasing fluency to see us home to victory by nine wickets with plenty of overs to spare.

Next week comes perhaps the biggest challenge of the season to date; Shinfield, who have been close behind us most of the time, away from home. The game marks the half way point of the season and will give us a clear impression of where we are and what we have to do in the second half of the season.