Theale & Tilehurst 1st XI vs Embrook & Bearwood 10th July 2005

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Report by Fingers

Having lost our first game last week it was important to get back to winning ways quickly; losing is just as much a habit as winning and can be more easily and quickly picked up.

Cat won the toss again and again we took to the field (are there any other teams out there that have done the same thing first in every game of the season so far?). As usual DFS was late and as seems to be the case we waited until he arrived before we took our first wicket, the only problem being that this week it was the tenth over before he took to the field. Despite the lack of wickets the run rate was under control; as in the first game of the season E&B had reached 100 off 30 overs with wickets in hand. Again they didn’t really capitalise on this position as wickets started to fall quickly.

Whereas the destroyer in chief last time had been Jamil this time it was Chilly. With his clever left arm spin he picked up four wickets including the final wicket of Will Layne with the first ball of the last over. Having been below our best in the field at Shinfield last week this was T&T back to how we have been for most of the season. There were no dropped catches and two very good run outs, one a direct hit by Jamil to get rid of Wolfe and another good piece of work by Cat to run out Alan Clacey near the end of the innings.

Having batted second in every game we should be getting quite good at chasing and know the basic rules, a position of 46-6 suggests we haven’t quite mastered it yet though. James got the innings off to a flier and in the process went through 8,000 runs for the club. He was the first to go and this prompted the collapse that reached its nadir at 46-6. Unlike the game at Shinfield, which E&B seemed keen to remind us of during the innings, we did have a top order batsman at the crease in Dopey and he and Chef started to rebuild the innings. They managed to see off Matt Hayman who bowled well to take 4-40 in 15 overs straight off and were then able to start to lift the scoring rate; Phipps first over helped do this as the first ball went for five no-balls and this was followed by a misfield that went for four and a two over throws, there’s nothing like helping your team mate when he’s struggling.

It looked like Dopey and Chef might take us all the way but then Chef was struck by a quick full toss just below waist height that hit in the most painful of areas. He managed to keep going but was dismissed soon after having scored a very well made 32 in a partnership of over 80. There were still 48 runs needed to win in about ten overs as Fingers joined Dopey at the crease. They were able to keep the score ticking over and by putting away the odd bad ball kept up with the rate; as we reached the final over three runs were needed.

The first ball was short and wide of off stump, Dopey looked to have cut the ball for four to win the game until the fielder at backward point took an excellent one handed catch. Lemmy came in and faced two dot balls to leave three needed off three; there was a scampered leg bye followed by a single to leave Lemmy on strike with one needed off the last ball. The ball hit the pad, there was a shout for lbw and in the confusion a further leg bye was completed to give us the narrowest of victories.

The winning line was out of sight at 46-6 but the partnership between Dopey and Chef was superb, in the process they both probably played their best innings for the first eleven and did so when it really mattered. With Shinfield having beaten MWE things remain very tight at the top, all we can do is keep on winning and make the others catch us if they can.