Theale & Tilehurst 1st XI vs Warfield 16th July 2005

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Report by Fingers

I pointed out last week that we have fielded first every game so far this season;I thought this might put the kiss of death on Cat's ability to win to toss but not a bit of it. Another won toss, in the field again.

With Lemmy being a bit late Chef was invited to open the bowling. On club day last week his last ball had cost 11 runs (5 wides followed by a six); today he started with 5 wides followed by a further wide. This meant that he had bowled one legitimate ball for 17 runs, an economy rate of 102 per over. Fortunately his first legitimate ball of the game was a decent one and was nicked to the keeper, 6-1 after one ball (it's worth noting that we were only able to take a wicket this early as DFS had arrived early and was on the field for the first over).

Lemmy soon joined the fray with the ball and it was soon apparent that this would be a low scoring game. I'm not normally one to criticise the opposition or their facilities but this turned out to be one of the worst pitches I have played on for some time. If a pitch consistently pops you know to play back, if it shoots you know to get forward; when it does both you don't know whether to stick or twist and know a ball with your number is coming along soon enough. Tim Wells played very well for Warfield and did his best, wearing several balls, to hold the Warfield top order together. He eventually went to Lemmy as the pace of Doc and Lemmy reduced Warfield to 59-7.

At this point Winston Murphy decided that the long handle was called for and hit a brisk 38, he rode his luck a bit but at one point managed to hit three consecutive sixes. He was finally dismissed ninth out with the score on 112. At the start of the game Warfield had listed on their team sheet a player who was absent on the assumption presumably that he would turn up later, this was despite having other players around with their 2nd XI having their game called off. At the fall of the ninth wicket he still hadn't appeared so the Warfield innings closed with them all out.

T&T had an awkward session to bat before tea. In these situations the batsman have little to gain, the primary objective is not to get out. Unfortunately we couldn't manage this. The pitch continued to play its tricks and we took tea at 38-4, the buzz of having bowled a team out cheaply replaced by the realisation that we still had a long way to go.

Things did not improve after tea as we subsided to 51-6. Dopey and Fingers had put on a good partnership the week before and again managed to survive and put on 26, the largest partnership of the innings. Another flurry of wickets though fell to Murphy leaving T&T on 93-9 and 20 still needed for victory.

In the first game of the season against Warfield the final wicket hadn't managed the one needed for victory. It was perhaps appropriate therefore that this time they saw us home, Doc clubbing a boundary over mid on to secure victory. One though that couldn't have been managed without the 39 extras donated by an erratic bowling attack.

The only thing that needs to be remembered about this game is that we won, the other things that many of us will remember are the bruises that we collected at the hands of a spiteful pitch.