Theale and Tilehurst Friendly XI vs Mortimer 21st August 2005

Report by Fingers

Blimey, two good days of weather in one weekend; something of a rarity this month.

Anyway, Osman won the toss and elected to field. With Bob having pulled up lame the day before Rog was invited to open the bowling with Osman and did so to immediate effect with Brooks nicking his first ball to second slip where the catch was safely taken. Naturally the team huddled together to celebrate this success and Rog thanked Meady for having safely pouched the catch, only problem was Meady had been fielding at cover and didn’t feel he could take too much of the credit. This led to Rog enquiring; “Who did catch it then?” Obviously it is easy to mix up Meady with Micky who had taken the catch.

The class act for Mortimer is Tony Boby and he has obviously got used to playing on the wicket at Mortimer; he was noticeably reluctant to play any horizontal bat shots and waited for the ball to be very full before looking to play his attacking shots. He again proved to be the mainstay of the Mortimer innings as he compiled a well made 81.

Rog soon picked up a second wicket and the middle of the innings was fairly well contained by Trevor and Fingers as they worked through the batsman at the other end from Boby. Boby was finally dismissed well taken behind the stumps by Rags to give Fingers the third of his six wickets. There were a few late blows by the Mortimer lower order to get the total up to 189 which looked competitive.

Micky and Rog opened the batting, Rog putting in a challenge to Rags’ pro status by opening the batting and bowling. Both got a start before getting out, Rog skying a caught and bowled and Micky playing his leg glance so fine that it hit the leg stump. With Meady having got a duck for the 1sts on Saturday normal Graham Hick service was resumed as he made yet another friendly fifty, Nehal provided good support as they put on 53 for the fourth wicket.

Meady was out though with 42 still needed but with Rags and Osman at 8 and 9 there was a sting in the tail of the T&T batting order. They quickly put on 34 for the 8th wicket before off the first ball of the penultimate over Osman hit a full toss straight back to the bowler. It’s worth noting that Osman was in one of his frenetic moods at the crease and was often standing out of his crease trying to tempt the fielders to have a shy at the stumps, finally someone did and he and Rags were able to get two overthrows; I’m not sure that 2 for 5 over his career represents great value on this tactic though.

With eight still needed Rags and Fingers exchanged singles to leave five needed with one ball of the penultimate over remaining. Rags was on strike and the bowler kindly served up a leg stump full toss which was despatched over mid wicket for a six to secure victory and for a statement to be made about who the real club pro is!

BERKSHIRE LEAGUE SCORECARD
Home Team		Mortimer						Away Team		Theale and Tilehurst
Date of Match		21st August 2005						Played at		Mortimer

		Team						pts	Result	Team				pts
Result		Theale and Tilehurst							beat	Mortimer

1st Innings of		Mortimer												Rate Per Over
	Name	How Out			Who			Bowler		4's	6's	Score		Score	W	Bwl
1	T Boby	ct			M Mason			B Cooper				81	1
2	M Brook	ct			M Mehta			R Puri				1	2
3	G Loubsher	bowled						R Puri				10	3
4	T Pease	lbw						B Cooper				8	4
5	L Witts	bowled						T Greaves				4	5
6	I Bliss	stumped			M Mason			B Cooper				15	6
7	S Bliss	ct			O Mahmood			T Greaves				8	7
8	D Woodcraft	lbw						B Cooper				23	8
9	C Pease	lbw						B Cooper				0	9
10	S Beard	bowled						B Cooper				14	10
11	A Keep	not out										9	11
							Byes	11					12
							Leg Byes	0					13
							Wides	5					14
							No Balls	0					15
									Extras			16	16
													17
							Wickets	10	Total			189	18
													19
Bowling			O	M	R	W							20
1	O Mahmood		7	0	22	0							21
2	R Puri		7	3	27	2							22
3	T Greaves		10	1	33	2							23
4	B Cooper		14.1	1	51	6							24
5	N Bhatt		5	0	44	0							25
6													26
7													27
8													28
													29
Fall of Wicket													30
	Score	Outgoing Bat				Stand of							31
1	2	2				2							32
2	35	3				33							33
3	65	4				30							34
4	70	5				5							35
5	94	6				24							36
6	110	7				16							37
7	156	1				46							38
8	156	9				0							39
9	166	8				10							40
10	189	10				23							41
													42
													43
													44
													45
2nd Innings of		Theale and Tilehurst												Rate Per Over
	Name	How Out			Who			Bowler		4's	6's	Score		Score	W	Bwl
1	M Mehta	bowled						S Bliss				18	1
2	R Puri	ct & b						G Loubsher				16	2
3	P Mead	ct			S Bliss			A Keep				54	3
4	O Calender	ct & b						S Beard				8	4
5	N Bhatt	ct			A Keep			L Witts				26	5
6	J Morris	ct			M Brook			T Boby				0	6
7	S Wallace	lbw						T Boby				1	7
8	M Mason	not out										32	8
9	O Mahmood	ct & b						A Keep				14	9
10	B Cooper	not out										2	10
11	T Greaves	DNB											11
							Byes	6					12
							Leg Byes	1					13
							Wides	10					14
							No Balls	2					15
									Extras			19	16
													17
							Wickets	8	Total			190	18
													19
Bowling			O	M	R	W							20
1	S Bliss		7	1	31	1							21
2	G Loubsher		7	1	18	1							22
3	S Beard		4	0	25	1							23
4	C Pease		5	0	24	0							24
5	L Witts		5	0	32	1							25
6	T Boby		6	2	29	2							26
7	A Keep		3	0	24	2							27
8													28
													29
Fall of Wicket													30
	Score	Outgoing Bat				Stand of							31
1	33	2				33							32
2	36	1				3							33
3	62	4				26							34
4	115	5				53							35
5	115	6				0							36
6	131	7				16							37
7	147	3				16							38
8	181	9				34							39
9													40
10													41
													42
													43
													44
													45