Theale and Tilehurst Friendly XI vs Bledlow 24th September 2005

Report by Fingers

The final weekend of the season and fortunately the weather was behaving itself for the visit to Bledlow. Cat finished as he has gone on for most of the season by winning the toss and putting the opposition in to bat.

There was a good early battle between Lemmy and Bacon but the first wicket to go was at the other end. Two balls earlier C Saunders had been dropped at mid on, one ball earlier he had edged a ball through the recently vacated second slip area; Bob then decided that he'd have to do it on his own and picked up the wicket bowled.

Having almost exclusively bowled to Bacon Lemmy made the second breakthrough when he finally had a chance to bowl at someone else, Floyd being yorked.

Going in to the game I needed two wickets to reach 100 for the season, looking round I was grateful to see what looked like several good pairs of hands in the team. I wasn't let down when Lemmy took a very good diving catch at backward point to dismiss Hinks.

Bacon had played several fine shots in his fifty but we always felt he was likely to give a chance, he finally did driving Nehal to mid off where Rog took the catch at about the 47th attempt.

The next wicket to fall was the one I had been waiting for and wanting, Reclik bowled to bring up the century. The feeling on getting there was more relief than anything, and tiredness at having bowled so many overs to get them.

At 108-6 Bledlow were in trouble but the experienced Witney and Linnell made use of the remaining overs, not trying to get too many but trying to get enough to get them in the game; whether 166 was enough though was certainly open to debate.

Before last weekend's fixtures Claudia, Meady's partner, had persuaded him to have a hair cut and generally tidy up his shaggy appearance. The result had been two low scores after what has been a prolific season and a want to get 90 odd runs in the final weekend to get to 1,000 for the season. The problem is that the hair cut seems to have had a Samsonite effect and again he went early bowled this time by Witney.

Rags and Mike then put on 51 before Rags was dismissed in a freakish way, an edge on to the keeper's thigh that was taken at a short gully. Mike was soon to follow also freakishly, he inside edged the ball in to his pad and the ball went to the keeper who took the catch. The thing was that no-one seemed that interested in the fielding side until after the politest of enquiries Meady gave him out (once he'd attracted Mike's attention so much time having elapsed).

Cat and Rog then put on 62 in quick time to take us to the brink of victory before Cat chipped up a catch. Nehal soon followed before Lemmy entered the fray. He had been watching Linnell bowling and had been wondering why no-one had used their feet to him to get after him, when he was out stumped second ball he might have been reflecting on the wisdom of his plan.

It was left to Rog and Ian to see us over the winning line with 10 overs to spare.

BERKSHIRE LEAGUE SCORECARD
Home Team		Bledlow						Away Team		Theale and Tilehurst
Date of Match		24th September 2005						Played at		Bledlow

		Team						pts	Result	Team				pts
Result		Theale and Tilehurst							beat	Bledlow

1st Innings of		Bledlow												Rate Per Over
	Name	How Out			Who			Bowler		4's	6's	Score		Score	W	Bwl
1	J Bacon	ct			R Puri			N Bhatt				58	1
2	C Saunders	bowled						R Williams				9	2
3	B Floyd	bowled						C Lemm				13	3
4	N Hinks	ct			C Lemm			B Cooper				0	4
5	D Tapping	bowled						R Puri				7	5
6	J Reclik	bowled						B Cooper				1	6
7	A Witney	not out										39	7
8	A Linnell	not out										12	8
9													9
10													10
11													11
							Byes	1					12
							Leg Byes	7					13
							Wides	19					14
							No Balls	0					15
									Extras			27	16
													17
							Wickets	6	Total			166	18
													19
Bowling			O	M	R	W							20
1	C Lemm		9	2	31	1							21
2	R Williams		10	2	39	1							22
3	B Cooper		10	3	32	2							23
4	N Bhatt		6	1	30	1							24
5	R Puri		5	0	24	1							25
6													26
7													27
8													28
													29
Fall of Wicket													30
	Score	Outgoing Bat				Stand of							31
1	24	2				24							32
2	55	3				31							33
3	72	4				17							34
4	86	1				14							35
5	87	6				1							36
6	108	5				21							37
7													38
8													39
9													40
10													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	P Mead	bowled						A Witney				2	1
2	M Toyer	ct			D Tapping			A Tapping				34	2
3	M Mason	ct			B Floyd			A Linnell				30	3
4	P Stephens	ct			C Saunders			T Saunders				32	4
5	R Puri	not out										43	5
6	N Bhatt	ct			A Tapping			A Witney				3	6
7	C Lemm	stumped			D Tapping			A Linnell				1	7
8	I Reeves	not out										5	8
9	P Jenkins	DNB											9
10	B Cooper	DNB											10
11	R Williams	DNB											11
							Byes	11					12
							Leg Byes	4					13
							Wides	4					14
							No Balls	0					15
									Extras			19	16
													17
							Wickets	6	Total			169	18
													19
Bowling			O	M	R	W							20
1	M Saunders		5	0	28	0							21
2	A Witney		7	2	26	2							22
3	A Tapping		5	1	16	1							23
4	A Linnell		10	0	47	2							24
5	T Saunders		3	0	39	1							25
6													26
7													27
8													28
													29
Fall of Wicket													30
	Score	Outgoing Bat				Stand of							31
1	19	1				19							32
2	70	3				51							33
3	78	2				8							34
4	140	4				62							35
5	155	6				15							36
6	158	7				3							37
7													38
8													39
9													40
10													41
													42
													43
													44
													45