Theale & Tilehurst Friendly XI vs BBC Caversham 4th June 2006

Report by Fingers

This is a very long standing fixture for some of us and has the added excitement of people having moved between the clubs and now playing against their old team mates.

Sim Townend won the toss for the BBC and elected to bat on what looked a good surface and one that played truly if still a little slow as it continues to dry out and harden up. The first wicket to fall went to Os in an impressive opening spell and featured ex-Tilehurst opener Tim Castle being caught by ex-BBC man Cat at first slip.

The main partnership of the innings was for the second wicket between Burton and Randall; both played well but initially struggled to score fluently with both Os and Raj bowling good containing spells. Burton was at his most fluent when using his feet against the spin of Fingers and hitting straight and Randall at his best when playing off his legs; it was Fingers that had the last say though dismissing both of them as they tried to lift the pace.

Matt was then introduced in to the attack and showed his more experienced colleagues how to take wickets, his first was a fine caught and bowled to dismiss Tyrone Ferreira and then he also picked up the wickets of Abdul and Watkins to finish with 3-18.

The BBC finished with a score of 154-8 in 44 overs which represented a disciplined effort by T&T in the field and a score that appeared to be 30-40 below par for the conditions.

Cat and James opened up for T&T in reply and both got going quickly to bring up the fifty partnership in the eleventh over. The only person from T&T who seemed not to be enjoying the partnership was Meady; having seen a good playing surface his previous concerns about being tired after keeping wicket disappeared and he had quickly accepted the invitation to bat at three rather than down the order. The only problem for him was that the way that James and Cat were playing his opportunity for a decent knock was disappearing. On the boundary he was trying all the tricks in the book to try and get one of them out; comments such as having never seen them play so well, couldn't see either of them getting out and so on but nothing seemed to work as both batsman went past fifty and the partnership past 100. As a last resort with the score past 120 Meady finally took his pads off and finally he got his chance as James edged the ball so slowly to slip that Meady had chance to put his pads back on again before Jim McClure took the catch.

Cat soon followed James back to the pavilion and the battle then seemed to be would we get the runs before it rained. Spike and Hamad both went to big shots trying to finish it quickly and it was left to Meady to strike a couple of boundaries in what proved to be the last over to secure victory.

BERKSHIRE LEAGUE SCORECARD
Home Team		Theale and Tilehurst						Away Team		BBC Caversham
Date of Match		4th June 2006						Played at		Theale

		Team						pts	Result	Team				pts
Result		Theale and Tilehurst							beat	BBC Caversham

1st Innings of		BBC Caversham												Rate Per Over
	Name	How Out			Who			Bowler		4's	6's	Score		Score	W	Bwl
1	Burton	bowled						B Cooper				50	1
2	Castle	ct			P Stephens			O Mahmood				0	2
3	Randall	ct			S Wallace			B Cooper				34	3
4	Ferreira	ct & b						M Dixon				7	4
5	Williams	not out										24	5
6	Abdul	bowled						M Dixon				1	6
7	Watkins	ct			J Codd			M Dixon				13	7
8	Townend	run out										5	8
9	Unis	st			P Mead			R Williams				1	9
10	Ballard	not out										1	10
11	J McClure	DNB											11
							Byes	4					12
							Leg Byes	8					13
							Wides	6					14
							No Balls	0					15
									Extras			18	16
													17
							Wickets	8	Total			154	18
													19
Bowling			O	M	R	W							20
1	O Mahmood		8	2	9	1							21
2	R Williams		10	2	41	1							22
3	B Cooper		12	1	61	2							23
4	R Puri		9	2	21	0							24
5	M Dixon		5	0	18	3							25
6													26
7													27
8													28
													29
Fall of Wicket													30
	Score	Outgoing Bat				Stand of							31
1	3	2				3							32
2	76	1				73							33
3	97	3				21							34
4	104	4				7							35
5	110	6				6							36
6	134	7				24							37
7	143	8				9							38
8	153	9				10							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	J Codd	ct			J McClure			K Williams		6	0	58	1
2	P Stephens	ct & b						K Williams		9	1	62	2
3	P Mead	not out								3	0	20	3
4	J Morris	bowled						K Williams		1	0	6	4
5	H Ali	bowled						K Williams		0	0	0	5
6	S Wallace	bowled						J McClure		0	0	2	6
7	R Puri	not out								0	0	0	7
8	O Mahmood	DNB											8
9	M Dixon	DNB											9
10	B Cooper	DNB											10
11	R Williams	DNB											11
							Byes	0					12
							Leg Byes	1					13
							Wides	7					14
							No Balls	0					15
									Extras			8	16
													17
							Wickets	5	Total			156	18
													19
Bowling			O	M	R	W							20
1	Watkins		2	0	10	0							21
2	Ferreira		6	1	32	0							22
3	Randall		8	0	34	0							23
4	Williams		8.4	0	53	4							24
5	Abdul		3	0	25	0							25
6	J McClure		2	0	3	1							26
7													27
8													28
													29
Fall of Wicket													30
	Score	Outgoing Bat				Stand of							31
1	123	1				123							32
2	132	2				9							33
3	146	4				14							34
4	146	5				0							35
5	149	6				3							36
6													37
7													38
8													39
9													40
10													41
													42
													43
													44
													45