Theale & Tilehurst 1st XI vs Shinfield 17th June 2006

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Report by Fingers

This was a crunch game for the 1st XI; we had played well against Sonning last week but lost so we had to try and at least maintain our level of performance but look for a more positive result.

Things started well when Cat lost the toss and Chris Price elected to bowl first; Cat would also have bowled first but it soon became apparent that with balls going through the surface of the pitch it would only deteriorate and it would be very hard to chase a decent total.

James and Cat opened the batting and against some tidy opening bowling from Price and Eames took the total to 43 before Cat sliced one to point where Eames took a juggling catch. James and Chilly were able to continue building a platform and take the score past 100 before both went in the same over; Chilly the victim of a good yorker and James only able to spar one that popped on him back to Gandhi to take a good low caught and bowled.

Jamil proved to be the mainstay of the middle order as he again batted well before getting another ball that popped and was sparred to a short mid wicket. With there being a bit of a wobble the score subsided to 176-8 and it looked like we wouldn’t make it to 200; Doc and I were able to have another decent late inning partnership and took the score past 200 before two wickets in the last three balls gifted Shinfield an extra point.

With a decent total on the board and the ball gripping in to the surface Cat decided to start with the old ball with Jamil coming down the hill and me trying to give it a tweak from the other end. Jamil made the initial breakthrough when he bowled Fenty and between us we were able to keep chipping away and take regular wickets in the first ten overs; James picked up a couple of catches at slip and Shinfield subsided to 41-6 as the old ball continued to bite in to the surface, most notably when Jamil brought one back in significantly to bowl Tim Marcon. If people don’t like someone blowing their own trumpet they should pick up the story at the start of the next paragraph …. Perhaps the most sensational wicket in this passage of play was my caught and bowled to dismiss Andy Peffers, another of my cunningly disguised full tosses that he whacked back hard and I managed to cling on to one handed diving to my left; he took a few seconds to leave the crease, not because he though that I’d dropped it but because he couldn’t believe that I had caught it. What’s more I hung on to a couple of useful catches at second slip later on off Doc’s bowling.

Welcome back non-own trumpet blowers. At the end of the 15th over the decision was made to take the new ball and Doc was introduced in to the attack, he soon made an impact when he bowled Gandhi. Ahmed and Chris Price threatened to hold things up for a while until Doc found the outside edge of Price’s bat and later in the same over found the edge of Eames’ bat. The end came in Doc’s next over when Ahmed hit one to mid-off where Chilly took the catch.

This was the performance we needed following our efforts last week and gave us our first win in the premier division. We need to keep it going for the remainder of the season.