Theale & Tilehurst 1st XI vs MWE 12th May 2007

Report by Fingers

This was one of those horrible days to try and play cricket on. There had been rain and there was rain around but not quite enough to call the game off so it was sit and wait. The clouds that seemed to threaten to end the afternoon never quite materialised and so it was the game started as a 54 over match.

In these games the toss is seen as being very important, try and bat second so you know what you need to do and also because it's hard to take ten wickets to win the game in such a short time. Having started his captaincy career very well with the toss Cat is now decidedly out of form and lost again.

Micky went early to a yorker from Paul Magee and after a relatively quiet first five overs it was Cullum who opened up first. I think it's fair to say that Cullum is one of the best players to watch T&T have had, he hits the ball very hard without seeming to try. He hit one six towards the church that was a massive hit; just as we were discussing how far it had gone and trying to contextualise it by how far over the social club it would have gone Cullum hit one in that direction to give us an idea.

Having gone past fifty Cullum was caught at long off trying to keep the scoring rate high and after Andy went quickly it was left to Cat and Crofty to put on a second fifty partnership in the innings. Cat was never quite at his most fluent but some lusty blows near the end alongside Crofty kept us on track for a decent total.

We finished on 179-6 which was seen as being a good total but certainly not one that was unbeatable.

MWE sent out Mark Gillon as a pinch hitter in reply but he only lasted one ball; a leading edge to a leg stump full toss easily surpassed in terms of quality by a well judged catch at square leg by Crofty.

Cullum and Doc kept the early part of the MWE reply quiet but we were unable to take the couple of chances that came along; something we had to do if we were going to win the game. After struggling to find any fluency Jason Searancke was the next to go when he couldn't clear Os at mid off.

There then followed to biggest partnership of the MWE reply as Tom Prinn and Nick Bielby put on 61 for the 3rd wicket and kept the MWE reply in touch with the target. Tom was the next to go for a well made 67 with the score on 92 and there then followed a small flurry of wickets that left MWE 129-6 and us in the hunt for a victory, or a comfortable winning draw at least.

However, Michael Vickers and Paul Magee had other ideas and both were able to find the boundary regularly enough to keep the target just about in reach. 15 were needed off the final over that was bowled by Doc. The first ball was dropped at long off (yes, by me) but at least it was only two and not six; it went down to 8 off two when fortunately Doc went past Vickers' outside edge to leave it 8 off one. A single off the last ball left MWE 7 runs short and us with a tight winning draw.

18 points on the back of a win last week represents a decent start to the season, we just need to keep it going.

THEALE AND TILEHURST CC SCORECARD
Home Team		Theale and Tilehurst						Away Team		Mortimer West End
Date of Match		12th May 2007						Played at		Theale

		Team							Result	Team
Result									Drawn

1st Innings of		Theale and Tilehurst
	Name	How Out			Who			Bowler		4's	6's	Score
1	P Stephens	not out								6	3	72
2	M Mehta	bowled						P Magee		0	0	2
3	C Smith	ct			M Gillon			A Johnson		6	3	54
4	A Wigmore	bowled						J Searancke		0	0	0
5	A Crofts	bowled						K Allsobrook		2	1	26
6	M Jamil	ct			P Bews			P Magee		0	0	12
7	M Toyer	not out								0	0	0
8	O Mahmood	DNB
9	Neill Halliday	DNB
10	B Cooper	DNB
11	P Jenkins	DNB
							Byes	1
							Leg Byes	9
							Wides	1
							No Balls	2
									Extras			13

							Wickets	5	Total			179

Bowling			O	M	R	W
1	P Magee		9	1	42	2
2	K Allsobrook		6	0	35	1
3	N Bielby		3	0	17	0
4	A Johnson		5	0	40	1
5	J Searancke		4	0	35	1
6
7
8

Fall of Wicket
	Score	Outgoing Bat				Stand of
1	5	2				5
2	88	3				83
3	95	4				7
4	150	5				55
5	170	6				20
6
7
8
9
10




2nd Innings of		Mortimer West End
	Name	How Out			Who			Bowler		4's	6's	Score
1	M Gillon	ct			A Crofts			Neill Halliday				0
2	T Prinn	ct			O Mahmood			B Cooper				67
3	J Searancke	ct			O Mahmood			Neill Halliday				4
4	N Bielby	bowled						M Jamil				20
5	J Bray	ct			Neill Halliday			B Cooper				26
6	A Johnson	run out										2
7	P Magee	not out										20
8	M Vickers	not out										25
9	N Kingston	DNB
10	P Bews	DNB
11	K Allsobrook	DNB
							Byes	3
							Leg Byes	3
							Wides	3
							No Balls	0
									Extras			9

							Wickets	6	Total			173

Bowling			O	M	R	W
1	Neill Halliday		7	0	42	2
2	C Smith		5	1	11	0
3	O Mahmood		3	0	27	0
4	B Cooper		7	0	43	2
5	M Jamil		5	0	39	1
6
7
8
9
Fall of Wicket
	Score	Outgoing Bat				Stand of
1	0	1				0
2	31	3				31
3	92	2				61
4	100	4				8
5	107	6				7
6	129	5				22
7
8
9
10