Theale & Tilehurst 1st XI vs Yateley 2nd June 2007

BACK

Report by Doc

We went into this game having played 4 games, all of which were tight. Unfortunately we had ended up on the wrong side of the result twice in the last two games. A game against a side I would expect to be challenging for the title at the end of the season was not an ideal way to bring this run to an end.

However the initial signs were good. Cat won the first toss of the season and duly inserted Yateley. Cullum and Mo were the opening attack with Doc finally getting his wish to be first/second change. Both got a decent amount of movement in the air during their opening spells and the batting side never looked comfortable. They weren't helped by 2 suicidal run outs.

On a hot day with no breeze both openers tired earlier than might normally be expected (but still 4 overs later than Doc would have tired) and Jamil and Doc were brought into the attack.

Throughout the opening spells and first changes wickets fell at fairly regular intervals with no batsman dominating proceedings. The final bowling changes saw Shane Bond's spinner brother Simon replace Doc, with Cullum being bought back with a change of ends. This resulted in a flurry of wickets for not too many runs with only Danny Mortimer scoring a good 27. Wickets were generally shared around but Bondy's figures of 8 overs, 3 wickets for 17 runs being the pick of the bunch.

All in all restricting Yateley to 172 represented a good days work in the field, despite a few dropped chances. If you had asked Yateley at this stage I think they would have felt they were 20 or 30 runs short of par. After a tea containing a tremendous selection of home cooked Brownies, Muffins and Cookies it was time for T&T to bat.

Cat and Syrup started solidly, if unspectacularly, with Syrup the first to depart on ….. Cullum arrived at the wicket and he and Cat took the score to 90-1. Unfortunately Cullum was given out LBW, a decision that looked harsh from the sidelines. That comment could be considered churlish and against the general standard of umpiring which I thought was excellent. But it's our website and I'll be as one-eyed as I feel like.

Marincowitz had bowled an excellent spell of left arm seam and swing and was replaced by the young left arm spinner Tom Wood with Richard Saniga coming on at the Road End. Then the mayhem began. Both bowlers maintained excellent line and length with enough lateral movement to test all the batsmen. Unfortunately most of the middle order had not revised and failed the test.

Batsmen came and went regularly and most importantly Cat, who had looked likely to win the match provided he stayed in, was eventually caught off a mistimed pull for a good 53. Not wanting to dwell too much on our problems, but there was an overriding lack of responsibility in the batting with too many people thinking it wouldn't matter if they got out, as there was still good batsmen left in the hutch. As a team we need to ensure that we don't give bowlers cheap wickets, they must get us out instead. Although we were still up with the run rate it was left with the final pair needing 30 runs to win off 6 overs before Mo Seghir was the last to perish palpably LBW to ….

Congratulations to Yateley for winning a match that should never have been theirs to win. However their tight bowling and tigerish fielding, helped by some complacent batting meant they had the edge to kill off the game. Something we can learn from.

Although it is disappointing, it stills represents an improvement from last year where we really didn't compete with them in either match. The same level of effort with a little bit more responsibility, over the whole match rather than 75% of it, should see us right for the rest of the year.