Theale and Tilehurst Friendly XI vs London Theatres 12th August 2007

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Report by Fingers

Where to start with this one: as captain I spent ages before the game trying to decide on what to do if I won the toss. Others had plenty of advice on the pros and cons of batting or bowling first but seemingly didn’t want to commit either. This was of course apart from Bob who inevitably wanted to bowl first. I determined the best thing to do was lose the toss but if I did win probably bowl.

On the way out to the middle the opposition captain stated that his team wasn’t as strong as previous years and was hinting that it would be best for us to bat first, more quandaries. Inevitably I won the toss; we were practically back in the pavilion before I finally said we would field first.

Bob and Arsalan opened the bowling and when Chisnell, the skipper, hammered Arsalan’s first ball through cover for four the tone for a high scoring game seemed to have been set. How wrong could you be? Chisnell was the first to go rather well taken by me at slip (even if I do say so myself) off Bob and it then became apparent that “not as strong as previous years” was something of an understatement.

Bob bowled very well and started to go through the top order at a rate of knots as he proved to be far too good for the batting on display. It reached the point where as the captain in a friendly game you are seemingly left in the position of how much of game do you want to try and make of it. At the end of Bob’s spell I decided I would come on and provide some run scoring opportunities for the batsmen (honest, I meant to bowl that badly although some might say on this season’s form I didn’t have to try too hard). This allowed the innings to close on 87 all out when in reality if Bob had stayed on we could have bowled them out for fifty or less.

With the first innings having finished early it was agreed that we would bat for forty minutes before tea. Things started badly when Dopey when to the first ball of the innings, Rog and James soon followed and we ended up taking tea at a precarious 14-3.

After an excellent tea Meady and Spike started to put together a partnership and it looked like things might calm down a bit; at one point Meady hitting a six over mid wicket that had one of the London Theatre spectators, using the catching cradle as a hammock, moving at a rate of knots to avoid being hit . However Spike was caught at third man off the lively Chisnell and after a couple of lusty blows Ed went as well. Thirty were still needed and wickets were starting to run out; when Meady went lbw and Rags was caught at slip and 12 were still needed London Theatres scented an unlikely victory. With the winning line in sight Chisnell was able to sustain the decent pace he had bowled at and Gill was also keeping the pressure on at the other end. It reached the point where every run was being cheered and what half way through the London Theatres innings looked like a very one sided game was turning out to be one of the closest finishes we have had in a long time. When Dicko and I went in the same Chisnell over, his sixth and seventh wickets, we were left with the last pair at the crease and 2 still needed.

Fortunately Arsalan was on strike against Gill and he was able to hit the first ball through cover point for the runs needed to finally win the game.