Theale & Tilehurst Friendly XI vs Farley Hill Friendly XI

20th September 2009

Report by Fingers.

This game against Farley Hill has become a regular part of the post league season programme for T&T. This year the game was at Farley Hill and on winning the toss Farley skipper Ross Ditchburn elected to bat.

Things didn’t start too well for Farley with Bob swinging the ball round corners and the pace of Cookie being too much for some of the Farley players. On a pitch with some erratic bounce it was also proving awkward for those behind the stumps in terms of where to stand; one ball took off straight over James’ head hitting the sight screen on the full for four byes and this was shortly followed by Phil Guard having his middle stump quite literally uprooted.

With four wickets going down early and the game being a 12pm start we were in danger of the game being over before some had started this season. This meant that for the first time in the club’s history the change bowling was undertaken by Dopey and Hamad. Not that I’d ever want a T&T player to fail but they didn’t quite play their intended roles as they both immediately picked up wickets in identical fashion – thigh high full tosses that the batters managed to hit to Cookie.

Wickets kept falling and at 74-8 discussions on a two innings game started. Inevitably this meant that the final Farley players batted very well and more than doubled the score to make such a suggestion appear premature and a bit ridiculous. In the end Cookie had to be recalled to the attack to put an end to things. This passage of play featured possibly the first time I have seen a batsman have a go at a fielder for missing a ball and it going to the boundary, the batter preferring the idea of a single and getting to the non-striker’s end.

As it was the Farley Hill innings finished on a seemingly respectable 150 as the players had lunch.

After lunch the game progressed at an even more rapid rate. Both Hamad and Wiggy survived early dropped chances but then launched a full scale assault on the Farley Hill bowling.

At the start of the innings Wiggy had needed 17 to beat Jamil’s record of runs in a season. He was very nervous about reaching the landmark and not his normal chatty self at the crease but once he was the proud record breaker he played as violently, if not more so, than he has at any stage this season; his fifty coming from 19 balls. Congratulations to Wiggy on the phenomenal achievement of reaching 1,492 runs for the season.

In many ways it was Hamad who played the shots that were more pleasing on the eye and it was something of surprise when he played round his front pad to be lbw for 35 from 19 balls.

With Dopey coming in against his old boys there wasn’t likely to be much respite for the Farley Hill bowlers. With Wiggy and Dopey seemingly finding the boundary at will we successfully chased the target of 150 in 13.3 overs, Wiggy finishing on 78no from 32 balls and Dopey 31no from 14 balls.

THEALE AND TILEHURST CC SCORECARD
Home Team		Farley Hill						Away Team		Theale and Tilehurst
Date of Match		20th September 2009						Played at		Farley Hill

		Team							Result	Team
Result		Theale and Tilehurst							beat	Farley Hill

1st Innings of		Farley Hill
	Name	How Out			Who			Bowler		4's	6's	Score
1	C Garod	bowled						R Williams				0
2	M Blake	bowled						R Williams				1
3	P Guard	bowled						C Cook				5
4	M Dodding	ct			C Cook			D Robertson				7
5	S Henry	bowled						C Cook				0
6	W White	ct			C Cook			H Ali				20
7	R Ditchburn	bowled						H Osborn				14
8	V Chung	ct			P Ager			B Cooper				2
9	S Henry Jnr	bowled						M Mason				1
10	P Shaw	bowled						C Cook				35
11	S Morris	not out										17
							Byes	18
							Leg Byes	2
							Wides	22
							No Balls	6
									Extras			48

							Wickets	10	Total			150

Bowling			O	M	R	W
1	R Williams		10	5	28	2
2	C Cook		6.5	2	28	3
3	H Ali		3	0	21	1
4	D Robertson		2	0	17	1
5	H Osborn		4	2	19	1
6	B Cooper		6	3	12	1
7	M Mason		4	2	5	1
8

Fall of Wicket
	Score	Outgoing Bat				Stand of
1	0	1				0
2	16	2				16
3	16	3				0
4	21	5				5
5	44	4				23
6	50	6				6
7	74	7				24
8	74	8				0
9	99	9				25
10	150	10				51




2nd Innings of		Theale and Tilehurst
	Name	How Out			Who			Bowler		4's	6's	Score
1	A Wigmore	not out								15	2	78
2	H Ali	lbw						P Shaw		5	1	35
3	D Robertson	not out								4	2	31
4	P Ager
5	A Ahmed
6	H Osborn
7	M Mason
8	C Cook
9	J White
10	B Cooper
11	R Williams
							Byes	3
							Leg Byes	1
							Wides	3
							No Balls
									Extras			7

							Wickets	1	Total			151

Bowling			O	M	R	W
1	P Shaw		7	1	55	1
2	S Morris		3.3	0	37	0
3	P Guard		3	0	52	0
4
5
6
7
8

Fall of Wicket
	Score	Outgoing Bat				Stand of
1	92	2				92
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10