Theale & Tilehurst Tour July 2009

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Charlton Down XI - Report by Fingers

Our second tour to Dorset started with us like German vegetarians; fearing the wurst in terms of the weather.  But back to that later.

There was the inevitable “after you Claude” in the car park at Theale as no-one wanted to take responsibility for leading the convoy.  Finally I set off first and most fell in behind; the exception being Wiggy who blasted off in to the distance.

Meady and I decided to take the conventional route coming off at J13 of the M4 and going down the A34.  Led by Aygz the others took the lesser known Hungerford route to Weymouth.  Later it transpired that they thought they were following Wiggy and had something of a surprise when a large Asian gentleman got out of his car in a car park in Hungerford; the one they had all like sheep followed him in to.

After lunch at the Lugger it was off to the game at Charlton Down.  As is tour tradition the opposition skipper asked captain of the day Hamad if we would like to bat first.  Hamad declined this offer and insisted on the toss being performed; the opposition skipper (did someone say his name was Chris?) then perhaps being surprised when Hamad elected to bat.

James and Wiggy got the innings off to something of a flying start.  The hundred came up in the 13th over with James very much to the fore.  He was first to fifty from 37 balls with Wiggy following from 48 balls.

However, when both were dismissed in the 90s accusations of jug evasion inevitably followed.

Aygz had joined Wiggy at the crease and played well to reach 48 before the rain that had been more on than off for the innings finally forced the players from the field for an early tea.

The Charlton Down players gamely retook the field so we could finish our innings and as the final push took place wickets inevitably started to fall.  The oddest being James’ run out.  Aygz had hit what he thought was a majestic six over long off and was in the middle of the wicket telling James how he’d done it.  During all this though the fielder had fielded the ball and returned it to the bowler’s end where they completed the run out of James; the look on his face when he turned round to see the umpire’s finger giving him out being beyond my descriptive powers.

After a quick change of innings we went in to the field.  The weather was closing in more and more and after having played for just under 10 overs we finally took the only sensible decision and abandoned the game.  This was a real shame as Roe and Smith had shown that Charlton Down had some powerful batting and could have given the chase a real go.

After a few jugs of beer at Charlton Down it was back to the Lugger for dinner.  After fines there were two nominations for Dicko of the Day:
Firstly; Aygz for following the wrong car to the wrong place on the journey down.
Secondly; Aygz for his shameless run out of James having thought he’d hit a six.

After a close vote Aygz was declared Dicko of the Day.

Thanks go to Charlton Down for hosting us and doing their very best to get in as much cricket as they did.

Full Scorecard Here

After a typical tour morning of breakfast stories, milling around and a pub lunch we arrived at the Martinstown ground in surprisingly sunny conditions. Rags was captain so led by Fingers. Meady and Agers most of the team were moaning about there likely lowly batting position and giving the skip a hard time. Martinstown chose to bat and got off to quick start on the artificial wicket. After a lackluster start to our fielding performance with most of the sledging aimed at our own players it took fine bowling from Dicko and Harry to both slow the rate and get us in the mood for cricket. Dicko created a series of caught and bowled chances which we missed but Harry started to make in roads with two wickets at the other end. Fingers took over with wickets falling regularly. The highlight was James' one handed catch of a skier that he'd mis-judged in the strong wind. The innings closed with the final wicket caught off the final ball on 183.

After tea we all padded up in hope of a high batting position but Hamad and James were sent out first. James got off to a typical flier whilst Hamad bedded down for a long innings. After we'd raced to 60, and James had gone caught, Fingers and Hamad consolidated against the strongest of the Martinstown bowling. Fingers, Sunny and Harry were all dismissed in reasonably quick time. Sunny ran past a slow leg break and forgot to play a shot and Harry was run out after picking out their best fielder for a second chance after earlier narrowly escaping. It was left to Skip and Hamad to bring us home which they did with three overs to spare.

Well played to Harry, Dicko and Hamad in particular. Harry and Dicko's spells with the ball got us into the game and Hamad showed what a well constructed innings he's capable of playing.

Full Scorecard Here