Theale & Tilehurst Friendly XI vs Stratfield Turgis Friendly XI

26th September 2010

Report by Fingers.

On a day that was cold enough to tell us all in the clearest possible terms that the season was at an end we welcomed our old friends from Stratfield Turgis to Theale for the final game of the season.

Stratfield won the toss and put us in to bat on a pitch still recovering from the heavy rain there had been at the end of the week. Wiggy and Micky opened the batting and got us off to a steady if unspectacular start. Things were livened up when Wiggy hit a flat six over mid off and livened up even further when Field sent his off stump cart wheeling out of the ground.

This brought Sunil to the crease who needed 73 to beat the record for runs in a season for T&T. However, it was not to be as he chipped Steve Clarke to mid off to be dismissed for 9; Wiggy’s record survives for this year but there are undoubtedly people after it.

When Aygzz went early we were setting our sights on a target of 170 as being competitive. However, due to tight bowling and fielding by Stratfield we were unable to break free and score with any fluency. With Micky and Harry together we looked like we might be able to push past 150 but when Micky was run out and Harry stumped it was left to the lower order to try and get some quick runs. This didn’t prove possible as the returning Tom Clay mopped up the tail to finish with a well deserved 5-25.

137 still felt like it might be enough if we could get early wickets or keep it very tight at the start of the Stratfield reply but we could do neither. The early Stratfield batters were able to score at about three an over without taking too many risks and with a low total to chase this was plenty quick enough.

The first wicket went when Shah was taken at mid wicket from the bowling of Harry but we never really got on a run of wicket taking. Alec struck with his first ball to hint at a flurry of wickets but this didn’t happen.

When James took a catch to dismiss Girle this meant that Stratfield needed about 30 with four wickets left and perhaps gave us a chance; it also reopened the sub plot of whether James could get another dismissal to equal the season record for dismissals by a T&T fielder. The latter didn’t happen and in fact the last few runs were scored very quickly as Steve Clarke became the first player on the day to strike the ball cleanly at will as he scored a brisk 30 to lead Stratfield to victory by four wickets.

It was disappointing not to have played better on the final day of the season but Stratfield were deserved winners as they out played us in all facets of the game. They even out drunk us in the pub afterwards as recollections of previous encounters were shared.

THEALE AND TILEHURST CC SCORECARD
Home Team		Theale and Tilehurst						Away Team		Stratfield Turgis
Date of Match		26th September 2010						Played at		Theale

		Team							Result	Team
Result		Stratfield Turgis							beat	Theale and Tilehurst

1st Innings of		Theale and Tilehurst
	Name	How Out			Who			Bowler		4's	6's	Score
1	A Wigmore	bowled						N Field		2	1	25
2	M Mehta	run out								6	0	46
3	S Kumar	ct						S Clarke		2	0	9
4	P Ager	ct			T Clay			S Clarke		0	0	1
5	T Kasozimusoke	lbw						S Clarke		0	0	2
6	H Osborn	st			J Wright			T Clay		3	0	26
7	S Brown	bowled						T Clay		1	0	12
8	J White	bowled						T Clay		0	0	1
9	B Cooper	ct			J Wright			T Clay		0	0	3
10	A Parcell	not out								0	0	1
11	T Greaves	bowled						T Clay		0	0	0
							Byes	3
							Leg Byes	0
							Wides	7
							No Balls	1
									Extras			11

							Wickets		Total			137

Bowling			O	M	R	W
1	N Field		8	0	28	1
2	T Clay		11	1	25	5
3	S Clarke		7	2	22	3
4	R Cooper		5	0	12	0
5	J Legg		5	0	25	0
6	R Shah		6	0	27	0
7
8

Fall of Wicket
	Score	Outgoing Bat				Stand of
1						0
2						0
3						0
4						0
5						0
6						0
7						0
8						0
9						0
10						0




2nd Innings of		Stratfield Turgis
	Name	How Out			Who			Bowler		4's	6's	Score
1	R Shah	ct			B Cooper			H Osborn				11
2	G Cutter	bowled						A Parcell				21
3	P Simmons	lbw						B Cooper				4
4	J Wright	bowled						A Wigmore				38
5	M Turvey	lbw						A Parcell				4
6	N Girle	ct			J White			A Wigmore				0
7	S Clarke	not out										33
8	N Field	not out										10
9	R Cooper
10	T Clay
11	J Legg
							Byes	2
							Leg Byes	3
							Wides	10
							No Balls	2
									Extras			17

							Wickets	6	Total			138

Bowling			O	M	R	W
1	H Osborn		9.5	0	36	1
2	B Cooper		11	0	36	1
3	A Parcell		7	2	18	2
4	A Wigmore		6	1	26	2
5	S Brown		2	0	17	0
6
7
8

Fall of Wicket
	Score	Outgoing Bat				Stand of
1						0
2						0
3						0
4						0
5						0
6						0
7
8
9
10