Theale & Tilehurst friendly XI vs Hungerford friendly XI

5th June 2011

Report by James.

We arrived at Hungerford with only ten players after a couple of late withdrawals and a re-organisation of both teams. Fortunately for us the Hungerford captain had accidentally selected twelve players for the fixture, and so we were able to have an 11 a side game after all with one of the Hungerford players being loaned to us for the day. T&T batted first, and after a rain-delayed start the batsmen found things hard-going against a good Hungerford attack in some helpful conditions. Most of the batsmen got started but were unable to go on to make a significant score – the only one to miss out entirely was Tim who was very unfortunate when he slipped in the damp conditions and was LBW whilst doing the splits. The best partnership of the innings was between the Why’s who put on an unbeaten 50 at the end of the innings, although they were not able to accelerate as much as they would have liked due to the difficult conditions and good quality bowling. It wasn’t for a lack of intent on Alan’s part as he unleashed a series of aggressive shots in the closing overs, but the ball had a magnetic attraction to his pads rather than bat. We closed on 147-6 in our 42 overs, and I think we all felt we were a bit short. Looking back at the scoresheet, the stat that stands out is a meagre 14 singles off the bat in 42 overs.

Tea was taken (and was notable for the largest doorstop sandwiches you’ve ever seen and for the Hungerford team picking their batting order out of a hat) and we then took the field hoping to at least make Hungerford work hard for their runs. A random batting order is not easy to deal with as you don’t know what’s coming next, but on this occasion we had some local knowledge as the regular Hungerford captain was playing for us and was happy to comment on the incoming batsman’s ability. The first batsman couldn’t bat apparently. He had been mercilessly teased in the field about being on a run of 4 consecutive ducks and was reminded of it every time he dropped the ball on the way back to the bowler (about twice per over). When he played a horrific shot to the first ball of the innings from Stuart and was caught by his teammate playing for us for another duck you couldn’t help wondering that 5 in a row might still be nearer to the start of the unfortunate run than the end. Stuart & Scott both bowled well in the opening overs – pitching the ball up and making it difficult for the batsmen to get away, but we were not able to take enough wickets to put real pressure on. Our guest player Shaun came on to bowl some leg spin and was unfortunate to only pick up one wicket, but the real star of the innings was Jordan who picked up 3 wickets with some gentle off-spin. These were too late to alter the result, but nevertheless we did make them work hard to get over the line for a 4 wicket win.

We were definitely second best on the day, but I was proud of the way we stuck at it and refused to give in against a side that contained a number of strong players.

THEALE AND TILEHURST CC SCORECARD
Home Team		Hungerford						Away Team		Theale & Tilehurst
Date of Match		05 June 2011						Played at		War Memorial Recreation Ground, Hungerford

		Team							Result	Team
Result		Hungerford							Beat	Theale & Tilehurst

1st Innings of		Theale & Tilehurst
	Name	How Out			Who			Bowler		4's	6's	Score
1	A Ahmed	bowled						L Franklin		3	0	16
2	B Stroud	Ct			L Ponsford			G Janse van Rensburg		1	0	15
3	A Shotter	bowled						L Ponsford		3	0	19
4	J Codd	ct			A Smith			L Prestoe		6	0	24
5	T Kasosimusoke	lbw						L Prestoe		0	0	0
6	S Brown	bowled						L Prestoe		3	0	13
7	A Why	not out								3	0	26
8	R Why	not out								2	0	16
9	S Wood (Guest)	dnb
10	J Blake	dnb
11	S Stroud	dnb
							Byes	8
							Leg Byes	5
							Wides	4
							No Balls	1
									Extras			18

							Wickets	6	Total			147

Bowling			O	M	R	W
1	L Franklin		5	0	23	1
2	L Ponsford		10	3	29	1
3	G Styles		4	1	26	0
4	G Janse van Rensburg		12	4	30	1
5	L Prestoe		11	2	26	3
6
7
8

Fall of Wicket
	Score	Outgoing Bat				Stand of
1	22	1				22
2	49	3				27
3	80	2				31
4	82	4				2
5	91	5				9
6	96	6				5
7
8
9
10




2nd Innings of		Hungerford
	Name	How Out			Who			Bowler		4's	6's	Score
1	T Leigh	ct			Wood (Guest)			S Brown		0	0	0
2	G Styles	lbw						S Wood (Guest)		0	0	34
3	R Oswald	bowled						S Stroud		0	0	18
4	L Ponsford	ct			J Codd			J Blake		0	0	9
5	Lee	Not Out								0	0	25
6	A Smith	st			A Shotter			J Blake		0	0	47
7	Richard	st			A Shotter			J Blake		0	0	3
8	S Buck	Not Out								0	0	5
9	R Hargreaves	dnb
10	G Jense van Rensburg	dnb
11	L Prestoe	dnb
							Byes	2
							Leg Byes	1
							Wides	5
							No Balls	0
									Extras			8

							Wickets	6	Total			149

Bowling			O	M	R	W
1	S Brown		8	1	14	1
2	S Stroud		7	1	32	1
3	S Wood (Guest)		6	0	29	1
4	J Blake		8.1	0	37	3
5	R Why		3	0	31	0
6
7
8

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