Nearly win!
After the Lord Mayor's Show! Catches win matches! etc..I hate clichés, especially after last Sunday's game. Tight finishes are great to play in, providing you scrape the win! Unfortunately we managed to lose a game I always felt was in our control, by 1 wkt, with the last pair adding 35 runs, of which no.11 got 3!
It all started so well. We were asked to bat on a flat hard pitch and made 194 all out with a solid team effort. Top scorers were Bob Braithwaite 33, Jerry Stockbridge 32,Nick Wright 28, Jerry Wright 22, Alex Cudworth and myself both 19. As we were without Ashley, Edgar, Robin and Dave F., it seemed a good enough total.
In reply we soon reduced Claygate to 7-2, with Bob B. at slip, and Paul Reeve at short leg, taking excellent catches. We continued to dominate with Toby C. and Kieron Pillay both taking 2 wkts to reduce the home side to 61-5. Then came the fight back with a stand of 65, before the writer took two wickets, one courtesy of a great running catch by young Kieron, followed by two quick wickets by Jerry W. and we looked safe with Claygate 'on the ropes' at 163-9. What followed doesn't bear thinking about - we dropped three routine catches - all off the Claygate matchwinner who finished on 81n.o., Our fielding got sloppy, we started bowling full tosses and wides and to cap the lot I was 'away with the fairies' when a mishit slog looped towards mid off in the penultimate over. We blew it , conceding 37 extras on the way, including 19 wides, but all credit to Claygate for sticking at it. Bowling figures were: Alex C. 12-1-45-1, Kieron Pillay 6-1-21-2, Toby C. 5-0-29-2, Jerry W. 10-2-26-2, Paul R. 2-0-25-0, Matt H. 1-0-11-0, and myself 7-2-23-2.
Trying to take the positives out of a sickening defeat, we batted solidly
as a team, with a good opening stand between Jerry & Nick W., the
middle and late order held together with Jerry S. making his third score
over 30 this year and when we bowled youngsters, Kieron and Toby both
did very well, whilst Jerry W. could easily have finished with 4 or
5 wkts.