Season ends in stalemate
Brian Hallam promoted to open shows a perfect
straight bat.
Well, it had to happen I suppose. Just when I thought I was presiding over a solid,consistant batting machine, coming off three straight 8 wkt wins, we slipped back into the abyss of mediocrity for the last 45 mins of the season! Chasing a target of 159, we stumbled from 110-1 with 15 overs to go, to 146-8 against a works team. God moves in mysterious ways sometimes.
The visitors won the toss and elected to bat. Without Alex or Ashley, I took the new ball with Matt H. who produced probably his best spell of the season with good length and pace, without any luck. The breakthrough came when Robin L. produced a superb chase and throw from deep point, to leave their young Asian opener stranded. After some brief hitting, their aggressive No.3 skied a catch off the writer, which was very well judged by Matt H. at mid-on, running backwards, his umpteenth good catch this year. Matt then got a deserved wicket, bowling their opener before a heavy downpour forced a 40 minute delay so tea was taken early. After the skies cleared Robin L. and Jerry W. bowled good spells to control the scoring, finally giving way to Toby and Edgar who mopped up the tail despite some late slogging. We managed to bowl them out when Jerry Stockbridge took a wicket in his first & last over of the season. The total was apparently 159 although the visitors record of their own scores only added up to 132, and we certainly did not concede 27 extras! Nonetheless we still expected to make our target with 65 mins, plus 20 overs. Bowling figures were: Matt H. 9-2-32-1, Robin L. 6-1-22-1, Jerry W. 6-1-26-2, Toby C. 4-0-15-1, Edgar F. 3-0-19-2, Jerry S. 0.5-0-1-1, and myself 8-1-30-1.
When we batted, Brian H opened with David. After a confident start Brian was bowled by a fast yorker, which brought in Jerry W. The next hour was a fascinating contest between two of our major 'form' batsman and their excitable, constantly appealing, opening bowler who was as fast as anyone we have faced this season, with the possible exception of the ex-Glamorgan bowler at Crossbatters. Both Dave & Jerry had their problems against him but gradually took control with some sensible batting and good running between the wickets. We seemed to be coasting with both batsmen in the 40's at 110-1. We then 'hit the iceberg' with both D.& J. falling to good catches in successive overs. Even then I wasn't worried with our top run scorer Edgar and Jerry S. at the crease and the total edged up to 129 with only 30 required. We then lost 5 wkts for 14 runs, including 4 for 2 in three overs and I suddenly found myself partnering Toby with 3.4 overs remaining with 'Waqar and Wasim' operating in tandem and 17 still needed. 22 fast straight balls later we walked off the pitch with a miserable draw against 'cock a hoop' opponents who had expected to lose. At least Toby enjoyed it, his 2 n.o. enabled him to move out of the 'Mallard' zone for this season.
It was a very disappointing end to what had been a very good season and a great September. However, credit must go to First Light, who kept going and showed a great team spirit & desire to win, whilst we clearly thought we had it in the bag, and failed to apply ourselves after Dave & Jerry departed. The fact is, that the superb batting this year of the top five or six has meant that nos.7-11 have had very little time in the middle, and the First Light opening attack was a little too 'handy' for some of us when the pressure was on with wickets falling.
The post mortem was conducted in the bar with Liz Smith providing the end of season chilli supper