Another runfest in the sun for Concorde
Conference games are always a bit of a lottery. When The Bourne failed to provide any opposition despite several weeks notice, we ended up against Sandhurst C.C., who arrived half an hour late, with 9 men, won the toss and elected to bat! 467 runs later, we won by 8 wkts with 4 overs to spare. A second successive 8 wkt victory, when the opposition chose to bat first, this was our 6th victory this year and our highest total, 235-2.
Sandhurst started well although both Alex and Ashley beat the bat on several occasions. Alex made the breakthrough having their Pakistani opener caught at slip by Jerry W., reacting to a rebound from H's glove. Edgar then bowled their No.3 around his legs in his first over and things were looking good. We were then hit by a young Pakistani, making his debut, having only arrived in the country the day before, who blasted his way to 65, with Edgar taking the brunt of the assault. Ashley W. took a well judged catch at long on to remove him, but Sandhurst continued to build steadily despite their depleted numbers. We used seven bowlers in all but were unable to bowl them out and they declared 10mins early at 232-6. At this point, my decision to bowl our youngsters ahead of top club wicket taker J.J.B.Wright did not look a very clever move. Bowling figures were: Ashley W. 8-1-45-0, Alex C. 8-2-24-1, Edgar 3-0-37-1, Robin L. 7-0-42-0, Toby C. 4-0-21-2, Matt H. 4-0-19-0, and myself 5-0-37-2.
After tea we got off to a disappointing start when Dave F. was yorked for 7, with the score at 14. David has been magnificent recently with six fifties in 9 innings, so it was a bit of a shock when he was out. Edgar F. and Jerry W. then got their heads down and took the score to 111 before J.J.B.W was caught one handed on the mid wicket boundary for 35. When Ashley W. joined Edgar we needed over seven & a half an over with the sun going down fast. Whilst Edgar inched towards his fifth fifty of the season, Ash raced to his second with some clean hitting and smart running. As opposition heads began to drop, Edgar opened up again and we won with 4 overs to go. Edgar finished 84n.o. and Ash 71n.o. Together they added over 120 in about 12 overs, and brought back memories of their epic stand against Chiddingfold earlier in the season.