Tie!
For our final away match of the season we travelled to my former club, Hambleden. We were without Ash, Mike.P and Rob.S, but still fielded an apparently balanced side with enough batting and bowling. Against our usual tradition, we had to agree to a 40 overs per side match. I won the toss, and asked them to bat.
With Alex.C unable to bowl due to an ankle injury, Matt.H and myself shared the new ball on a pudding of a pitch with no pace. The Hambleden openers found runs hard to come by and I made the breakthrough courtesy of a Doug.M. juggling act at gully, finally holding on at the ‘fourth grab’. The spin twins Jerry.W and Edgar replaced us and put in excellent spells capturing five wickets between them. Toby.C then came on and bowled a tidy spell until the end, claiming 2 wickets, one with an unlikely return catch. Some late slogging saw the home side limp in to tea at 95-8. Bowling figures were: Matt.H 8-3-9-0, Jerry.W 6-2-8-2, Edgar.F 10-3-26-3, Toby.C 8-1-20-2, and myself 8-2-19-1.
We understandably felt in control although we knew the wicket would not be easy to bat on having seen the hosts struggle. We opened with Alex.C and Nick.W but began badly when Alex was bowled for just 4, attempting a pull shot to a ball that failed to rise above half stump high although nothing did all afternoon. Nick.W soon followed, bowled for 4 and we were suddenly 10-2. Doug.M then joined Jerry.W and they ground out an important stand of 36 although both struggled to score. Tragically both perished in successive overs, Jerry to an excellent catch at long off and we were suddenly 46-4. Ed came in at No.5 to steady the ship but a calamitous run out left the chairman making his way to the pavilion for a duck, and the team in deep strife. Jerry.S soon followed for 1 and I joined Ed, with still only three an over needed. However, an uncharacteristic swipe across the line from Ed at a straight ball left us wobbling at 81-7, H. went for 4, Matt 2nd ball for 1, and Toby joined me at no.11 with 10 required off 17 balls. We scrambled 9 runs to tie the scores with one ball to go. A combination of me missing the final ball, a widish full toss and Toby not running regardless of what happened ended the game in a dismal tie. Somehow we had failed to seal the win, but once again we saved our most dismal batting display for the side I most want to beat. Ed top scored with 25, with Jerry W. 24.