Wright all round
.
Once again I have the great pleasure in informing you of another successful Sunday, recording our 6th win of the season and 12th. game unbeaten! Whatever stresses and problems one encounters in general life it's nice to switch off for a few hours to recharge the batteries on the cricket field. Once again a good team performance saw us home against a decent Witley side who have proved difficult opponents in recent seasons
We
won the toss and invited the visitors to bat on a very damp soft pitch,
which had no pace and slightly erratic bounce. We again enjoyed the rare
sight of Alex and Matt H. sharing the new ball and as happened against
Claygate in June they put the batsmen under tremendous pressure giving
nothing away. After 18 overs Witley had reached 28-1, with Matt getting
the opening bat (who
scored a ton against us 3 years ago) caught behind off a snorter. Alex
amazingly failed to take a wicket in a great spell of controlled hostility
yielding only 13 runs in 11 overs, with 10 coming in one over! Eventually
the score crept up but after a brief burst of aggression when their left
handed 1st. team No.3 took a liking to Ed's leg breaks, the old warhorses
(Jerry W. and myself) took 3 wickets each and we looked in full control
with Witley at 98-7. The last half hour proved frustrating as the Witley
tail wagged pushing the score up to 150 all out at tea. Inexplicably our
fielding went to pot and we dropped 6 catches, 5 off Toby, including a
least 3 regulation chances. Until then
fielding had been good with Alex, Paul, and Toby shining. The champagne
moment though was a flying one handed catch at backward point by Edgar
off the writer, which dismissed the dangerous looking Kiwi No.4. Bowling
figures were: Alex C. 11-8-13-0, Matt H. 8-2-18-1, Edgar F. 4-0-35-0,
Jerry W. 7-3-21-3, Toby 5.5-0-31-1, and myself 8-2-23-3.
In reply we started steadily with Rob S. and Edgar looking very comfortable,
with Rob cracking three superb fours before being caught at backward point
playing the cut shot on a pitch with no pace! When Edgar gloved a rising
ball to the keeper to reduce us to 41-2, the nerves started to jangle.
However, once again Jerry W. did a superb job at No.3, and Alex provided
the aggression
and impetus in a vital partnership of 67. After an entertaining and rapid
37, Alex holed out mistiming a pull shot and we were 108-3. Inevitably
we gave Witley a glimmer of hope by losing three more quick wickets, but
Jerry W. dug in to the end finishing on 66 n.o., his third fifty of the
season, and we won with 8 overs to spare.