All Wright on the Westen front
Nick Wright misses one at last
On
arrival in Singleton, we headed straight to the Partridge public house
for a fortifying glass of ale only to find that what was hitherto a splendid
hostelry of the old fashioned kind is now a modern eatery to be avoided
at all costs. My humour was not improved by my son's insistence that he
was 'starving' and being forced to lay out £7.50 for a toasted cheese
and ham sandwich. Pre-match drinks will in future have to be taken at
an alternative establishment!
The Singleton ground though damp, was bathed in sunlight and looked a
picture and my humour was much improved when the opposition skipper on
winning the toss elected to bat. My spirits rose still further when Ashley's
friend Greg turned out to be 6'5" of prime Aussie beef and on starting
the bowling, scattered the opener's stumps. This was however an over-optimistic
beginning as the wicket was not bowler friendly and the batsmen took some
digging out. Spells form Matt, Ashley, Steve, Nick and myself all delivered
a wicket each and Greg, on coming back for a further spell, picked up
a second. The opposition declared at 4.45 at 181 for 7.
On the basis that a man out of form needs time at the wicket, I asked
Ashley to open with Howard in the hope of protecting our fragile middle
order for as long as possible. Howard unfortunately got a good outswinger
early on which was held at slip and so I joined Ash. Against some decent
club league bowling, we battled our way through with a lot of swinging
and swishing from Ashley who looked out of sorts and were beginning to
get on top of the bowling when, on 26, I hit one hard to short cover point
who in protecting his dentures, took a very good catch. Nick then joined
Ashley with the words 'get forward ringing in his ears' and so he did.
Ashley had now very definitely found the middle of his bat and was laying
about him and Nick, carrying on where he left off last week, gave sensible
and controlled support while hitting the bad ball for 4.
As the score mounted, Ash and Nick became increasingly aggressive with
Ash smiting 3 sixes and one from Nick which cleared the large tree and
could not be found. The scoring rate mounted fast until both were doing
more or less as they pleased combined with some very good running between
the wickets. With the score at 170, Nick was unluckily bowled off his
pads for 53, his second fifty in two weeks and the win by 7 wickets was
completed by Ashley, with a splendid 82 not out, and Greg on 13.