All round effort
A
sunny day which veered between warm and arctic found us fielding our strongest
batting side of the season if a little short of bowling. On winning the
toss, I elected to bat on our newly rolled wicket which looked full of
runs.
Slightly to our surprise, we found ourselves facing a very useful attack
which in a short space of time has Justin (1) and Edgar (8) back in the
pavilion. Ashley and Rob Symondson then dug in and looked comfortable
until Ashley tried to pull a ball which kept low and was LBW. I (8) then
hit one hard to mid off who accepted the chance and Mike Pearmain (6)
was bowled.
Amid the mayhem, Rob Symondson was batting superbly and my instructions
to Matt Hallam entering the fray at 99 for 5 were to get his head down
and let Rob get the runs. Clearly, I had not expressed myself clearly
as Matt hit his first ball for a straight six and his third ball followed
it. He then departed for 16, quickly followed by Mick Reeve and Brian
Hallam. Rob Symondson held things together until finally on 69 he was
caught. At 157 for 9 I felt we had insufficient runs but I need not have
worried as Jerry Stockbridge and Howard smote about them to put on 33
for the last wicket and providing us with a highly respectable 190 to
bowl at.
Their innings commenced both useful looking openers being blasted out
by two quick yorkers from Matt Hallam and the no 3 being adjudged LBW
to Ashley. Their was then a farcical run out with Howard rather cruelly
rolling the ball to the other end with just enough pace to keep the batsman
struggling for his ground. The spinners came on with me picking up 3 quick
wickets. Edgar in the meantime was enjoying a very good duel with the
number 4 batsman who had batted very well previously to reach 59 but finally
succumbed to Ed's accuracy and lofted one to cow corner where Mike Pearmain
took the catch with aplomb. This was a very good spell by Ed whose figures
did not do him justice. Finally, Matt Hallam came back to wrap up the
innings with his third clean bowled yorker.