Tontastic
In the absence of the skipper who stood down this week, vice captain Rob S. led the side on a scorching sunny afternoon. The opposition duly showed off their brand new pavilion/local community clubhouse which was very impressive except the security coded lock on the away dressing room door kept jamming so we were constantly locked out for large portions of the afternoon! Rob promptly lost the toss and we were asked to bat in about 80 degrees.
Jordy had inadvertently gone to Sendholme thinking it was a home game so Dean Carter and no.3 Nick Wright opened the innings. The second ball of the match saw Dean waft at one he should have left but the thin edge didn't quite carry to the keeper with my finger about to go up. It turned out to be rather important for Deano. We made a solid but unspectacular start with Nick unduly watchful, no doubt weighed down by the responsibility of opening! After about 10 overs of steady bowling we had reached 28 without loss when the two skippers were suddenly engaged in animated discussion on the cover boundary.
It seemed that their skipper forgot to tell Rob it was a 40 over game and we were already a quarter into our innings! It was rightly decided to revert to a time game as usual but Nick suddenly came to life & unleashed a couple of spanking fours and a huge straight six losing the match ball into a residential garden in the process. Alas, he soon perished caught behind for 17 chasing a wide one.
Jordy had duly arrived and joined Dean. It has to be said that the Claygate bowling was tidy but lacking real penetration but nonetheless we were then treated to a superb partnership between the 'two lefties' which took the score from 47 to 248 at tea with lovely driving & cutting from Jordy, whilst Dean, less aggressive but constantly keeping the scoreboard moving, batted intelligently with lots of quick singles & great running between the wickets. Both reached well deserved hundreds before tea, for Jordy his 5th for the club (drawing level with Edgar & Alex) whilst Dean reached his maiden hundred in competitive cricket, a great moment for him. It's not often we see Edgar & Rob padded up for over two hours without getting close to a bat!
After a very good tea in the new clubhouse, we set about the task of bowling them out. In the absence of any of our front line opening bowlers Rob started with Jacob & debutante medium pacer Ed Thurlow. Both bowled tidily and each picked up a wicket clean bowled and it looked good at 12-2. Then Rory O'Malley came in and started getting Claygate back into it with some effective if slightly inelegant hitting. Nick Wright picked up a smart slip catch off Mark Neale to reduce the hosts to 57-3 , which soon became 66-4 when H. stumped the 6''7'' eastern european with the straw hat off Edgar.
Despite the scoreboard it soon became clear that Claygate had their best players in the middle order but when Rory played across a straight one from Mark N. to make it 92-5 with 20 overs left we looked odds on. There was then an interesting stand between the hosts solid No.6 wicket keeper/ batsman (who had already decided to block it out it seemed) and their South African skipper ,who decided the game was still there to be won. He raced to 54 in no time with some very effective slogging which included several agonising edges through the slips ,completely ruining the writer's analysis. I nearly got my revenge but Jordy just failed to hang on to a skier running in from long off.
I was promptly replaced by Deano, who recovered from his long innings in the sun to finally dismiss their skipper when he gloved one behind and two balls later another thin edge was snaffled by H. to give Dean 2 in 3 balls. Then the shutters finally came down. Jacob returned to take another wicket just before the close but oh how we could have done with another bowler with an extra yard of pace to trouble their No.6 and the tail at the death! Claygate finished at 207-8 and the game was drawn with Jacob taking 2-39, and Mark Neale 2-47 . Slightly damp squibbish at the end in truth but a memorable day for Dean & Jordy!