Tour Report
Friday 1st September St. Austell C.C.
Saturday 2nd September Goldsithney C.C.
Sunday 3rd September Ladock C.C.
| Tour Party 2006 | |||
| Alex Cudworth | Matt Hallam | Brian Hallam | Ian Walker |
| Ian Cudworth | Steve Reece | Jerry Stockbridge | Toby Cudworth |
| Mike Reeve | Bill Munday | Jerry Wright | Howard Smith |
| Jon Cardy | Ed Fernandes | Paul Gresty |
This should have been a very lengthy report, but a ridiculous cancellation by St.Austell C.C. at 9.20am on Friday, and torrential rain & winds on Saturday when we were due to play Goldsithney C.C. reduced the tour to one game.
We were particularly miffed at the St.Austell decision, taken first thing in the morning after overnight rain when the forecast was good, and sure enough it was a warm sunny day, spent by most of us on a golf course or surfing. It later emerged that St. Austell have a habit of cancelling tour fixtures on a whim.
Fortunately the Sunday fixture against Ladock was played in lovely sunny weather, on a picturesque ground, against a nice crowd of blokes. Those of you who didn’t make the tour can find out for yourselves about how we filled in the time over the first two days but shall we just say that certain members got rather less sleep than they needed! The hotel was a very shabby Fawlty Towers but did have an indoor bowling alley as a diversion. Most of us felt Newquay was ‘Chav city’ but overall it was still a very enjoyable experience and it was very good to see how the under-25’s mixed with the over-50’s.
3 Sep 2006 v Ladock – Won by 2 wkts
Ladock 132 (Ian Cudworth 4-23, Alex Cudworth 2-8, Ian Walker 2-23, Toby Cudworth 2-33)
Concorde 133-8 (Bill Munday 77*, Alex Cudworth 17, Ian Walker 14)
When arriving in Ladock we invaded the only village pub, promptly ordered 12 pints, then were told that they only did food by prior booking. We then slunk off to the ground sustained only by emergency sandwich rations courtesy of M&S Truro. Our hosts informed us that it was to be a 40 over game with 8 overs per bowler restrictions which I reluctantly conceded, although it actually worked out quite well in the end. Ladock duly won the toss and elected to bat to my great relief. The square was on a significant slope made much worse by a stiff crosswind which ensured that all bowlers moved the ball away from a right hand bat from the pavilion end and into the bat from the far end. Alex & Matt bowled well in tandem adjusting well to the ‘local’ conditions and restricted scoring to barely two an over. Alex made the initial breakthrough bowling the opener with one coming back down the slope, then Toby replaced Matt and hit the stumps with a drifting yorker. Jerry W. and Toby maintained the pressure and the visitors never got above 3 runs an over despite the steep slope to the left hand boundary which we defended well. The overs restriction then enabled me to bowl myself and guest player Ian Walker and between us we picked up six wickets with Jon Cardy (twice), Toby and Matt all pouching skied catches. The home tail wagged briefly but when Alex flattened the No.11’s off stump they were all out for 133 in 38 overs. Bowling figs. Alex 6-2-8-2, Matt 6-0-17-0, Jerry 7-0-17-0, Toby 8-0-33-2, Ian Walker 4-0-26-2, and myself 7-0-23-4. Our fielding was erratic, H. kept well, we held four good catches but dropped three others, and conceded several overthrows with bad throwing and backing up. Must have been the sleep and alcohol taking it’s toll.
With Ed, Steve R. and guest Paul Gresty unavailable for this fixture, our batting was a little lightweight but we only needed just over three runs an over on what seemed a good batting pitch. However, we soon discovered that runs were hard to come by with the slope and wind factors against the home side’s opening attack, friendly in pace, but wickedly accurate. After looking very secure Stockers was bowled down the slope, pitched middle & leg, hit off. Jon Cardy also looked in no trouble but his sleep deprivation then caused a sudden rush of blood and he was bowled for 2 attempting a drive. After seven overs we were 6-2 and struggling. Bill Munday and Jerry W. then dug in, but just after seeing off the opening bowlers, Jerry mistimed a pull and was caught at mid wicket for 5. Alex joined Bill and decided that positive attack was the answer, hitting a rapid 17 with three scorching boundaries in one over, but a mistimed drive and a leading edge skied a catch to cover and we were wobbling at 60-4. Bill was gradually building his innings with great judgement of shot, including several lovely drives down the ground and through the covers. However he began to run out of partners as Matt & Mick departed in rapid succession before Ian Walker played a very useful innings of 14 with three boundaries to give us renewed momentum. When he was caught behind, we were closing in on the target, but Brian couldn’t repeat his heroics from last Sunday and bought a mallard ticket after a mistimed drive to cover. Toby then joined Bill, and although both were dropped in a nervy finish, they saw us home with an over to spare depriving me of batting on Cornish soil. Bill was unbeaten with 77 n.o. and was undoubtedly man of the match.