Concorde v Thames Valley Ramblers

Match Report

On Sunday, we welcomed back to the fold, Edgar Fernandes and Matt Hallam who have not been regular members of the side for a couple of years. I am pleased to report that neither looks a day older and both look as though they spend an hour in the day in the gym! Jerry Stockbridge too made a reappearance, replacing 15 year old Josh Griffiths which reduced the athleticism of the fielding but enormously increased the chances of collecting the right amount of match fees after the game.

Regrettably the toss was lost but every cloud has a silver lining in as much that most of us were able to put our feet up and settle down to watch an effervescent batting display from Freeman and Fernandes. Sadly, however, this did not materialise as batting was made to look extremely difficult against some steady bowling and after 8 overs, the score had only reached 5. A sudden injection of urgency meant that after 11 overs the score had rocketed forward to 13 before the first wicket fell. Having remarked to my watching companions that there was going to be a run out any moment, there duly was a run out as Edgar failed to make his ground by about 5 yards having made an aggressive duck off 26 balls! He strode back to the pavilion shaking his head at the injustice of it all.

Andy Marshall was soon into his trade mark punches through cover and laps down the leg side and the score began to move along and had reached 66 before Nick Freeman was caught for a hard fought 33 off 80 balls. He was replaced by Prev who made it look easy by smiting two fours from his first 3 balls before he too fell into the same torpor as all who had gone before and scored only 3 more runs from a further 20 balls before he too fell for 11. With the score at 84 for 3 from 30 overs, we badly needed a big innings from Andy but after adding only 9 more runs, Andy too was gone, uncharacteristically cutting one uppishly to gulley for 34.

Chris Turvill and Jerry Wright then attempted to move the score along with about as much success as those who had gone before and it was no surprise when Jerry ran down the wicket and was stumped for 15. Chris tried hard to put bat to ball with some success but he too was undone by the slowness of the wicket and lofted one to deep midwicket where the fielder turned a simple catch into a very difficult one but held it at the second attempt. Chris had made an important 32 and had taken his average to 112 although, admittedly, off only two innings.

Matt Hallam then put bat to ball and in the context of the match to that point made a lightening 16 off 15 balls including a glorious straight six into the tree before the innings was declared closed on what felt a sorely inadequate total of 153 for 6 after 47 overs.

A lively opening spell by Matt Hallam initially went unrewarded and just as it looked as though we would need to resort to cunning rather than muscle, he uprooted the openers middle stump with the score on 26. Dave Nash had bowled very tightly without positive result and was replaced by Andy Marshall whose little swervers began to beat the bat and it was no surprise when he bowled the number 3 for 24 with the score at 64. A moment of controversy followed as the no 4 was adjudged not out to a caught behind off Andy and tempers rose for a moment.

At this stage, the game looked to be going TVR’s way but the introduction of George Howard began to change things. Bowling a lovely spell of well pitched and turning (must ask him how he does that) off breaks, George first applied tight pressure and then winkled out the opener for a valuable 23, then had the no 4 taken at slip by Ed (the cat) Fernandes and next ball had the replacement batsman very well held at shortish cover by , Nigel Wright, still basking in the afterglow of making an unbeaten 0 at the tail end of our innings.

Such was the panic induced by George that the next two batsmen found interesting ways of getting themselves run out, the second departing in some gloom after being outsprinted to the stumps by Edgar, a fine sight with the wind behind him. The TVR Captain Paul Smith now joined the no 5 batsman Mr D. Singh and it was clear that all rested upon ending this partnership with the score at 104 when they came together and they had moved it along to 134 when Dave Nash returning to the attack induced Mr Singh to loft one to deepish mid on where Jerry Wright took the catch.

With 14 required off the last over and two wickets standing, it was clear that both sides had settled for the draw and hands were shaken with the TVR score on 140, perhaps a slightly tame ending to an exciting game to that point. George finished with figures of 3-30 after what was probably his best bowling spell for the club to date.