Concorde v Worcester Park CC

Match Report

Another low scoring game, packed full of incident and with an exciting finish.

Worcester Park are a big club and always bring a strong or at least, highly competent, team to Concorde and it was good, therefore to have what looked, on paper at least, a good side to greet them.

On winning the toss, Jerry Wright followed the long term precedent of inviting Worcester Park to bat and the bowling attack was opened by Chris Heath, guesting from Pystock and John Wilson. Both bowled well and accurately although in Chris’s case, no luck was forthcoming. John, on the other hand, bowling a testing spell of medium paced seam, picked up two early wickets, both clean bowled before retiring to graze in the outfield.

Charlie Parker making his debut, then entered the attack and settled into a spell of very nicely flighted left arm orthodox spin whilst Matt Stockbridge replaced the very unlucky Chris Heath. Following a very ordinary first over, following which the Skipper began warming up to replace him, Matt settled into a nice line and length and began to exert considerable pressure which resulted in the hard hitting no 4 lofting one to mid on where Nick Freeman took an excellent catch above his head.

This precipitated something of a collapse in the Worcester Park batting which, save for the gritty no 3, seemed unable to cope with the well balanced spin duo. Two excellent stumpings by Justin gave Charlie his first two Concorde wickets while a smart catch in the gulley by Rob Symondson and a caught and bowled by Matt brought his tally up to 4 at that point.

The no 3 had been holding things very much together and had reached 38 before Matt induced the ball to pop a bit and Jerry Wright took a diving tumbling catch at short midwicket which surprised everyone including himself before Matt rounded things off nicely by having the last man caught behind first ball to give himself the splendid figures of 6-43.

A total of 136 looked on paper to be below par but the wicket, being rather slow and variable in bounce was not easy and it was clear that we would need to bat well although with the innings closing at 3.45pm, time was unlikely to be an issue.

Things did not initially go well! Edgar, Nick Freeman, Phil Hall and Justin did not unduly trouble the scorers and at 30 – 4, things looked a little bleak. However, Rob Symondson, having been reluctant to bat above no 7 had been manhandled onto the pitch at no 4 by his Captain and was defending stoutly and was joined by John Wilson who whilst defensive to begin with looked comfortable.

These two proceeded to rebuild the innings in their contrasting styles with Rob combining a forward defensive straight out of the MCC coaching manual with his trade mark drive over mid on and John playing some wristy cuts and elegant drives so that they began to take the initiative and they had taken the score to 90 before Rob was well caught on the mid on boundary from a ball which would otherwise have carried for 6. He had made an excellent and important 24.

John continued along his merry way, now assisted by Charlie, who stamped himself on the game with an effortless and beautifully timed six over mid on off his second ball. The game looked won in these safe hands but on 118, with victory coming over the horizon, John was bowled for 38.

Suddenly the game changed perspective as first Charlie was caught for 25 and then Luca Coleman and Chris Heath were dismissed without scoring and so with 16 required to win, old hands Jerry Wright and Matt Stockbridge found themselves at the crease with the fate of the team in their hands!

A clip through midwicket by Jerry brought a single, a nudge from Matt brought another and a couple of byes brought the target down to 12. A glorious off drive (though I say it myself) brought a 4 for Jerry who played out the rest of the over. Off the first ball of the next over, Matt slashed a 4 through cover point and then, in a style reminiscent of his Father, swept off his leg stump for 4 runs and a great win by 1 wicket for Concorde.