Concorde v Pirbright

Match Report

On a swelteringly hot day, it would be fair to say that the Concorde fielding wilted!

Against a fairly threadbare Concorde bowling attack, Pirbright elected to bat first and it was not a particularly encouraging sight to see James Thompson striding to the wicket, eager to fill his boots with Concorde runs as he has done so many times before. Captain Ash opened the bowling and bowled well without quite finding his best form. At the other end, Jerry Wright opened with spin and on a pitch that was lacking pace and not easy to bat on, had an early success in bowling Doran for 1. Regrettably, however, the fielding effort that followed was lamentable with simple chance after simple chance being spurned such that, Thompson, on his way to making 88, was dropped 4 times before reaching 20 and should also have been run out after being stranded half way down the wicket!

He and Olly Percival then had a jolly time taking full advantage of the Concorde generosity, in putting together a partnership of 123, before Freddy Cottrall, a late sub, induced an edge off Thompson’s bat to Justin behind the wicket who, amazingly in the context of the day so far, held the catch. This sparked a brief period of Concorde dominance as Edgar picked up 2 wickets, Jody Mycroft nipped in for a couple more and Nick Wright also came away with 2 wickets, one courtesy of the batsman hitting his own stumps.

A flourish from the no 10 batsman, Jones, together with the still unbeaten Percival carried the Pirbright score to 262 for 8 before the declaration came with Percival not out on 87.

The Concorde reply did not start well with Justin, Jody, Nick Freeman and Edgar all being out for single figures before the score had reached 50. However, Nick Wright, making a very welcome return to the Concorde ranks held firm and in company with Captain Ash had taken the score to 86 before Nick was caught for a battling 42. Ash and Rob Symondson then continued the fight and took the attack to the opposition before Ash fell for 38. Rob, continuing his recovery of form from last week looked very solid and together with Jerry Wright, the two old stagers set about running down the last 20 overs to try and earn the draw. However, with 10 overs to go, Jerry got the thinnest of edges down the leg side and was caught by the keeper for 14.

Rob’s rearguard continued bravely with Freddie Cottrell until with three overs to go, Rob was caught for an excellent 36 and from that point it was just a question of whether Freddy, Sten Overy, making his debut, and Luca could hold on. It was not to be as Sten was adjudged LBW off the final ball of the match.

An enjoyable game but the main lesson to be taken was that fielding can win or lose a match. Had we taken our catches, Pirbright would have been all out for around 150 and an altogether different game and result might have been had!