Concorde v Worcester Park CC

Match Report

Armed with what looked a pretty thin bowling attack containing some unknown quantities, I was somewhat relieved when the Worcester Park Captain won the toss and elected to bat. Chasing always looked to me to be the best option. This looked even more the case when the wicket showed itself to be unusually sporty in nature, rearing off a length for no good reason and keeping unusually low next ball. However, with our two new recruits sharing the new ball and initially showing signs of rust, the opposition got off to a flying start, reaching 65 after only 5 overs almost all of it being due to one batsman who was apparently coming off successive hundreds in previous weeks. However, Justin Rowland (henceforth JRO) soon settled into a good rythym with good pace whilst Chris Nock showed enough to see that with a few games under his belt, he could be a very handy opening bowler.

The first wicket fell at around 60 when JRO induced an edge down the leg side and JRED took a smart catch and when Nick Wright came on with his height and bounce, this proved a good counterpoint to JRO’s more skiddy pace and wickets began to fall. However, it was not until the opener was out, having made 85 of the first 100 runs that we began to feel in control. Indeed once he had been dismissed, they had little to follow and we were able to work our way through the rest of the opposition line up without too much damage, bowling them out for what had seemed at one point, a most unlikely small target of 163.

JRO and Nick Wright between them had broken the back of the Worcester Park batting taking 3 – 41 off 10 overs and 2 – 40 off 8 overs, respectively. Jerry Wright and Cudders nipped in with 2-10 and 2-7 respectively.

Nick Freeman and Edgar opened the Concorde reply and apart from some rather eccentric running between the wickets steered us to a solid start putting 30 on the board before Ed was LBW for 12 and then Nick and Justin Redfern continued the good work moving us slowly and carefully along against some good accurate bowling and some very enthusiastic fielding until with the score at 50, disaster struck. In very quick succession, Nick Freeman was caught for a good 29, Nick Wright, hitherto in excellent form, was bowled by a nip back and Rob Symondson was LBW to a shooter which gave him no chance. From the relative comfort of 50 – 1 we were in the blink of an eye, rocking at 50 for 4.

However, JRED and JROW did a fine job of settling things down and through a combination of watchful defence and occasional aggression, they put on 50 together before JRO was LBW for 21. Jerry Wright, coming off a shocking run of bad form, probably did not look a comforting sight to Justin Redfern as he walked to the wicket but inspiring references from Justin to the warrior spirit of their mutual musical hero, Bruce Springsteen (No surrender, Glory Days, Born to Run(s)) and the fact that we only required 3 runs per over to win, calmed Jerry down and these two continued to push the ball around while quietly garnering the runs required.

A partnership of 40 was ended when Justin was LBW (a lot of LBW’s was testament to the very fair umpiring) for an excellent and important 37 with 14 required for victory and only 4 overs remaining. Jerry and Nigel Wright scampered a few singles but with the fielders well spread, boundaries were hard to come by and Jerry was bowled trying to clear the ropes with 7 required. The last over was tense with 5 needed but Nigel and Mike Anning were unable to get over the line against some good bowling and with Mike being bowled in the effort, the match was drawn with us requiring 4 to win and Worcester Park requiring i wicket.

An excellent game played in very good spirit.