Match Report
LATE COLLAPSE THWARTS VICTORY BID
After two cancelled away games, it was good to get back on the field with a full side and a lovely sunny afternoon, to face local rivals, Old Woking.
With Jerry on holiday, I stood in as skipper and promptly asked the visitors to bat on winning the toss. Most unusually, we had a glut of bowling options, so much so that ultimately Ashley & Paul didn’t get on at all. We opened up with the youthful ‘Anderson’ & Broad’ type combination of Adam & Josh and both bowled very well although facing one of Old Woking’s Saturday league openers. It was Josh who made the breakthrough gaining an early lbw, and soon afterwards Rob Symondson took a sharp catch in front of his face at point to reduce the opposition to 29-2. It was about then that Rob realised that for some reason he was still wearing his pastel pink polo shirt 👚 rather than his cricket top which stayed on until the drinks break. Adam in particular enjoyed a great battle with the tall left handed opener who played and missed at several cracking deliveries but irritatingly managed to squirt 3 or 4 boundaries through the backward point area off thick outside edges as well as a couple of solid drives down the ground. Adam took a breather after 7 offers for 26 and can seldom have bowled better without taking a wicket. Josh also put in a good performance and came off with 2-22 off 7, and we then tried a combination of Matt Hallam and Brandon Lesser, another promising young Camberley player, and they continued to keep a fairly tight rein on scoring before Brandon bowled the no.4 to make it 62-3. The tall opener moved to his 50 and in tandem with their no.5 who made 27, took the score beyond 100 before Brandon struck twice in rapid succession to dismiss both batsmen and the score was suddenly 115-5. Finally after 28 overs of fast medium bowling, we took the pace off the ball with George & myself coming on and within 12 overs Old Woking were all out on the stroke of tea for 148 with Matt Hallam ending the inning with a sharp direct hit run out from mid -wicket. The fielding was much hotter than usual with a host of young, fit fielders on parade who can all chase & throw well, although a couple of catches went down including a very make-able caught & bowled error by the writer. Rob caught three good catches, Ash pouched a skier, and George took a beautiful catch at first slip off his bootstraps to his obvious delight and adulation of his team mates. At tea we were pretty satisfied at the total which we felt we could chase down.
We opened up with probably our youngest ever opening pair, both 16 but Adam & Brandon looked fearless until Adam, having just pulled one beautifully to the square leg boundary edged a full length drive to gulley where the fielder pulled off a blinding catch! Nick Freeman came in a no.3, just below his normal spot and looked pretty secure reaching 7 before playing a loose shot he will probably want to forget at a wide ball and spooned one to point. Four balls later, Brandon mistimed a leg glance and picked out the man at mid wicket to depart for 12 and suddenly we were 30-3. Ashley & Rob then set about building a recovery, and against some good accurate bowling they combined watchful defence with the odd crashing boundary off the occasional wide ball. At 76-3 we seemed well placed for the win but Rob then edged one behind for 17, and when Ashley holed out to long off for 31 we were suddenly 86-5 and wobbling! Paul Reeve hit a rapid and characteristic 22 before edging one behind at 112-6, then Josh 11 n.o. & Matt Hallam with 12, took us to 130 before Matt was bowled of his pads by the visiting skipper. Josh then ran out of partners as two left arm spinners operating in tandem shot out our tail dismissing Nigel first ball, George second ball and the writer 5th ball, all without troubling the scorers! We came up 17 runs short with just under four overs to go but overall it was an enjoyable game against decent & sociable opposition and I’m sure this will become a regular fixture in the calendar.
ConcordeOld Woking CC 