Concorde v Cuddington Casuals

Match Report

After having been very much on the receiving end over the last couple of weeks, it was nice to get back to winning ways, particularly against a side that we have not been able to beat for some years. That we were able to do so, owed very much to superb all round performances by two players who are at slightly different phases of their cricketing careers. We are used to seeing Andy Marshall perform heroics, especially with the bat, Indeed, we have come to expect and rely upon it but how wonderful it was to see, firstly, a mature and powerful batting performance from 15 year old Adam Carter and then a fiery spell of quick bowling from him which ultimately propelled us to an exciting and last gasp win.

Chris Turvill, captain for the day, lost the toss and not unexpectedly, was asked to bat. Chris accepted the challenge head on by electing to open the batting himself in company with Mike Prevost but against some very tidy and tight bowling which was moving a lot in the air under a cloudy sky, progress was slow. Mike was unlucky to get a very good yorker first ball and it was left to Andy Marshall and Chris to battle hard for about 40 minutes during which runs were very hard to come by. Just as the shackles seemed to be lifting, Chris missed a straight one and was adjudged LBW for 18.

Andy was joined by Adam Carter and they began to take control. Soon, Andy’s trademark shots were being unveiled and Adam was striking powerfully down the ground and the score began to climb and before long, the century partnership had been reached. Adam was by no means the junior partner and showed astonishing maturity for one so young and it was wonderful to see him reach a maiden 50 for Concorde though he holed out at mid on very soon thereafter.

Andy passed 50 himself and kept up a brisk scoring rate as he was joined and soon left by Rob Symondson and then, by Nick Freeman for rather longer as our score approached 200. Having taken 3 fours in an over, Andy reached a superb and chanceless century which was a joy to watch and having carried us to 202-5, a declaration was made.

The Cuddington innings was opened by the opposing captain, Adam Sattaur, who has made a lot of runs against us in the past and he made his intention very clear by going straight on the offensive. Adam opened our attack and bowled with pace and accuracy but without much luck. Nevertheless, he finished his 7 over spell with two wickets whilst Dave Nash, seemingly struggling physically after a lengthy gym session earlier in the week, found it hard to get a length and then almost lost his right hand in attempting a caught & bowled off a howitzer from Adam Sattaur.

The introduction of Andy Marshall proved almost immediately successful with three wickets coming quickly, including two in two balls which raised the unnerving prospect of another naked celebration in the event of a hat trick, Fortunately for all present, this did not occur but his previous success had rather gone to his head and encouraged Andy to resort to bowling an over of leg spin which was annoyingly, rather good. Chris, wisely in the writer’s opinion, swiftly removed Andy from the attack before he could become truly unbearable.

Some anaemic overs from Jerry Wright and a few interesting overs from Prev, who investigated every possible variation of length and pace, brought no benefit and it took an inspired decision by the captain to bring himself on to remove Pete Sattaur, LBW for a fighting 50 despite the fervent protestations of Mike Stockbridge at the non-strikers end that the ball had hit the bat first and the equally powerful insistence of the batsman that it had not.

With time running out, Adam came back into the attack and bowling a good yard quicker than his first spell, he first hit the top of middle stump and then with the last ball of the game, removed Mike Stockbridge’s off stump with a classic yorker. A suitably climatic end to the game.

Andy scored about 114* and took 3 wickets for about 17 runs and Adam scored 50 and took 4 wickets also for about 22 runs.