Concorde v London Theatres

Match Report

SOLID HOME TOP ORDER BRING DOWN THE CURTAIN ON VISITOR’S DREAMS

Our usual Autumn sunshine reserved for this fixture prevailed once again as we started at 12 noon for the season’s finale.

Standing in for absent skipper Jerry, on winning the toss I promptly asked the visiting thespians to bat. We couldn’t have made a better start when the 4th ball of Adam Carter’s first over was cut straight to point where Mick Reeve pouched a waist high catch. Off trudged Johnnie Kustow who had only required 1 run to notch up 500 runs for the season! Unfortunately that brought together visiting skipper Dean Chisnall and Sean Young who for over an hour put all our bowlers to the sword, with some fierce driving down the ground and through the covers mainly, laced with quick singles all around the wicket. Our young pace attack of Adam and Josh, followed by Edgar, all suffered somewhat against two class hitters. At 142-1 after 19 overs our chances looked pretty bleak but then in the last over of his spell Adam induced a false shot from Dean who edged into his stumps for 59 and it soon became a different game. Two overs later, the writer won an lbw appeal against Haydn Oakley, current star of West End musical ‘An American in Paris’ , attempting a sweep shot, and shortly afterwards took a sharp return catch of the dangerous Sean Young who departed for 81. We suddenly took a grip on the game with the big hitters back in the pavilion and we then steadily worked through the rest of their line up to dismiss them for 215 just on the scheduled tea interval. Stars in the outfield were both Josh and Adam, along with the ever enthusiastic Nigel and Matt Stockbridge who was like a wall at mid off and extra cover. The inning ended with Stockers the elder diving forward at extra cover to give son Matt a third wicket for just 5 runs in two overs at the tail end of the innings, whilst I finished with 4-18, Adam 2-52, George 1-45, Josh 0-42, and Edgar 0-43.

At tea, I told our top three that I needed them to get their heads down as we had a fairly long tail and how magnificently they responded. Paddy Haddow opened up with Edgar and dominated a good opening stand, with some glorious drives down the ground and well timed flicks off his legs. However just as it looked as it London Theatres were running out of ideas, Paddy miscued a full toss to be caught at deep mid in for 48, even though he deserved a fifty and we were suddenly 66-1. Edgar had been happy to play the role of ‘best supporting actor’ alongside Paddy but now stepped up a gear and began to punish the flagging bowlers. The Theatre’s attack was now looking about as threadbare as the ball had become with stalwart Ernie Gill, needing just two wickets at the start to achieve 650 for the club, had a surprisingly ‘quiet day’ and ultimately ended with 0-74. Although Edgar then departed lbw for an excellent 58, we were by then within about 60 runs of victory and now Nick Freeman took centre stage and stepped into the spotlight to accelerate quickly to 50 and beyond with some well judged, controlled hitting and good running. Despite losing Adam for 3 to an excellent diving catch at square leg, Nick in tandem with Matt Stockbridge (14*) saw us safely home, finishing with 82* with 4 overs to spare, his highest score for the club to date and a season’s total of 438.

As always played in an excellent spirit , and all in all a very enjoyable end to the season.