Concorde v Wibbadune CC

Match Report

Without any of the Hersham contingent being available for this new fixture against opponents of unknown strength, the team that took the field for Concorde was perhaps one of the weakest in living memory, particularly as we took the field with only 9 players, Nigel Wright arriving about 10 minutes later. As a result of our weakened state, I attempted a negotiation with the opposition Captain with the intention that he should elect to bat first, a proposal which he regarded with the utmost suspicion but which was, in any case rendered redundant since I won the toss and was able to ask them to bat first.

Although Dave and Adam both bowled well, no result was forthcoming for quite some time and the score had reached 75 before the first wicket, a smart catch behind the wicket by Nick Freeman off the bowling of Dave Nash. Again, the batsmen settled in and a monster score looked in the offing until the other opener top edged a sweep of George to short fine leg where young Adam Carter took a very good catch coming over his shoulder and at full stretch.

Dan Saunders then came on to bowl and although a little rusty, he bowled well enough to show that there is a decent left arm medium pace bowler lurking within and was in fact rewarded with a wicket. At this stage, Adam was brought back into the attack and as has been the case previously, it was this spell that brought reward. Bowling quick and straight, Adam took three wickets in successive overs, the last two being cleaned bowled with first a lovely outswinger which clipped the top of off and then a superb inswinger which hit the top of middle. A lovely bit of bowling which had his Captain purring in pleasure from his vantage point at slip.

The game looked to have swung our way a little and even more so when Nigel came on to bowl in place of George and a nice juicy full toss was swung down to cow corner where Dave Nash came haring round, threw himself into a tackle which Julian Dicks would have been proud of and caught the ball whilst sliding along on his backside. Not particularly orthodox but highly spectacular! This impression of fielding competence was spoilt two balls later when exactly the same ball went to the exact same spot and the exact same fielder failed to get a hand on it. Ah well – one out of two ain’t bad in village cricket!

Nigel then went on to gain two further wickets when a ball was sliced to deep gully where Rob Symondson took the catch and then a towering caught and bowled which Nigel took with some aplomb. Having taken 3-21, the bar was strangely empty when Nigel arrived to describe his wickets in detail!

The only other moment of note was when Adam threw down the wickets with the batsman some way short of his ground and the Umpire attempted to convince us that a new law was in force this year that said that so long as the batsman was somewhere near his ground, he could not be out. Some choice words from your Captain sent both him and the batsman on his way. The Wibbandune innings closed on 201 – 9.

The Concorde innings was not one that requires much description and could have been horrific but for the excellent innings played by Nick Freeman who coming in at no 5, hit 16 boundaries in an innings of 75 and who, in so doing, farmed the strike successfully for about 15 overs in partnership with Mike Anning who when he did face the odd ball, defended stoutly and between them, they gave us a fighting chance of securing a draw. Alas, upon their demise, and in spite of some good defence from George, we were all out for 151. The only other batsmen to reach double figures were Dan Saunders who played very well for 16, batting at no 3, and Mick Reeve with an 11* which will cunningly improve is average.

Defeat then but with some honour and with only 3 overs of the final twenty left to play.