Concorde v London Theatres

Match Report

NARROW DEFEAT TO THEATRES BRINGS CURTAIN DOWN ON SEASON

The season finale saw us take on London Theatres, traditionally a very enjoyable fixture, which despite the late date, has often enjoyed good weather in the past. So it proved once again as despite a lot of rain in the proceeding days, we were blessed with sunshine for the match but enormous credit must go to Mick Reeve for preparing a strip.

Inevitably though, with all the midweek rain, it was always going to be a ‘pudding’ and runs were going to be hard to come by. We were weaker than we wanted to be for this game with the skipper and several key players unavailable, and this got worse on Saturday morning when two players informed me that the ‘Y’ they had put on the chart really meant ‘N’ and on match day a third chart ‘Y’ resulted in a ‘no show’ and I still haven’t heard from him! As a result we frantically recruited Simon and Thom Griffiths and Craig Lesser from their usual spectating roles to get us up to 11. However this meant our tail would effectively start at no.6, so at the toss I was desperate to win and bowl first but Dean Chisnall won the toss and asked us to bat.

I told the five batsman we had in Nikhil, Paddy, Brandon, Nick and Josh that it was vital that they occupied the crease for most of our innings if we were to post any sort of competitive score and they all applied themselves very well, particularly Nikhil & Brandon who scored 42 and 34 respectively, but in the context of the conditions and the game they were the equivalent of 50’s or 60’s. The London Theatres attack was very tidy with several very steady bowlers led by Duncan Waugh and it soon became apparent that anything above 120 would make a game. As it was Paddy fell for 10 after a couple of good boundaries , Nikhil & Brandon built the total to close to a hundre before falling to catches at cover point & long on respectively, but a quick flurry from Nick with 12 and Josh with 8 n.o. got us up to 138 at tea respite me batting on 15 mins beyond the normal tea interval.

With a low target to defend and a limited bowling attack I decided Nikhil was the the most likely bowler on that pitch so he held down the pavilion end whilst Brandon, Josh and myself alternated at the Mansion end. Having watched us struggle to get it off the square, The Theatres decided to adopt a more 20:20 type approach and Johnny Kustow and Dean Chisnall smacked 3-4 quick boundaries before Johnny shouldered arms to a ball from Brandon which nipped back and was bowled. Theatres continues to press with Dean and the number 3 building steadily before Dean was surprised by a quicker ball from Brandon which took the edge and Paddy took a good reaction catch at slip. With their talisman back in the hutch we sensed we had a chance but gradually the Theatres batsmen managed to string together 2 or 3 telling partnerships. Nikhil bowled another great spell with great variety and kept us in the game but Brandon, Josh and myself did not have quite the same control on the day and despite us chipping away with regular wickets Theatres got home with three wickets to spare. Nikhil finished with 3-34 off 14 overs which saw him get up to 42 wkts for the season, which I think is a new club record, Brandon ended with 2-51, Josh 1-31, and myself 1-18.

Another very enjoyable match to end the season but although it was a narrow defeat we really do need a stronger line up to compete in this fixture. Perhaps I can ask some of our better players now to keep the first Sunday in October free in their diary for next year!