Concorde v Pirbright

Match Report

100 RUN WIN FEELS LIKE OLYMPIC GOLD

After a miserable season of non-action, we finally returned to duty last Sunday against old rivals Pirbright.

The visitors asked us to bat on winning the toss and a new opening pair of Jody & young 17 year old Alec Browne made a solid start, with Alec sound in defence the perfect foil for Jody’s slightly more flamboyant approach which brought him 6 boundaries in a rapid 32 before succumbing lbw. Next over Alec mistimed a pull shot which skied to mid on and we were suddenly 52-2. The two Nick’s Wright & Freeman, then had to rebuild with both fairly watchful but ruthless with anything loose. Neither looked in any real trouble so it was a bit of a surprise when they both fell in rapid succession, caught at mid on & cover point respectively, Nick W. for 26, Nick F. for 10, but at 102-4 after 30 overs, we needed some impetus. Skipper John W. then went on the attack, supported firstly by Rhys who hit a large six down the ground in a quick-fire 9, then by Matt S’bridge with a hasty 12, and finally Justin Red. who played the role of best ‘supporting actor’ giving John the strike at the end to enable him to post a well constructed 52 n.o. We declared at tea at 180-6.

Our opening attack was the youngest in decades with Ben Westen & Alec Browne in tandem, and after a couple of edges that didn’t quite go to hand, Alec made the breakthrough pinning the opening bat lbw with a full length ball. Ben then got into the act clean bowling the other opener then following it up by securing another plumb lbw decision. At 25-3, it began to dawn on us that the visitors batting lacked any real depth but as they say ‘you can only play what is confronting you’ and Ben took full advantage in a very impressive spell which saw him end with 5-29, his first 5 wkt haul for the club. He also created a run out in combination with keeper Justin when Pirbright chanced a risky second run, and with firstly the writer, and then Matt S. , both picking up a wicket each, the visitors were all out for 75, 105 runs short of their target!

A resounding victory secured in just under 20 overs and after our humiliation in our last fixture in early July, this was the perfect way to resume the season.