Concorde v Claygate CC

Match Report

ANOTHER GOOD CONTEST AS SEASON’S FINALE ENDS IN TIGHT DRAW

In what turned out to be our last match of the season with the fixture with London Theatres washed out on 3rd October, we again had complete vindication of our stance that we do not play 40 over cricket and much prefer a time game.

In Jerry’s absence, I again took the reins and after explaining the concept of a timed game with one match ball, to visiting captain Alan Van Konynenburg, I duly asked Claygate to bat on winning the toss. On paper we had a ‘shed load’ of bowling but limited batting so it was good to have a potent opening attack with Simon Duke opening from the mansion end, whilst his friend and colleague from Walton, Kurt Clarke, making his Concorde debut, operated from the pavilion end. It was a joy to watch as Simon was right on the money from the first over, bowling very fast with a nagging length where the batters never quite knew whether to play back or forward, whilst young Kurt (he must be at least 6’5’’ tall) bowling at a lower pace but bringing it down from a great height, gave them plenty of problems. Kurt got the breakthrough, yorking the Zimbabwean opener for just a single to make it 7-1. We should have had a second wicket soon after when Simon induced the left hander Jake Murray to steer the ball straight into the hands of second slip, but to his horror Tom Sapsed reprieved his former Claygate colleague by letting it slip through his hands. It was an unfortunate moment for us as young Mr Murray went on to make 41, mostly watchful, but interspersed with moments of aggression, before he was bowled, ‘done in the flight’ by fellow Concorde debutant Nathan Durrance, a friend of Tom Sapsed, an off spinner who had replaced Dukie after a superb but unrewarded opening spell.That made it 78-2, which soon became 85-3, when Kurt used all of his height to pluck out of the sky a brilliant one handed catch above his head at extra cover, to dismiss the no.4 off Johnny Ayling who had just replaced him at the pavilion end. Visiting skipper Alan VK joined the very competent no.3 and they took the score to 98 before Johnny Ayling struck again when the writer hung on to a knee high catch at point to send back the no.3 for 32. Conscious of the advancing tea interval, Claygate started to force it before Tom Sapsed bowled Alan VK behind his legs to make it 128-5 and after a couple overs from the writer, Dukie returned to put the break on the late onslaught but some decent hitting and a few flashing edgessa2 Claygate declare at tea at 181-5.

Special mention must go to Simon Duke who mysteriously failed to take a wicket but bowled 13 overs of controlled hostility conceding just 26 runs.

Although we only had 5 front line batsmen, with a tail starting at no.7, (possibly even at no.6), we were fairly confident after the previous week’s opening stand of over 100 between Edgar & Tom. However, we were not so lucky this time, and Tom fell for 8, bowled by one that nipped back in on him and we were 15-1. Justin joined Edgar and against a very decent attack they gradually built our reply although we were always a bit behind the required rate. Edgar displayed his usual discipline- concentrated in defence but anything remotely short or wide was ruthlessly despatched. Having progressed to his second successive half century with eight boundaries, it was a slight surprise when he was bowled by the first ball after a change of bowling for 56 by which time we had reached 98-2, and two balls later Matt Bailey from Walton mistimed his defensive shot & skied an easy catch to mid wicket off the same bowler for a duck. Nick Freeman joined Justin, desperate for a score after a thin recent run, but again the gods were against him again as he was caught a couple of overs later for just a single to reduce us to 100-4.

We had just under 10 overs to go, requiring over 80 runs, with Simon Duke potentially the last attacking batsman joining Justin, with Nigel Wright due at no.7, the writer at No.8, then the three bowlers who all claimed to be no.11’s! At that point a draw looked a very acceptable outcome for us but both Simon and Justin had other ideas and they immediately launched an exciting counter attack which finally got us agonisingly close, finishing on 172, just 10 runs short of victory. Simon made a ‘cavalier’ 31, whilst Justin made his best score of the season with a tremendous innings of 64 n.o.

Another draw but a game which kept us all interested until the very end with several notable performances, with Edgar, Justin & Simon all outstanding! Claygate were a decent bunch and it was a very good contest.