Concorde v Wibbandune CC

Match Report

FREAK ACCIDENT THREATENS TO THWART VICTORY BID- DECISION FROM LORDS AWAITED!

A very hot sunny afternoon greeted us as we entertained Wibbandune C.C. last Sunday. It turned out to be a very enjoyable game but with an unexpected twist at the end!

As is becoming increasingly common, on Tuesday afternoon we had only 6-7 players, with next to no batting and very limited bowling. I sent out my usual distress e-mail and within a few hours Andy M., Michael Prevost and Matt Cliff (of Ripley CC) declared themselves available, soon followed by Josh, who declared that despite his broken toe, he could play as a batsman and close fielder so suddenly we were in business. On the morning of the match George called in sick but I managed to recruit Nikhil Kadyan of Old Woking so we actually ended up with a pretty decent side.

With Jerry absent, I filled in as skipper and asked the visitors to bat on winning the toss. The wicket was a bit quicker and bouncier than usual and the outfield lightning fast due to days of dry hot weather, and during the opening burst from our youthful attack of Adam and Brandon,the bat was often beaten, but umpteen edges flew through the slip area for boundaries in the blink of a eye! Brandon made the break through with a well pitched up ball cleaning up the Wibbandune opener making it 34-1 after 8 overs. At one end visiting opener Naz traded almost exclusively in boundaries, with some streaky edges combined with some clean hitting down the ground whilst most of his colleagues seemed happy to occupy the crease. Adam & Brandon gave way after good opening spells and coming on first change at the mansion end, Matt Cliff sent back the no.3 clean bowled making it 69-2, then Naz reached his 50 with the score at 78-2 but the very next ball he miscued a drive off Andy M. and Adam calmly pouched the skier at cover point. We then appeared to have taken a stranglehold on the game as in a 20 minute spell we reduced the visitors to 107-6, courtesy of a very sharp ‘team run out’ involving Rob, Adam & Andy, followed by a well judged running catch at square leg off a top edge taken by Nigel Wright, then a lofted drive to long off, was nonchalantly taken by young Brandon giving Matt Cliff his third wicket.

Wibbandune then showed their depth in batting with a rapid stand of 76 with the nos.7 & 8, scoring 64 & 27 respectively. Matt had bowled with great control but a flurry of boundaries including 5 successive boundaries in one over, rather ruined his figures so he gave way to Nikhil Kadyan, bowling slow left arm who soon picked up 3 wickets, with two beautifully judged catches on the deep mid wicket boundary by young Adam , plus a more straight forward catch by Matt Cliff at cover, and with the writer picking up a wicket, courtesy of a smart catch picked up off his toes by Michael Prevost at mid wicket, the visitors were suddenly all out for 190. Bowling figs were: Adam 7-1-33-0, Brandon 7-1-24-1, Andy M. 8-2-28-1, Matt C. 8-0-49-3, Nikhil 5.2-1-22-3, and myself 6-1-19-1. Once again Adam bowled a great spell with no luck at all, beating the bat on many occasions. The fielding & catching was generally very good in hot unpleasant conditions with Adam, Brandon, Andy, Mike P. & Nigel all catching the eye. Unfortunately Nick F. had one of those days that keepers get occasionally with umpteen thin edges not sticking as he stood up to Andy, Matt & Nikhil but he was to bounce back later! At tea,190 looked a getable target provided we started well.

After tea we started up with Nikhil, who normally opens for Old Woking & Mike Prevost as I thought he deserved the chance to get a bat after a long slog in the field. Unfortunately, third ball of the innings, and Michael’s first, saw the left arm opening bowler get one to climb off just short of a length which caught the edge and saw the keeper take a good catch diving forward. Nikhil was joined by Andy Marshall and they built a very good stand, Nikhil with some lovely driving down the ground, Andy with his characteristic cutting & leg glances, always looking for runs. With the score at 76, Nickhil tried to hit the spinner across the line, top edged and was caught by the keeper for a very good 43, including nine boundaries. Rob S. joined Andy and soon got into his stride with two cracking boundaries down the ground before falling lbw for 9 to reduce us to 102-3, and soon after Andy, attempting one of his trademark square cuts just failed to get over the ball and was caught low down at point for 40 including six boundaries to make it 116-4. The ship needed steadying and up stepped Nick F. who soon put his miserable day behind the stumps behind him with a composed innings assisted initially by Josh, who was playing as a batsman whilst still nursing his broken toe. Together they pushed the score to 141 before Josh as bowled by the young spinner for 12 but with Adam coming in at no.7 & Brandon at no.8 we were still looking good for the win. Adam and Nick calmly knocked it around with the odd boundary and took the score to within 20 runs of victory when at 171-5 with fully 13 overs to go, the visiting keeper took a nasty blow to the face off a freak bounce whilst diving to stop a ball from their opening bowler who had returned to the attack! He had been wearing a helmet to the spinners and had only just taken it off- it appeared to be a broken nose with lots of blood & rapid swelling. Nigel W. then showed us another string to his bow with calm first aid skills learnt from his army days and an ambulance duly arrived on the square for the first time since Alex tried to put that cover drive through Norrie’s helmet grill against Pyestock about 10 years ago! Thankfully after about 20-30 mins of treatment the keeper recovered, but the visitors suddenly decided that they had rather lost their appetite to play on despite the evening sunshine and 13 overs to go! An unfortunate end to proceedings- nothing is certain in sport but we feel we would have comfortably got home with the batting and time that was left. Wibbandune will probably put ‘abandoned as a draw’ in their book, I think ‘match conceded’ is more appropriate (particularly as we haven’t won a game this season) but we await a ruling from Lords! Nick F. finished on 36 n.o., with Adam 8 n.o. in what was overall an enjoyable game!