Woking and Horsell v Concorde

Match Report

Getting a team out this weekend proved very difficult and we were only able to do so through the assistance of Dave Nash in bringing a friend and Andy Marshall also recruiting a friend at the very last minute. Conveniently, both were named Dan which made my job much easier as I only needed to remember one name.

Whilst we had a team, it was not a strong one and having thrashed Woking & Horsell last time we played them, I was expecting that they might have made sure that they were stronger this time and my suspicions was confirmed when their Captain confidently told me that this was indeed one of their strongest Sunday teams.

With that, and a very brittle looking batting line up in mind, I was very relieved to win the toss and had no hesitation in asking them to bat.

On a hard wicket, Dave Nash produced an excellent opening spell, bowling with pace and bounce and was rewarded when one of the openers got a thin edge and was well taken by Nick Freeman behind the wicket. Andy Marshall at the other end also bowled well and tightly and whilst runs came, the batsmen were never able to get away from us. When Edgar replaced Dave, he immediately settled into a good line and length and soon snared the other opener when he pulled hard to midwicket where Jerry Stockbridge comfortably pouched a ball which otherwise would have made a large hole in his chest.

The no 3 however, was making the game look easy and the number 4, who had a suspiciously Welsh accent, was working on the block 3 and hit the 4th for six basis which he did quite successfully for about 4 overs before skipper Jerry Wright succeeded in bowling four straight balls in a row and knocking out the leg stump with the 4th. Regrettably, this was the only period of straight bowling from him and he soon made way for the Club’s junior spin bowler, George Howard who proceeded to give a fine display of bowling through use of excellent length and some turn. In the course of 8 overs on a good batting track, George finished with 3 -28, a fantastic effort.

Dan Kent, Andy’s mate bowled 4 good overs and took an amazing caught & bowled, diving full length to his left, to dismiss the no 3 for a classy 77. The batsman had to be helped back to the pavilion, so shocked was he to be out in this way. The same might be said for a later batsman who was unlucky enough to see a 63 year old fielder run 20 yards and dive full length to take another unlikely catch, the third in a very good display of catching which was instrumental in containing the W & H innings to 215 for 9, a score which we would happily have accepted at the start.

The Concorde innings got off to a pretty bad start with Nick Freeman mishitting one early on to mid off and Edgar, after finding the boundary with a nice cut through cover and then a savage pull, was adjudged LBW with our score on 12. Dan Saunders managed a single and George looked comfortable enough before being run out for a duck. Things looked very bleak with the score at 16 – 4 but Andy and the Skipper weathered the storm and looked comfortable enough taking the score to about 55 before Andy uncharacteristically punched one straight to extra cover and was out for 29. Dan Kent was bowled first ball and Nigel Wright pushed one back to the bowler in the same over and 55 – 5 was soon 55 – 7. Jerry began to attack the bowling and drove a couple straight down the ground before being very well caught & bowled by a diving bowler for 32.

It only remained for Dave Nash to play some very good shots and display a hitherto unsuspected good technique in scoring 24no before Mick Reeve and Jerry Stockbridge succumbed with our score on a barely respectable 109, having slumped to defeat by the not inconsiderable margin of 107 runs.