Concorde v Woking and Horsell

Match Report

TWO CONCORDE LEGENDS & YOUNG DEBUTANT INSPIRE GREAT WIN!

Last Sunday saw us entertain local rivals Woking & Horsell in a game few of us thought would survive the weather which was forecast as steady rain from 2pm, but it as it turned out, the heavy drizzle was never quite heavy enough to force us off the field and a very enjoyable match ensued, played in a very good spirit.

The visitors won the toss and elected to bat, after the writer, standing in as skipper in Jerry’s absence, had explained the concept of a timed game to a puzzled young W&H skipper Elliot McPherson. We appeared to have a modest attack going into the game with seemingly no strike bowler but the Westen family shared the new ball with young Ben again showing great promise from the pavilion end, whilst dad Ashley put in a tremendous spell from the mansion end returning figures of 9-3-10-1. Ben made the first breakthrough having the South African opener caught behind off a faint ‘feather’ well taken by Nick Freeman standing up, making it 11-1, and after a recovery led by hard hitting no.3 Tom Sharpless, Ash bowled the other opener reducing the visitors to 55-2.

The opening bowlers gave way to Matt Cliff from the pavilion end but in a master stroke of captaincy the writer, rather than bring himself on, asked young debutant Marcus Dangerfield (15 year old schoolfriend of Ben) if he wanted to bowl. He seemed a bit hesitant at first, but agreed to ‘give it a go’ having first swapped shoes with Ben, as his own shoes had no spikes. When we recruited him at the last minute on Friday, his dad said to Jerry he was a batsman & keeper, but could bowl and ‘pinged it down a bit’. Now we all know that Dad’s always ‘big up’ their sons a little ( I did it myself) but in this case it was fully justified. Bowling left arm around the wicket , young Marcus produced a truly impressive spell of fast bowling , troubling all the batsman with his surprising pace and a few hostile short balls. His spell was so good I completely forgot the rule about 15 year old’s only having 5 over spells and he reeled off 9 straight overs bagging 3-31 with two cleaned bowled, and one taken high at first slip by Edgar. Slight in stature, and a quiet lad, he reminded me of my Alex when he first played for us 20 odd years ago- very ‘whippy’, with all the pace generated by arm speed.

At the other end Matt Cliff was his steady, accurate self , bowled their no.6 with a slower leg spinner, although Tom Sharpless rather spoilt his figures with 3 or 4 big sixes down the ground. With tea looming I brought on Edgar & myself for the last few overs and Edgar soon mopped up the tail taking 3-16 in three overs including Sharpless for 80, stumped by Nick off the first ball he bowled! I should mention we only took 9 wickets as Johnny Ayling, who has played for us a few times, was obliged to retire hurt with a muscle injury having come in at no.7. W&H ended at 161 all out. The fielding was pretty good barring a missed chance by the writer at square leg towards the end and a surprisingly spill by Paddy off a low skier at cover off the opposition danger man, but it didn’t cost us much as Edgar got him a couple of overs later. The fielding highlight was Matt Stockbridge taking a great catch above his head at the end as the tail ender tried to put Edgar into the bottom field. He’d actually caught a similar one 20 mins earlier off Sharpless but unfortunately it was about 5 yards behind the rope.

We opened our response with Edgar & Paddy, but Paddy didn’t last long, perishing for 1, trying to pull one to leg which produced a top edge to mid wicket! Ash joined Edgar, desperate to put his two successive ‘ducks’ behind him and a solid stand developed between these two stalwarts of Concorde Cricket, and they took us to 64 before Johnny Ayling, bowling off spin off two paces induced a loose drive from Edgar who was caught at gully for a very good 40. Justin came in, continuing his comeback and looked in no trouble hitting a couple of boundaries before playing across a well pitched up ball from the left arm seamer to be bowled for 10, which made it 92-3.

Nick Freeman was our match winner two weeks ago but this time the gods were against him and he decided to buy a ticket for the ‘Mallard race’ swishing at one outside the off stump and getting a thin edge to the k

eeper. At 102-4, Matt Stockbridge joined Ash and had one of those got out our very long tail could have been exposed! As it turned out, Matt did a great job securing one end whilst Ash decided to show us his repertoire of straight driving & pulling, and helped by a slightly surprising decision by W&H to bring on an occasional bowler, we duly raced to victory with 15 overs to spare!

It was great to see both Ash & Edgar showcasing their talents at the same time and young Marcus made a fantastic impression on us all and we hope to see much more of him in future in tandem with Ben W.