2'S SINGING LOUD & PROUD AS THEY STRETCH THEIR LEAD AT THE TOP...
With the hanging up of WICKMANS gloves, came the loss of his quill and match reports would soon become a thing to fear rather than a joy to behold.
2nd XI skipper Fudge declared with no obvious replacement in the ranks that with MOM honours would now come an added prize, the daunting task of writing the weeks match report!
Week three of the campaign saw us hit the road and venture away from fortress WICK for the first time this season. The 2nd XI and away games is an interesting combination, normally ending up in some form hilarity along the way as everybody tends to rely on everybody else to get us where we are going. This week was no exception. A three car convoy soon turned into two as we lost, Cronin, Goulborn & Unsworth in the blink of an eye. It did infact transpire that they were doing exactly what they had been told to do, and follow a black BMW 1 series. Unfortunately the one they had latched onto wasn’t their skippers and now still on the A3 and doing 70MPH they were nearer Portsmouth than Cranleigh. A quick call to Unsworth got them turned round and back on the right track. Although they missed the warm up including a light jog and strecth (was this intentional?) they made it for the fielding drills and were just in-time to see their skipper lose a 3rd staright toss.
Being a man who likes a flutter, I struggle to deal with the pure chance that is the toss of a coin. A 50/50 chance with no form that can be studied and relitively few factors that can determine the outcome. This week however I may have fallen victim to one of those factors, the dreaded roll!! The coin was given a decent spin, getting well above eye level before landing on a length, seeming away and just missing the off stump. My call of heads was assertive, however so was Cranleighs skippers handshake as he took the words right out of my mouth and declared they would bat.
Cranleigh is seemingly a very nice place, and to my delight the cricket ground apears be the centre of all activity. At the height of the day we must have been playing infront of more than 50 people (more than you get a most of Blackpool’s home games by all accounts) made up of experienced gentleman who had clearly played the game, elderly couples eating cucumber sandwishes in the shade, young ladies bathing their bodies in preperation for bodrum boozing and hoodie wearing youths more intent on playing loud music than clapping an exquisite cover drive. By the way, Cranleigh is lovely, but very LOUD!!
After much deliberation and discussion it transpires that Cranleigh is in fact a town twinned with “Louderkusen” in Germany and certainly tries to compete in the decible stakes. Trucks are definitely louder in Cranleigh, sirens are deffening and the ice cream van sounded more like a air raid siren as kids flocked away, rather than towards the inviting treats. Fielding first we competed with the noise and encouraged our bowlers to start with a bang.
Unsworth has been entrusted with the new ball this season and is yet to let the team down. Nagging lengths and subtle swing have been more than enough to trouble some good opening bats and along with Lown they started magnifecntly on what looked a belter of a track. After 4 maidens in a row, Lown struck first with a trademark in-swinging delivery that deceived the batsman before striking him on the back leg, bang in-front of all three. Cranleigh’s umpire took on a bit of the Rudi Koertzen’s and proceeded to give the opener the slow finger of death. Number 2 would fall shortly after as Lown produced one to go the other way and grab an outside edge that Harry Copeland took with the minimum of fuss.
Cranleigh then proceeded to lose their heads when all around them were keeping theirs. Cronin announced his arrival back into the team with a direct hit run out and McMullan teamed up with Copeland to dislodge the charging Trawber with another great piece of fielding.
The WICK were well on top, but a period between the two much needed drinks breaks offered Cranleigh hopes of a setting a decent target. I’m not sure whether it was the heat (serioulsy hot by now) or ice crean sirens still still ringing in peoples ears, but we decided to hemorrhage extras which would eventually ended up 2nd top scorer.
We did recover well however, and it was nice to see Cole back to the lines and lengths that contributed to him winning player of the year in 2009. His tight spell, along with equally impressive displays from Lown, Unsworth & Breakwell supported Webster and McMullan who put in 110% effort without bowling the best spells of their season. We have excellent attack that bowls asa team and the team is dove tailing brilliantly at the moment. Long may it continue.
Tea is always a big talking point as we have some hungry lads in the side, yet it transpires in our team, that one mans trash is somehow another mans treasure.
My view on tea is a simple one; it has to be fresh, preferably home made and have plenty available (see hungry lads). What I don’t want is to be made to feel like I’m at a 9 year olds birthday party having just had a swim in the Kingfisher and am now faced with cold pizza, bowls of skips and orange squash you could stand your spoon up in. I’m sorry if my view doesn’t represent those of the entire team but I think I am being generous when I offer up a 3 out of 10, and only because the rosie was PG tips.
The WICK 2nd XI are what I call a proper cricket team. We have new ball bowlers that bowl with pace and movement, 1st and 2nd changes that bowl to a plan with skill and spinners that produce craft and guile. I wish I could say the same for Cranleigh. Cranleigh like most other teams (Oxted and Old Hamptonians apart) start with slow bowlers off long run-ups and their attacks get progressively slower as the innings goes on. These are tactics that work for a couple of weeks in late April and early May but not on hard decks throughout the rest of the season. I urge teams like Cranleigh to shop around for a couple of bowlers who can bend their backs and get the ball above stump height. I would rather toss the new cherry to a lively 15 year old than waste an expensive new ball on spinners in a hurry. I fear it could be a long season for the team from “Loudsville”.
Our reply started with a Crash, Bang and Wallop in-keeping with our noisy surroundings. Cole & Goulborn benefiting from a decent track and some wayward bowling racked up a 50 partnership in no time at all, before Cole (28) was well caught at backward point. Fudge joined Goulborn and after a “pad related injury” he soon joined in with the boundary hitting bonanza. 3 in one particularly enjoyable over saw him dispatch the off-spin of Hiru with 3 successive sweeps to the rope and brought up the 100 for the loss of just 1 wicket. Goulborn who still admits he is not 100% happy with his game (we know when he is because 3 figures follow shortly after) still contributed a well made 42 before walking across his stumps and having his leg pole knocked out of the ground. Jackson (38*) joined the skipper (60*) for another well made partnership and the pair brought the team home by 8 wickets.
The most enjoyable aspect of the win was the contribution of the batsman and the speed and conviction in which we chased the total down. A team that has been bailed out of trouble by its bowling attack suddenly has another string to its bow and sitting 7 points clear at the top of the table the 2nd XI look to have only just got out of 2nd gear.
At the start of the season, we set ourselves a target of 3 wins from the first 4 limited over’s games. If we can make that 4 we will be well set and looking forward to making a real noise in the month of June.
MOM - Fudge
WICK
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