1xi Match Report by Matty D

vs Oxted and Limpsfield

Saturday was an interesting sporting day, was it not? Everything seemed to be going so well, and then, almost with the flick of a switch, everything changed. Doubts creep in, the opposition have a sniff, and they pounce. Im not talking England football, Im talking Wick cricket - a team similarly bedevilled by sporting dramas. Although by the end we resembled an episode of Eldorado, rather than the season climax of 24. Incidentally Ive not seen an episode of either, but Im confident in my assumptions.

Saturday - hot day. Lurvely.

Wick batted first on a belter. Flat like my bike tyre at the moment. Rashid and Davies started confidently, finding the middle of the bat with ease. No swing, no seam. Innocuous (what a great word that is. Just trying to spell it is a tongue twister). At 32-0 off 8 overs we were laughing. But then disaster struck. The ball started to do a little bit - just enough. The oppo found their areas and things became very difficult all of a sudden. Rashid caugt slip. Ali, caught at point. Davies caught at slip. Raza caught at slip. 36-4 off 18 overs. Ive known some collapses in my time, but even this one was a classic. Cronin and Kilner looked to repair some damage by not letting the 4 become 5. There was alsmot no action, rather than leaves and a few misses for 45 minutes. The 1 brings 2. 60-6. High hit some straight ones, but he didnt last. Tong and Ewen played a lovely little cameo with expert running and a few hits to move the score along to 141 all out off 51 overs.

Quite how we managed to find ourselves in this position can be laregly attributed to the opening bowlers of Oxted. From the 8t over onwards they found an immaculate spot on which they rarely deviated from. The ridge played havoc one end, whist the low bounce the other meant as soon as the shine has gone most things were hard to get away. The catching was very good from Oxted and whilst the banter was tedious at times - 141 all out is a fair reflection of what happened out in the middle.

Teas - standard.

We were surprisingly buoyant at half time. The pitch seemed to be doing things if we could find the right areas. In reality the pitch did little and the areas we found were not sufficient. Joey has an off day, Ali didn't find the zip he needs and Tongy, whilst the best of the 3 strike bowlers was unable to repeat the heroics of 8-32 (see Chobham 2009). Raza bowled well, although the gane was up at this point. James Milner, I mean Val Kilner, I mean Matt Kilner bowled one over and got one wicket lbw. Theres a lesson if Ive ever heard one...

In reality we were taught a lesson on Saturday. We were made to look decidedly average by a team who whilst clearly were no mugs, were hardly a bunch of superheroes as the stats would suggest. As last week Im left wondering if its not going to be our season, or if we'll get that break to set us on our way. We're still only 30 points off the top, so if we can get on a run we are back in the hunt. However if we're not quick the hunt may have already killed the fox by the time we join in....