Wield vs Bournemouth Wanderers, Sunday 4th July
Weather – Summer (Cloudy, windy & threatening to rain)
Match summary – Hmm, a collapse of stock-exchange proportions & the unbeaten record has gone, say no more.
Another lost toss for the temporary Wield skipper and we were asked to field….. Dave, now trying to beat all appearance records, turned up for his second game in a row. His usual thrift, line & length frustrating the Wandering batsmen. His partner in crime at the other end was as meagre with runs and when they had finished boring their team mates and the opposition they had combined 20 overs for 41 runs!!
Mind you the Wanderers had brought their very own version of our opening Robson, he was considerably older and a much better runner, however he too struggled to hit it off the wicket, let alone the square….
With the change of bowlers came the inevitable increase in runs although slight and after a cunning choice of drinks for the batsmen only, we made the break through. Will (1-36) forcing the younger opener to play on (I think), with Robin (2-19) continuing his lengthened run-up he beat the flashing blades on numerous occasions. Will was unlucky not to pick up more than his one wicket as a few catches went down off of his bowling, neither, surprisingly, dropped by ‘Safe hands’ Flack!! Max continued to change the bowling round and eventually the odd wicket started to fall, Steve Jenkins (2-26) bowling down wind picked up two good wickets and should have had another as ‘Safe hands’ had another go at the test match catch, this time managing to get his hands somewhere near the ball… Ed (1-23) again reverting to bowling spin finished with better figures than his first over at Oakley!! The wanderer’s innings eventually closed on 152-6.
Once again the Wield tea providers excelled themselves.
Wield, replete with exceedingly good cakes, took to the crease with Andrew F & Ben R. Both exuding classy strokes to some parts of the ground and along it too; most of the time!! The main question was, where had Andrew been for the first part of the season…..
Andrew was eventually out for a very fine 18, I waddled out to the crease and took aim, hitting a few here and there (mainly there), and along with Ben picking off their very pacey attack!! With Ben out for 15, Tobes entered the fray and continued with the increase in tempo playing some very fine shots… Tobes eventually out to another waft for a good 19, this is where the scorecard took on the look of a binary code. Ed cast another fly straight to cover 1st ball, Steve J hit one past point and was out very shortly. I deposited their spinners to most parts of the leg boundary & a couple in the Yew tree garden before walking for an LBW decision to one that didn’t bounce for 59…
This was 123-5, by the time I had taken my pads off and looked out of the window we were 129-9 with time left. With the capable McAlpine & Hunt at the crease it was game on……. 130 all out.
Is this the start of an 18 match losing streak??
Dougie Butler
