Wield vs Chawton, Sunday 16th May
Conditions: Arctic with driving rain !
Match Summary: Another solid draw, maintaining not only our unbeaten start to the season but a 12 match unbeaten run.....allegedly !
Filled with confidence from last weeks stoic performance,we took on a Chawton side full of (as we quickly found out !) quality and big hitters.
I'm not quite sure who won the toss but to give him the benefit of the doubt, I'm sure it can't have been our skipper for the day Johnny D, as by the time we took to the field it was already starting to rain ! By the time Dave M was into the 4th ball of his attacking first over, it was basically flogging it down and Toby F, who had agreed to step into the massive void left by our internationally recognised (for what I'm not entirely sure !) keeper Max, had already in a Stewartesque sort of way, managed to stop a couple of byes with a panther like but frankly,completely unnecessary leap ! We'll put that one down to the slippery surface !
There was then a period of slightly erratic bowling, particularly from yours truly, where the Chawton batsmen clearly decided that in the conditions, over the top was the way forward. Needless to say, by the time Johnny uttered the words 'thanks Steve, take a break' we were already looking at fighting for an honourable draw !
There were however, some early near breakthroughs, that could have changed the outcome of the game but 3/4 dropped catches (greasy ball and all that !) later, Chawton were well on their way to a very healthy score.
In the end Rupert C was our bowling star, finishing with figures of 2/3, ably backed up by Dougie B with figures of 2/34. Unfortunately, my 0/42 and Robin's 0/52 somewhat undid this good work but I refer you back to the flogging it down part of the day in our defence !
Then, for a brief time the rain subsided and the sun threatened to make an appearance. It was at this point, we all naturally expected drinks (and towels) but alas, refreshments did not appear !
More rain and a few sixes later, Chawton finished on 182/7.
Thank goodness for a hearty Wield tea and time to regroup !
A while later and with renewed confidence after a rousing team talk by our inspirational skipper for the day Johnny, we opened our innings.
That was kind of as good as it got ! I opened with Toby F and after about 3 deliveries Toby wandered down the wicket, did a bit of 'gardening' and taking the positive view of trying to win the match uttered 'we can do this......just keep blocking for the next 40 overs' ! A short while later, I reached the usual point of my innings where I mistakenly think I can play cricket and was bowled for 17 (considerably better though than the Tavaresque 5 in 2 hours the last time I played against Chawton, that is referred to on the website....thank you Mr Robson !)
Shortly after this Toby realised blocking would be futile and started to open his shoulders. Ably assisted by Michael H-T and Johnny, who seemed to be running between the wickets in a very peculiar manner (don't worry Johnny, I won't say a thing !) we started to make in roads into Chawtons score.
The weather by now was almost Spring like....for Spitsbergen ! and the runs were flowing freely, with a number of quality shots from Toby, Johnny, Michael H-T and Harry B.
Toby was eventually out for an extremely creditable 31, Michael a solid but unlucky 13, Harry 8, Johnny (I promise I'm not protecting my average) 18* and Rupert an unfortunate 0. We ended on 87/4 with clearly only the clock denying us a famous victory.
Steve Jenkins
