Wield vs Crawley, Sunday 30th May
Conditions: Warm and sunny
Match Summary: Another victory marred by some of the worst running and calling in living history
On another glorious sunny afternoon Wield won the toss and elected to bat. Our skipper sent out our opening partnership of myself and Toby unaware of the chaos that was about to ensue.
After a very calm first ball the madness began, with Toby's non existent calling and backing up and my headless chicken impressions it must have looked like Fred Carno's circus was in town. I am not able to describe the excact details of our partnership but it inevitably ended with both of us at one end and the ball at the other. After much heated discussion from us and much hilarious chat from Crawley it was decided that Toby was out!!!!
All I can say is that Toby's very slow crawl up the hill would have only been beaten by my own!!!! SORRY TOBES
On with the rest of the innings and back to some calmer calling and running.......you would imagine!!!!!!!
Colin Rydon came to the crease and forgetting the slowness of the wicket tried to launch one over the bowler. He only managed to lob the ball to mid on who proceeded to drop a dolly. Again with no sound of a call I was rather surprised to see Colin at my end!!!!! Somehow Colin survived only to slap a long hop straight to point....Doh!!!!
Hector missed a straight one, as did last years top scorer Ed Robinson and then Steve Jenkins strode to the crease, 5 balls later after trying to pull a short one he returned up the hill slower then the ball that had dropped onto the top of his bails.
Enter Dougie Butler fresh from his fifty last week, He exuded confidence and a few pints of Yew Tree. As usual the erratic nature of Dougie's running was in stark contrast to his power hitting. After some comedy running and calling and some lusty blows from Dougie (not me, surprisingly) we managed to put on over 100 for the 6th wicket leaving the teatime score 192/5.
I finished on a "thrill a minute" 58 not out and Dougie on a very boring and uneventful 72 not out.
Teas were spectacular as always and we took to the field in good spirits if a little heavier!!!!
Dave and Steve opened the bowling and after the opening exchanges Byes/Max was by far the top scorer. Max somehow clung on to a catch and apparently we had seen all of their batting.
I clung on to a screamer off Phillip, whilst Steve, Yorkie and Max didn't cling on at all. We gradually worked our way through their talented batting line up including Toby getting 2 small boys out bowling spin!!!!!!
Even Ed bowled some spin but it was left to the master of getting cheap wickets (yours truly) to wrap up the innings with 2 wickets in 2 balls (including a Max stumping!!!)
Byes/Max nearly ended up top scorer and Crawley finished on 80 all out
After keeping himself on to get a 5 for last week our skipper decided to err on the side of caution and not bat or bowl this week.....at least he didn't have to buy another jug!!!!!
Quote of the day: Steve " 2 runs, no wickets and 2 dropped catches, I dont know why I F****** bother"
A great day with great opposition, great teas and our unbeaten run has now stretched to 14 matches....Go Wield Go Wield!!!!!!
Tony Robson
