Wield vs Fielding XI, Friday 25th May
Weather – Mild (25 degrees)
Match summary – Allegedly 20/20, another gripping game, and another win!!
Another lost toss for the wield skipper and we were inserted. Enter the mighty willow wielding Wieldites, Toby & Ben. That is about as good as it got for the next few overs, with several wafts and tickles our openers put on 30 in what felt like 40 overs (and I hadn’t even had a pint at this point) Toby was eventually out cleaned bowled trying to play baseball to a ball on off stump.
The speed of running improved as I waddled out to the crease, unfortunately the run rate did not! After I departed, recent father George crawled out to the crease and played some very cultured shots to both boundaries before falling victim to their left handed ‘spinner’.
Ed was his next victim, still extolling the virtues of J R R Hartley, being caught at point.
Unfortunately, at this point I remembered that the Yew Tree was open, so I retired for a pint of ale…. As I returned from a mightily busy pub the scorecard looked very sorry, Ben out for another excellent 45, Tom Cole out, Harry Blackman out. Eventually ‘Frosty’ and Rob scraped our total to 110 after ‘20’ overs…
Luckily for Wield, the pace attack was re-united, as Dave returned from a lifelong holiday to bowl his normal line & length conceding at least 1 run in his two overs.
The usual Yorke magnanimousness allowed all of the Wieldites a couple of overs each, making the game very even! The Fielding batsmen were making the bowling look very pacey & threatening (honest!) picking off the odd bad delivery for four or two depending where they hit it and with four overs left they were still in the hunt to break our fine non losing streak.
It was left to skipper and myself to bowl the last four, with the opposition needing 25 runs to win, Toby decided that trying to perform test match standard catches would be a good idea, unfortunately, this isn’t the case and after encircling the ball in mid air, decided to attempt a one handed dive, no need to say anymore…
Yorkey having to bowl the last over and the Fielding batters needing 8 to win, again age & experience pays dividends and with one ball left they required 3 to win, luckily the better batsmen was at the non strikers end and as long as there wasn’t a wide or no ball the game would be ours…………
Yet another fun game played in Wield spirit, without any of the previous games shenanigans!!! Followed by a fantastic Barbie and good company.
Amazingly our unbeaten run extends to 17 matches, what are the chances!!!
Dougie Butler
