Wield vs XII Men, Sunday 9th May
Conditions: Wintery
Match Summary: A solid draw with a few ups and downs along the way.
Fresh from a tough winter season Wield Cricket Club took to the field with confidence. This wasn't to last long.
The start was solid enough but things started to look slightly doubtful when Toby F threw the ball the wrong way to return it to the bowler, still thinking we were bowling from the other end.
There was a chance of an early breakthrough but unfortunately this chance was put down by Dave M, maybe he would get a chance to redeem himself later in the match. It's funny how these things have a way of evening up. Sadly this wasn't to be as another chance, that was dropping marginally over his head caused a stumble backwards whereby the shock of his head hitting the ground as he went over caused the birds of Wield to flee their nests.
There were many highs and lows during their innings and all was ticking along quite nicely (especially their score) and I think it was then that the Wield sniper took aim and fired a single shot that took Damian R down in a blaze of 'almost' glory as he chased gallantly for a ball destined for the boundary. Unfortunately the ball never made it and it stayed just inside the boundary, tantalisingly out of reach of the stricken Reed.
Shortly after borrowing one of their fielders another one was required as Max took one in the face, a nasty injury that made it look like he had two pieces of cotton wool stuck up his nose. He too had to eventually go off after a long dispute with the umpires. I think they would have resorted to sending him off anyway.
There were some good catches taken by Dougie B on his Wield debut and Robin H somehow missed out on a jug when the inspirational captain dropped what can only be called a 'dolly'. I think he may come from the John Higgins school of principles (one for all you snooker fans).
A couple more dropped catches later and they finished their innings at an impressive 157 for 9.
Tea came and went, delicious as always.
Our innings was opened by the solid partnership of Johnny D and Toby F, their West Indian strike bowler tried to bang the first in short but this was comfortably watched by Dennys as it went by on its 3rd bounce (he obviously hadn't played at Wield before).
Shortly after Dennys was caught middling a leading edge for 0.
There is now a bit of a void as I went to get changed and when I came back we were 24 for 6. I understand in this time there were at least four other ducks and 2 of those Golden. Damian chose to bat through his injury with the help of Toby as a runner!!, one ball later, after Toby had got changed back into his whites they were both returning to the clubhouse without adding to his score.
Robin H put on a brave show as did Dave M but the plaudits should go to Andy Cole as he batted stoically and looked solid at the end with Max, still with his protective cotton wool nose padding.
Our reply was a truly impressive 64 for 8 but its not the winning that counts, its the not losing.
Anyway the start of our important season has started and we remain unbeaten with only the two semi major injuries to concern us.
Johnny Dennys
