.

Farleigh Wallop vs Wield, Sunday 1st May

Weather – Pleasant and Sunnyish

Match summary – Wield off to a flying start

The new season starts and in the words of Nina Simone
Its a new dawn, its a new day, its a new life AND I'M FEELING GOOD!!!!

Some things never change though our skipper lost the toss, batted himself at 8 for his 13th not out in 14 innings, took himself off after taking 4 wickets, Toby dropped 2 catches, Tony got a boring 50, Johnny (sicknote) Dennys got injured, Our fielding was village, Tony was involved in a run out and Dougie was not happy!!!!!

On the flip side some things do change Dougie bowled pace.....well he bowled from a longer straighter run up at least, we managed to get 11 players to an away game in May but most importantly we witnessed the rebirth of an all round cricketing superstar.

We were inserted by Fairleigh and Ben and Toby opened, after a brisk start to this 40 over contest we had reached 40 off 10 overs before Ben lost his middle stump to their left arm spinner just to prove this was no fluke Toby departed in exactly the same way 2 overs later.

This brought together Dougie and yours truly. Having batted with Dougie quite a lot I was genuinely amazed to see him push one to the right of the keeper and set off, a mumbled No!!! later and Dougie stomped off with the expected swearing and I was set for a afternoon of dogs abuse. As luck would have it our president arrived a minute later and was spared the full torrent of expletives!!!!!!

It is worth mentioning that while he was batting Toby's bat sounded like a broken piece of drift wood, so when I was joined by Michael H-T using the same bat I mentioned that we had just bought some new club bats. A few missed timed drives later Michael swapped bats for our new Gray Nicholls.
Forevermore this bat is now called the magic bat!!!!!!
This new mysterious piece of willow transformed our hero into a god like cricketer, four after four came flashing from his blade and culminated in possibly the best shot ever played by a Wield cricketer!!!!!
A six over extra cover that Virender Sehwag could have only marveled at.
Alas the magic could not continue and our hero was caught and bowled for a stunning 40.

Not to be out done I nurdelled a few singles and was joined by Johnny who after 2 defensive shots tried to hoick one behind square (no change there then!!) in doing so pulled his back out (no change there then!!)
A few hoicks behind square later and Johnny was bowled trying to hoick one behind square!!!!!!

I was joined at the crease by my son Jack and we continued to add to the scoring until as usual I selflessly gave my wicket away with 1 over to go just so Yorkie could get his not out!!!!

As our skipper joined Jack at the crease (some 40 odd years his senior) Jack told Yorkie to look for a single to get him on strike......bless!!!!!

As they both strode back to the pavilion we had reached a respectable score of 203/6.

A fantastic tea welcomed us along with the fine news that Man U had lost!!

The twin pace attack of Dougie and Dave greeted Fairleigh's openers. In response to this new plan the opposition got stuck in and several dropped catches later (Toby, Max, Dougie, Robin, Toby again and finally Yorkie who dropped an absolute sitter) the score stood at 110/1. Our skipper brought himself on and in an inspired piece of captaincy also turned to our new hero. With new found confidence (from the magic bat) and speed (from god only knows where) Michael H-T bowled like the wind!!! alas that just meant the byes started to pile up.

Michael got a wicket and Yorkie avoided a jug by bowling a pie when on a hat-trick, Robin bowled a few more pies until he was gifted a wicket and Fairleigh were now on the back foot.

Yorkie took himself off after taking 4 wickets (jug avoidance again!!!) and then took me off straight after taking a wicket!!!! With 30 needed off 5 overs it was left to David and Dougie (thankfully bowling spin now) to wrap up the innings. A victory for Wield by 20 runs.

An excellent game with fine opposition and a great start to the season.

Tony