Match Report vs Barry
Wanderers & Westend combo 28 April 2024 @ Hayes Point
(Skipper Steveo!!, report Cheese)
The first game of the season and ready to pick up the captain
& listen to his wise and inspiring words on the way to
the game. When I found him, the captain that had been searching
for his cricket spikes for the last 30 minutes if only he
had spent more time preparing than playing Red Dead Redemption.
After walking out to the middle and winning the toss, against
the plan of letting opposition decide, Steve-o continued with
his fatefully decisions with the choice of his top 4. After
the first quarter of the batting innings; we were 30-4 with
Ed & Will spooning up easy catches; Bryn got the best
ball he will face all season clipping the top of his off-stump.
For anybody playing the sweep stake at home number of balls
was two though to be fair it was a great caught & bowled
by the young spinner to remove steve-o
So on his club debut, Fred was thrust into fray with the
quick understanding that anybody in the top 10 was expected
to deliver with the bat. As he joined Robbie S out in the
middle it was time for a rebuild. The partnership started
slowly but to be honest I was move captivated by the skipper
dealing with the scoreboard and trying to make 5 from seven
reversible lines to fair. Its was magical to see the thought
process of the bearded wonder work out the numbers.
Once Robbie S had survived a couple of lbw shouts (after
a discussion at stumps I think we might have another Jonny
F!) after which started to find the middle of the bat and
was pummelling the ball to all parts (of the legside). Just
as Fred looked to open up and get the scoreboard moving the
pitch betrayed him and was caught.
As Rob strode to the wicket the batting innings had been
steady it was time accelerate. The partnership ended as a
run a ball 67 with Robbie S taking the slower bowlers to the
cleaners and Rob using the ‘pace’ to nudge into
space and combined that with aggressive running to rotate
the strike. Robbie S batted to the conditions taking the straight
ones out and being ultra-aggressive with any width. With the
oppo captain coming on to bowl looking to break the partnership
with his changes of pace; Robbie S as out caught due to this
change of pace.
Pat couldn’t get up to speed and was run out by a distance.
Rob kept the score ticking over while the second debutante
Liam found his feet with willow in hand.
Rob then exited the stage bring together our second partnership
of the same name, the Liams, with at one end-controlled batting
looking to move the field around, then the nylon pylon at
the other putting in all the effort to send the ball to the
rope. Unfortunately for the most part the results and expectations
didn’t match. This exciting partnership was broken by
a worldly of a catch at mid-off from a hit that looked destined
for the boundary.
The remaining Liam swung hard one last time and was out with
3 balls remaining but not before Dan missed out on his DNB.
The two Rob’s brought the innings back from oblivion
with the Liam’s giving us some late impetus leaving
us a score that with a couple of early wickets could lead
to a box office finish.
Batting -
Ed Stewart – 20
Bryn Wikes – 0
Will Mason-Wilkes – 3
Steve-o Reilly - 0
Robbie Sayer – 62 (2x6)
Fred Grassam - 10
Rob Owens - 26
Patrick Dean – 0
Liam Forster - 20
Liam Warren - 15 (1x6)
Dan Lewis – 0no
The bowling effort was spearheaded by Dan ‘Gary’
Lewis and when Dan had his second wicket caught behind after
getting his first by using the slope to entice an inside edge
on the stumps, the combined team were 14-2 after 5 overs.
We were unlucky to have a couple of genuine edges fly through
the gully region, then just as the new partnership between
the fielder who took a worldy in the field & the stubborn
opener was getting settled, a chance, the edge found again
looping into the gully region but who would you want there
a youngster with sharp eyes or stalwart with buckets hands
well we had steve-o with his record number of catches for
the club.
With the oppo three wickets down the captain was starting
to think about his bowling changes but wait no Steve-o shelled
the catch. Silence across the pitch but then with the team
seeing their captain laying prone on the floor with the ball
nestling on the grass next to him, the reassuring voices started;
“Jimmy would have caught that” … “Leading
club catcher, he couldn’t catch a cold” …
“I have seen statues with more movement” …
”that was shit”, now in fairness I didn’t
hear the last one but I assume that’s what Paul said
from the side-lines.
Well, we can only hope that doesn’t come back to haunt
us. By drinks the partnership had put on 110 runs in 15 overs
giving only one more chance a firm hit into the covers that
we couldn’t grab.
Apart from Dan, all the other bowlers couldn’t string
their good balls together and in between bowled a bit of dross.
The classy number 4 reached his 100 after messing around for
a couple of overs.
The casual lost by 8 wickets with 10 overs left to bowl but
a solid start to the season.
Bowling figures -
Dan – 8, 4, 12, 2
Liam W – 3, 0, 23, 0
Fred – 4, 0, 23, 0
Liam F -3, 0, 27,0
Pat – 3, 0, 28, 0
Bryn – 2, 0, 23, 0
Ed – 4.4, 1, 34, 0
Steve-0 – 2, 0, 4, 0
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