|
Casuals vs. Rhiwbina at Wenvoe
21 July 2005
Casuals 116 - 4
Rhiwbina 91 - 6
With the eyes of the cricketing world focussed firmly on
Lord's, two lesser-known teams (even the groundsman forgot
to turn up) met at Wenvoe for a game which lost nothing in
comparison to the mighty Ashes contest in terms of excitement,
controversy and the display of innate cricketing ability.
Set 117 for victory, Rhiwbina were brought quickly to the
point of desperation by an excellent opening spell from Dan,
bowling down the slope, and Paul. Beginnning with a maiden,
Dan finished with figures of 3 overs for a miserly 8 runs
and was most unfortunate not to find the edge of the bat on
several occasions. At the other end, Paul went for 12 off
his three, removing one of their openers as he unwisely tried
to force some runs through the leg-side.
Struggling at the end of 6 overs, with only 20 on the board,
Rhiwbina welcomed the sight of John Prior warming up at the
Pavilion end. Not for nothing, however, is this man labelled
'the fox', and his animal cunning and lithe spinning ability
brought two wickets in quick succession; the first a steepling
drive well-held by Dan at mid-off; the second bagged by an
obviously delighted Muff, at mid-wicket. That proved Foxy's
final break-through, and he finished with figures of 3 overs,
19 for 2.
Meanwhile, Kevin Mavely was whirling away at the other end
to some effect. His 3 went for only 11 runs and included one
wicket, bowled all ends up, as they say.
That brought the dynamic duo Muff and Horse into the fray,
and with Rhiwbina looking to force the pace Muff suffered
a little, going for 27. Still, he had his revenge, with a
decent wobbler utterly baffling the batsman and breaking his
stumps. Horse, at the other end, went for 13 and with one
convincing LBW-shout granted by the ump.
A tight all-round performance, with bowlers well backed-up
by fielders (and only a couple of over-throws) meant Rhiwbina
never looked close.
The Casuals batting, earlier in the day, had been a delight
to watch. With Goughy undone by a brutish delivery that seamed
sharply to remove his off-stump, Hood and O'Reilly piled on
the runs until Steve departed (unluckily, it has to be said,
for he was tying his shoe-laces at the time) for 18 in the
7th over and with the score on 47. Andy Hood carried on, with
the Horse for company, until he was stumped charging the spinner
in the course of the 11th over, for 21. That brought Richie
to the crease and he quickly smote two successive short-pitched
balls contemptibly over the boundary wide of mid-on.
Soon, though, the skipper went, LBW stepping back and across
his stumps, for 9 and bringing Muff to the crease with the
score on 88 at the start of the 15th over. Together the pairing
of Muff and Horse took the innings to a close finishing 9
and 33 not out respectively and with the total 116 for 4.
That total included 26 extras compared to only 6 ceded by
the Casuals; a fact which reflects the professionalism of
the Casuals' performance in securing a comfortable victory.
Match report by TH
back
|
