G39_bts16aug05.htm

A beautiful late summer’s evening saw Wenvoe bathed in glorious sunshine and at 6.00pm precisely, 11 razor-sharp Casuals were ready and eager to get at the opposition. Unfortunately there were only 3 of them there, so by the time the rest of their team turned up, the match had been reduced to a 16 over affair. I won the toss for the second time in three days and, surprise, surprise, elected to bat first.

Muff and CD got us off to a good start with 9 from the first over (OK, there were 6 wides in it), with Mr Durnall providing the extra entertainment – who else but CD could get hit in the head by a leg-stick yorker?

When Chris was bowled for 3 (with the score on 22-1), in strode Mr Gough oozing with the confidence of a man who has 500 runs under his belt, but alas, early in his innings he stepped too far across and was bowled round his legs – at least he can console himself with the knowledge that he now has 501 runs to his name! (26-2)

Muff and Foxy added 11 before Muff was bowled swishing for 14 (37-3), followed swiftly by the Fox - also bowled for 2 (38-4), and followed even more swiftly (first ball) by DT – another bowled victim.

So with the score on 38-5 and still only in the 7th over, we were facing a bit of a mini crisis. However, I’m proud to say that the Furnham brothers stuck around for the next 7 overs and put together a useful 53 partnership before Andy edged one up to point for a well-made 20. Furnham senior followed in the next over, bowled for 33 - suckered by the slowest slower ball in history!

This left Shaky and Ed to finish off the innings both unbeaten on 2 and 7 respectively.

Final score 110 off 16 overs (helped by 27 extras)

As usual, the Wenvoe pitch was playing slow and low and straight deliveries were tough to get away. So we all felt confident that we could defend almost 7 an over as long as we bowled straight, and all of the bowlers did a brilliant job.

Dan and Will opened the attack with superb spells. Dan’s first over was a wicket maiden and the opposition didn’t score a run till the 11th delivery of the innings. Dan got another wicket in his 2nd over, finishing with 3-1-6-2, and Will ended with 3-0-11-0. Brilliant bowling, which left the opposition 17-2 off 6 and needing 95 to win off the last 10 overs.

Dave T and Foxy took over and both bowled well with the field back. Foxy ended with 3-0-21-0 and DT was unlucky – he bowled better than his figures suggest (3-0-22-0) and he could have had a wicket but for a dropped catch (I know it was a difficult chance running in from long off, but I can’t remember who the culprit was: I’ll ask Shagger later).

Ed and Muff finished off the innings with more excellent bowling. The Horse was tight with 2-0-9-0 and Muff added another two wickets to his impressive season’s tally, ending with 2-0-12-2 (in the book one is down as caught behind but I’m sure Goughy whipped the bails off just in case)

Not only was the bowling excellent, but the outfielding was also very good, with just about everybody throwing themselves around and chasing everything. A measure of how good we were is the fact that Dan C, their best batsman could only finish 26 not out in spite of batting through the full 16 overs.

Final score 84-4 off 16 overs.

Casuals win by 26 runs

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