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Match report vs. Barry Strollers 14th May 06, Wenvoe (Skipper on the Day - J.Furnham match report by J. Furnham)

Conditions were warm, yet a little dull (some would say not unlike the team!) as we began arriving at Wenvoe for our Sunday afternoon fling against the Strollers. No sooner had I got out of the car, than I was informed that I was skipper for the day (nothing like a bit of notice, Rich, hint, hint). I therefore hastily checked the team sheet and feeling that we had more batting than bowling depth, I decided to bat first upon winning the toss.

Chris Ryde and Kim opened up and Chris looked in good touch, leg glancing the very first ball of the innings for an Easy single. Alas, it proved to be a false dawn, as he became the first victim of the Wenvoe pitch, stuck on the back foot and bowled for 3 by one that kept low (even lower).

Yours truly joined Kim and, in spite of us both having trouble timing the ball at first, we put on 25 before Kim fell plumb LBW for 13, trapped on the crease to a full ball. (29-2)
Goughy was next up and continued his run of good form, playing some classy shots straight away and running well between the wickets. He did, however, call for one risky second run to the non-striker’s end early in his innings, and a direct hit would have seen him run out by yards, but the fielder missed by a whisker – in reality, it was only a half chance and would have required an exceptional piece of fielding, but it was agonisingly close. We didn’t realise it at the time, but that miss would turn out to be crucial to the outcome of the game.

Furnham Senior then attempted to hit a slower ball back over the top but only succeeded in hitting it straight to mid off for 19, bringing Smitts to the crease. Unfortunately, he also quickly departed, LBW for 5 to a very slow and loopy delivery, the last ball of the 20th over (70-4).
After the drinks break, Steveo played a typical O’Reilly innings with lots of swishing off the back foot (not a good idea at Wenvoe - it was suggested on the boundary that we could buy him a pair of shoes with ‘F’and ‘B’ on them to help him!). In between the swishing, though, he played a couple of excellent shots before being suckered into one swish too many by the loopy bowler, and getting bowled for 14 – we all knew it was coming, including Steve, but he just couldn’t stop himself! (102-5)

James Roach then played the best innings of his short Casz career so far with some fine shot play and good running in support of Gough who was approaching yet another 50 for the Casz. The pair put on a superb 62 for the 6th wicket before James unselfishly ran himself out for 24 whilst looking to accelerate the run rate as the overs began to run out. In fact, he had done so much running in the middle that he looked almost relieved to be off for a rest! (162-6)
Tesh came and went quickly for 2, taking one for the team in pursuit of quick runs (167-7), thus bringing Andy Hood in with about 9 balls of the innings left. The scorebook tells us that Andy finished the innings on 0 not out, but his contribution to the last over and a half should not be underestimated as his running was superb, turning singles into twos and twos into threes and also making sure that Goughy got most of the strike. Intelligent cricket from Mr Wink.

The final total of 182-7 included a magnificent unbeaten 86 by the Goughmeister. When you consider the slow outfield, the two long boundaries and how difficult it was to get the ball away, this was nothing short of a superb knock. On another pitch it would have been worth a century.

Mind you, when the opposition looked at the total score, they must have been thinking how different things could have been if that run out attempt had not missed by a couple of inches.

During our innings, their best player’s mobile kept ringing and he got called out to work for an hour (he did bowl his full quota before leaving), so my thanks to Kim for volunteering to field for them as they were already a man short. Thanks are also due to the venerable Fox for a fantastic tea: at this rate, those skinny young newcomers will soon fit the more traditional Casual mould and we’ll only have to order XL shirts in future.

And so, considerably heavier than we were a half hour previously, we set out to defend 182.
The theory went thus: bowl straight with a tight field for 10 overs to put them behind the run rate; then take the pace off the ball with spin at both ends, challenging them to force the pace against a protective field. Theory is one thing, however, but you still have to put it into practice, and the bowlers did an absolutely superb job. The ever-reliable Andy H opened with a miserly spell of 5 overs for 13 runs, while Kim was even stingier at the other end, returning tremendous figures of 5 overs for 9 runs, leaving the opposition 22-0 after 10 overs. No wickets had fallen, but the target had gone from 183 off 40 overs to 161 off 30.

A double change saw the spin twins, Shaky and DT, bowling in tandem. Dave bowled particularly well, dropping it consistently on a good line and length and not letting the batsmen take any liberties. He immediately produced the first breakthrough of the day when their captain prodded one to Steve who took a good catch diving forward (though one or two voices in the pub afterwards suggested that ‘falling’ forward might be a more apt description).
Shaky didn’t quite produce the same consistency on this occasion, but with the field back and the batsmen not exactly sprinting between the wickets, the required run rate kept creeping up and by the time we took drinks, they needed more than a run a ball. The two spinners continued after the break and Dave’s final analysis of 8-1-25-1 speaks for itself – a great job for the team.

Their number three looked quite useful, however, and he seemed determined to accelerate the run rate by getting after Shaky, whose figures of 7-0-34-0 were somewhat spoiled by one expensive over. So Mr Tickle came into the attack a little earlier than planned in order to give the batsmen something else to think about. To his credit, Tesh stayed remarkably cool as the batsmen charged at him and danced about the wicket, and he got his reward when their number 3 (who’d made 32) chipped one to Smitts who took a good catch over his head at midwicket. Tesh would later take another wicket when he had the other opener caught by Steve at mid off, and finished with 5-0-26-2, very respectable figures in the circumstances.
Meanwhile, James had replaced Dave from the other end and bowled a bit of a mixed bag, going for 22 off 3 overs.

With seven overs left they needed about 48 to win – almost 7 an over but still quite manageable with their best batsman back from work and now at the crease. It was suggested to me that the sensible thing would have been to bring Kim back on to bowl at the death, but hey! this is the Casuals after all, so cue … Steve O’Reilly. To be honest, it wasn’t that great a risk since Steve had bowled consistently well indoors. Not only that, but I felt there was no way that Andy H would go for 7 an over from the other end, so Steve would have a few runs to play with. Any doubts were dispelled in Steve’s first over when he took the vital wicket of Rogers, their best bat, comfortably caught by Tesh at mid on. In fact, the ball had followed Tesh all afternoon, so it was nice that one finally came to him in the air. This wicket was the turning point in the game because, as so often in these type of games, they didn’t have much batting beyond the middle order.

Andy Hood came back at the other end and bowled a wicket maiden – what more could a captain ask? His final three overs went for a mere 7 runs, giving final figures of 8-1-20-1. Tremendous. But it was O’Reilly who would have the last word, taking two more wickets, one bowled and one smartly stumped by Goughy off a wide. He was also involved in a run out with an assist from James in the outfield and Mark on the relay. In fact, he could have had another wicket from a top edge – unfortunately, the ball went over Shaky who could hardly get off the ground as he was still weighed down after scoffing a few hundred pork pies at teatime. DT described his effort thus; “ as low as you can get and still call it a jump”. By this time nobody cared as the game was all but won, and Steve would settle for 3 for 20 off 4 overs.

The innings ended with the Strollers on 165 and the Casuals winning by 17 runs. A good game, played in a great spirit, with everybody making a contribution. That’s what Sundays are for and that’s what Casuals cricket is all about.

And don’t those new shirts look smart?

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