Match Report vs Barry Wanderers 17 April 2011

Well, who’d have thought that the first game of the season would be hot and sunny? Unfortunately the skipper lost the toss and the casuals had to toil in the sun whilst barry batted first.

Dan, suffering from a heavy night out opened the bowling and found his line straight away and with paul at the other end combined to keep the scoring down below 4 an over, Paul finishing his 4 over spell with a maiden. Dan bowled his 8 straight through and was excellent only going for 15 but ending quite unfairly wicketless.

Muff replaced paul and after a loose start picked up the first wicket in the last over of his 4 over stint by remarkably getting a caught and bowled. Andy and Kim took over and at drinks the score was 78-1 with Barry not taking any risks and some good fielding and solid work by ash behind the stumps keeping the pressure on. Kim picked up 2 wickets in his 8 overs, one stumped after a rush of blood by the batsmen and another hit wicket! This is the first time I’ve seen this and there was some confusion with the batsmen not walking until told as neither umpire had seen it he had to give himself out, which he did somewhat reluctantly. Well spotted Ash as everyone else was watching the ball disappear to the boundary.

Andy bowled well and looked to be back to his best but somehow contrived to remain wicketless. Paul and Muff came back for the last eight and I think kept the batsmen pretty quite whilst they tried to up the tempo, Paul picking up 3 wickets, 1 caught by Dan, 1 caught by Kim and another stumped, Mr. Cheese pulled off an excellent run-out and Muff got another well caught low down by Gaz leaving Barry on 152-8 off their 40.

Tea was the usual Barry fair and eaten with gusto, although I thought the egg sandwiches could have done with a little more seasoning but hey ho, life goes on.

Ed and John opened and disaster straight away as Ed attempting a quick 2 in the first over got run-out by a direct throw, who was soon followed by John caught by an absolutely blinding catch at cover for 4. Darren hung around but couldn’t find any rhythm and was given out lbw (wooden sounding pad supposedly) for 4.

Tesh up next looked in fine form but paid for his aggressive style being caught for 18 and Gaz who was struggling with his timing was bowled for 7 after getting some coaching from the skipper!(sorry Gaz). Ash was next to go bowled by the impressive Lane for 0 leaving the Casuals reeling on 41-6 after 13 overs. We needed for the next 2 to dig in which Paul and Kim did, picking up the singles, keeping out the good stuff and hitting the bad ball and brought us right back into it with a stand of 64 before they fell in quick succession Kim for 41 and Paul for 21. Dan smacked a couple of boundries including a 6 over the gobby northern bowler temporaily shutting him up, but couldn’t keep it going and Andy and Muff tried and failed to hit boundries against some very tight bowling.

Casuals finishing on 141 for 9 off the 40, Muff determined not to get out at the last to the northen monkey who tried his best to ruin the game with his load 'banter' but it was much to enjoyable a game for him to cause concern, so we retired to the pub beaten but glad to have given them a game after looking like we were going to get aspanking.

Thanks to everyone who played, it was a great way to start the season.
Next!

DAN 8-2-15-0
PAUL 8-1-27-3
MUFF 8-0-53-2
ANDY 8-2-25-0
KIM 8-0-24-2

ED 1
JOHN 4
DARREN 4
TESH 18
GAZ 7
KIM 41
ASH 0
PAUL 21
DAN 10
ANDY 12 NOT OUT
MUFF 4 NOT OUT

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