Match Report vs Andover 01 August 2011

We arrived at Wenvoe to find a bunch of youngish athletic chaps fortunately cracking into a couple of crates of beer. By mutual arrangement it was decided that Andover would bat first.

Winkie and Gaz opened the bowling, and it became apparent very early on that the batting style that to be adopted was attacking and free flowing. The openers hit a number of straight drive 4’s and the odd 6 and looked at ease against the quicker delivery…Andy did manage to tuck them up with a couple of balls, and was unfortunate not to take a wicket courtesy of Shag running in from the boundary who managed to spill yet another one. Gaz began with 2 ‘bouncers’, a wide that wasn’t given and then a full toss that swung and bowled the opened behind his legs. Next over he repeated these steps and took another from the full toss, bowled. His last and 4th over he changed tack and took a 3rd wicket bowled by one that bounced. 63-3 off 8 overs.

Dion and DT were next into the attack, Dion started with 3 very very full tosses – which would have normally been called no-balls, but the oppo umpiring was extremely relaxed – probably due to the fact that hand signals caused issues when cradling a bottle of beer in each hand. DT was first to strike chucking a wide down the off side and Goff whip the bails off, Goff didn’t bother appealing as he was convinced that he had had another stumping the over before off Dion, however, unlike the previous over this one out. The previous attempt - the batsman had his bat down in time, even though the inebriated umpire happily gave his mate out – Shag at square leg overturned the decision – taking inspiration from the Indian test team. That was about the only similarity to the Indians as next ball Tesh threw down the stumps from 40 yards to take the next wicket.

Dion took the next wicket the following over with a solid catch from Gaz, and DT got a second in his last over – a well taken catch from Dion at long on. 85-7 off 12. Steveo replaced Dion and Gwion from Dave. Gwion took the wicket of the last recognised batsman – bowled, and Steveo got in on the act by taking a caught and bowled after pushing the non striking batsman out of the way. The last pair were there for a good time not a long time, the beer starting to take affect – all that was required was a straight delivery….after finding the middle of the bat sending the ball racing to the boundary, Gwion chucked in a beamer that was sent out to long on and Dion took an excellent catch only for it to be called no-ball – not harsh at all given it was hit like Nadal at Wimbledon. It was Steveo that got the wicket in the 17th over taken again by Dion who completed an excellent catching display only putting one down out of 4. Andover finishing on 113.

A Hood – 4-0-38-0
G Thomas – 4-0-23-3
I Warwick – 2-0-14-1
D Thomas – 2-0-6-2
S o’rielly – 2.4-15-2
G Dafeydd – 2 -0-5-1
Tesh run out direct hit

Tesh and Adam opened the innings for the Cazh, and started aggressively, both scored some good boundaries looking to continue in the open hitting that Andover had favoured. Adam was first to fall getting caught not quite getting hold of a pull shot (13), Kim in next and nonchalantly out bowled after hitting one boundary (4); Goff joined Tesh, but Tesh holed out at mid off (15), bringing Captain Dan to the crease. Dan’s innings was ugly and short cowing one boundary before playing another cross bat slog to a spinning delivery (4). The bowling from both ends had reverted to slow ‘spin’ to save valuable energy for drinking later on and 3 of the fielders decided that the ball was most likely to be hit to deep mid-wicket/ deep cover where they set up camp with a crate of becks…one of which did make a somewhat unusual stop whilst his trousers were around his ankles….

Dion and Goff appeared to be enjoying themselves, until Goff smeared one to a drunk fielder at midwicket, called the run, but Dion was admiring the stop and forgot to run, the fielder hurled the ball in the direction of the middle set of stumps and got a direct hit with Dion sprawled on the ground well short (4). Goff’s defence was undone being also bowled for 4. 66-6 off 11overs.

The small crowd that had gathered on sidelines including the lesser spotted Durnall and seemingly happy parky watched in anticipation as the Bearded one and Gwion set about trying to save the game for the Cazh. Steveo swung hard and connected with quiet a few and somehow actually looked like he knew what he was doing, whilst Gwion obviously didn’t want to run anywhere and hit 5 consecutive boundaries. The target was fast approaching and with Gwion finally relenting, run one before being bowled at the end of the 13th over (27). 5 required for a win, Winkie joined Steveo – Steveo smashes a boundary and a bye is taken to complete the victory. Steveo finishing on 27 not out.

Tesh – ct 15
Adam – ct 13
K swain – b 4
G day – b 4
Dan – b4
Dion – run out 4
Steveo – no 27
Daafydd – b 27 (6x4)
Andy H – no 0
Gaz T, DT dnb

An enjoyable match for both sides, before heading off to the pub. Captain Dan and Daddy Goff where unable to back out of a ‘Boat race’ against the oppo and succeeded in being on the winning team :) , a few pints later, Andover departed in their taxis to get hammered back in Cardiff.

If Andover hadn't been quite so pissed, I would hazard a guess that the total and result would have been a little bit different....

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