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Smashed windows, bloody lips, Cornish pasties, dropped
catches, two gallon jugs of squash and 24 points in the bag – it all
happened at Ombersley on Saturday for the Green second eleven.
A rock hard batting track with a large but well tended outfield was primed
for the team batting first in this mid-table, nothing-to-lose but
all-to-play-for encounter. The home side won the toss and elected to have
first use of the facilities. Adams and Thompson bowled well, with pace and
nip but failed to penetrate, going at five an over for the first ten.
Scullion took over from Thompson, slipped a few past the edge but lost his
shape by the end of his 7 over spell leaving the stage set for the
irrepressible Hooper. Clack, without doubt, bowled his finest spell of the
season at the bowling green end. Jogging in off just three paces his bullets
fired out four of the top five in a mean 13 over spell. Doughty, replacing
Clack for the final 8 overs took a couple of wickets to tie things up
nicely. Hooper also took four key wickets with bounce more than twist,
helping to take the total from 86 without lost to a below par 206 all out.
Whilst three catches were put down, Hennessy, Binks behind the stumps and
Dean in the gully took five very good catches between them in a decent
fielding display contributing to Ombersley’s rapid decline.
Mini pasties, scotch eggs, melon, chocolate covered fingers (own-brand
kit-kats), pineapple rings, jaffa cakes and so much more – those who weren’t
there missed a ‘dead-cert top three’ tea.
Wheeler and Binks took on the new ball. Binks looked solid and particularly
strong square of the wicket whilst Wheeler picked up where he left off last
week, the week before and the week before that smashing the bowling to all
parts. Wheeler scored a fine 64 whilst Binks perished for 32. Hennessy,
buoyed by the verbals returned to him played some pleasant strokes in his 22
before walking past a straight one. Banks, having a bad day after breaking a
window and being hit in the face during the warm-up looked calm and settled
before falling for a well fought 14 as the state of the game changed. The
spinners tightened their grip on the Green’s reply and new batsmen Dean and
Doughty found run scoring tough. Dean took the aerial route once too often
and man of the moment Hooper joined his skipper to edge the game to a close.
Doughty fell with just a handful of runs to get leaving the bowling heroes
Hooper and Clack to snatch an excellent victory with 18 balls to spare.
This was a great a win for the Green against a very good Ombersley side.
Next week we visit league champions Barnt Green
for our penultimate game of the season.
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