|
This was an unsatisfactory day’s cricket, with an
exciting
The fond days of the Sunday
RatPack have long since passed, and the fresh faced youthful, but still
Rat-assisted team now going by that of ''Badboys
Chavs'' made the unavoidable trip to Chaddesley Corbett. As exhausts roared
and alloy wheels span out of North End Lane on what had promised to be the
warmest day this season we were greeted at Chaddesley with the usual howling
wind and no sign of the big yellow thing in the sky!
With the opposition only fielding 9.25 men this was a toss to be won and
subsequently Chaddesley decided to bat. With a familiar top 5 batting line up
which was capable of amassing a score worthy of that of 11 men The Green set
off tightly with Tim Williams and Colonel Sanders both bowling tightly and
Williams in particular swinging the ball and moving it off the seam making it
unplayable at times.
A suicidal run in the 2nd over saw the end of
N Fletcher much to Robbie
Tyler's delight as ''he owes me 180 runs!!'' Skipper Golder switched the
bowlers round at regular intervals with Tyler himself picking up the wicket
of the skipper thanks to safe hands Sanders. This rotation never really
allowed the home batsmen to settle and brought about the end of Edwards off
Brooke's first ball. S.Clarke and J. Clarke did a good job off slowing down
the overs and speeding up the runs with only S.Clarke getting reward for his
efforts, thanks to a catch in the covers by J Clarke. At this point
Chaddesley looked in trouble with only 140 runs on the board after 30 overs.
With K.Trusswell, the only contributing batsmen, reaching a trademark,
patient 50 and then being caught by Sanders, it was left to opener Williams
to come back on and remove the tail with minimum effort.
All round this was a good first proper outing in the field as only one catch
was put down and the home team were restricted to 163 all out in the 37th
over.
With a batting line-up that would make Colonel’s van look unstable The Green
settled down to tea in a confident mood,
The innings was opened by J.Lewis and P.Drinkwater who were both quick
to
dispense the bad ball. John Lewis (18) batted well until he fell to Edwards’
slower ball which brought Kev Ratcliffe to the crease. Some thought he took a
single to backward point but “ 'The
scorebook says no! “. Golder then joined the in form Drinkwater with the score
on 50 for 2 off 7 and they both took a
liking to the weakened attack before Golder fell mid 20's. This let T.Clarke
join the party and as Drinkwater passed his second 50 of the year
Clarke(44) played Catch up !! Drinkwater stroked the ball in the Vee all day
much to the fielders’ delight in his unbeaten 77 and Clarke finished the run
chase with a trademark straight 6 which clattered in to the Club house
window.
All in all a good friendly to get the season underway as everyone
contributed. next week the Sunday 1st's play their last friendly away to
rivals Worcester Taverners.
|
On Sunday Barnards Green 2nds entertained Chaddesley
Corbett at North End Lane which looked a picture of excellence after a winter
of hard work by Roy Mayo and his trusty mowers. The Green managed to
field a somewhat experienced team with an average age closer to 50 than the
20 of previous seasons with several players coming out of retirement early to
help out as the junior soccer season drags on. With the smell of embrocation
hanging in the air and tubigrip to the fore, the Green were put in to bat on
a slow damp wicket, but struggled to make any headway and the first eight
batsmen all got themselves out to leave the Green on 55 for 8. Derek
Goodman and Dick Brown both managed to drag balls bag onto their stumps with
the later being lucky to reach the ball in the first place. Lee Dyment,
John Sherliker, Marc Jones and Marek Wajzer all managed to hole out to bad
balls and Dave Knapper was all at sea when he was clean bowled. Bob
Rogers had a brief flurry before lobbing a catch to long off as the bemused Chris
Hill watched from the bowlers end. He did however find an ally in Dave
Price who after a shakey start, soon got to grips with the lack of pace in
the wicket and worked the ball around to take the score to 90 before he was
caught for an excellent 19. Chris and Dave have some work to do on
their running between the wickets, but this could be a partnership for the
future. HILL was then joined by tail end charlie Robin Longmore and
between them they took the score to 137 with Hill hitting a flurry of boundaries
and Longmore chipping in with 17 including a trademark 6 over
midwicket. With tea rapidly approaching Longmore missed a straight one
trying to launch the ball into Malvern Link and HILL was left stranded on 42.
After an excellent tea lovingly prepared by Emily Price with home made scones
the centre of attraction (not Emilys of course) the creaking bones of a
somewhat ageing Green team took to the field. Chaddesley made a solid
start before John Sherliker got one to drop out of the clouds to outfox
opener Fellows and this brought two further quick wickets for the impressive
Hill who bowled a nagging line and length with Dick Brown taking a stunning
slip catch to assist. Hayden and Tom Bowden then put together a useful
partnership and even the introduction of Dave Price could not shift
them. Longmore was introduced from the North End Lane, but a succession
of dropped catches had his aching limbs feel even worse to say nothing of the
effect on his bowling figures. Haydens luck eventually failed him as
Hill struck and then proceeded to go through the order, but Bowden road his
luck ably helped by Green fielders throwing the ball over the boundary ropes
and with the final over upon us and 5 runs required with the last two at the
crease, Hayden hit a splendid 6 over midwicket to win the game with a ball to
spare. Chris Hill finishing with an impressive 7 for 25.
And so to the bar to talk about what might have been and who has the best
embrication.
|