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Our
first home game three weeks and the impact from West end fete the
previous day was being felt. Apparently, tent spikes had been bashed
into our pitch and the groundsman's opinion was that we should call
the game off. Not likely, said Howard, however it was more than a
little annoying that it had not been possible for a rope surround to
have been erected during the week prior to the game, partly due to the
bad weather. We were of course well aware of our new pitches' idiosyncrasies
after rain, although it's behaviour had improved somewhat since the
historic Opening Day in May during it's inaugural match.
With
beefy back in command, all waited with bated breath to hear the result
of the toss - and it was a first! Beefy actually won and decided we
should field first and try and take advantage of the new ball in this
time game. Phil Dawson, the best bowler at Tilford and Lew West led
the bowling attack, each giving a miserly 13 runs off their opening
five overs spell, with Lew having their opener moore caught close by
Neal Haworth before he had to retire with a thigh strain. Adie Barrett
took over from the streets Heath end, his four overs yielding few runs
and a brace of wickets, both clean bowled, although the first was a
little lucky having rolled along the ground into the stumps!
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| Ian
defending well |
Ian
turns one to leg |
A
nicely confident shot |
Howard
Turner bowled a tidy 10 over spell from the pavilion end. His accurate
bowling tired fairlands' men down and yielded two wickets, again both
clean bowled - it has to be said that so far this season the
proportion of wickets taken bowled as opposed to catches does West end
credit. Perhaps it can be partly explained by keeping the bowlers to
relatively shorter spells than in previous seasons, keeping them fresh
and the batsman continually guessing. Neal Haworth's spin replaced
Adie Barrett for a short spell before the batsman found his easier
pace too comfortable: in turn, this brought Andy Horn on to bowl. He
really ground fairland's innings to a halt with a fine spell of seam
bowling, regularly beating the bat and shaving the edge by a whisker.
His persistence was rewarded by bowling Nixon who by that time had
been frustrated by a series of excellent deliveries. Andy went on to
have A. Kassell sky one to Jay Stephens in the covers.
Adie
Barrett replaced Andy at the Pavilion end who was assisted by the
slightly more excitable bounce offered by the pitch. In the space of
10 deliveries fairlands' innings had been wrapped up for a hundred and
10. With the bright conditions showing no sign of relenting and the
pitch playing fairly well, could the way be paved for not only our
first home win but our first win of the season? Beefy Turner certainly
thought so.
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| John
gets Johnson's treatment |
The
fans watch tensely |
Jay
Stephens belts a four |
Johnno
Greathead and Lew West, our opening pair, strolled out to the Middle
with plenty of time and overs in hand. Fairlands' opening bowler,
Johnson, bowled the first ball to Lew right in the block hole which
preceded to stay a little low and smash into the stumps. Lew had
suffered the indignity of a golden duck for the first time in his
cricketing career, not a happy man at all! Johnson's opening bowler
partner Nixon gave to singles away, one to Johnno and one to Ben
Pudney before Johnson bowled Johnno in the third over this brought a
naturally apprehensive Ian Brown to the crease. Ian could only watch
two overs later as Ben was also clean bowled by another good delivery
from Johnson, whose dismissal had reduced us to five for three,
slightly less than ideal. Two balls later the and Neil Howarth also
departed in without troubling the scorer, a once again bowled by by
the fair-haired opening bowler.
Johnson's 4th over followed a maiden from Nixon, and also yielded the
wicket of John Mcdonald without scoring to give him five wickets for
no runs and all clean bowled, which must be some sort of record both
for him, and for us who were reeling at eight runs for five wickets. J
Stevens was now the crease and facing Johnson and came steaming in. J
had not batted since the pitch opening day a month previous but was in
no way intimidated by the youngster: his first delivery received was
firmly hit away for a quick to runs which immediately spoilt, albeit
only slightly, Johnson's average! In partnership with Ian Brown who
was quite firmly digging in by now Jason staged something of a
recovery and showed that the oppositions bowlers were far from
invincible and by the time he was caught and bowled by Bogie man
Johnson west End's score had rallied to 42.
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| Beefy
cracks a boundary |
Jay
square cuts another four |
A
beautiful evening |
Beefy
Turner, whose opinion was that we could still win, played a vital part
in the next partnership with Ian who looked ever more comfortable with
the passing overs. The pitch was past the worst of its misdemeanours
and another eight overs passed while the scoreboard gently ticked
over. A fair few boundaries had been scored in the last dozen overs,
each of which just took a little more pressure away from the batsmen
and on to the fielding side. Ian Brown was still there in the 27th
over when beefy departed thanks to a tricky delivery that crept
through his guard and nicked his wicket. He was eventually bowled in
the 29th over after having effectively glued the innings together for
26 of them! Andy Horn and Adie Barrett still had nearly 40 runs to get
but decided to play it safe and were both still there when stumps were
drawn at the end of the 20 overs. It was a draw and a losing draw at
that but for West end it was a positive result for the recently
rebuilt side. Here's to next week!
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