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Chobham is a lovely ground to play at and it
is no co-incidence that in recent years we re-engineered our
association with the Club Cricket Conference by re-naming ourselves
"West End -Chobham", rather than the "Woking" appendage. It sounds
nicer and of course West End is the "West End of Chobham", the place
our village originally grew out of all that time ago.
Chobham batted first in the pleasant, late-summer afternoon. Crook and
West, the opening pair were kept in check by Adie Barrett and Mikey
James, and they looked as if they may hang around if we didn't do
something soon. West suffered what did happen soon after as a ball
bounced unnervingly high off the wicket and into his head. There was a
bit of blood here and there and a nice lump in its ascendancy so he
had to leave the pitch for a bit of treatment. The breakthrough when
it really did arrive was probably due to this accident taking the new
batsman Gray's mind off things, Phil Dawson tempting him into a little
skier that was snapped up.
Phil's labours bore more fruit soon after as he was charged in.
Despite a call for LBW being turned down Crook - the surviving opener
- finally succumbed to a dead straight one that made a mess of his
wicket, one bail taking off. 39 for 3, net 2 was a bit better than we
once hoped for as Hartney seemed content just to make the numbers up
out in the square. It was soon obvious as to why; Jarvis, his partner
at the other end quite happily took his runs where and when he was
happy to do so, and with little perceived trouble from the bowlers
despite Lew West charging in and giving it what for.
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The onlookers look on |
Lew gives it what for |
Then the tables are
turned |
In fact, all the bowlers toiled commendably hard for not too much
reward. Jarvis continued to make headway while Hartney finally threw
in the towel, allowing Matt Oliver and his devious little spin through
to wreck his wicket. Lew trapped Reynolds into making a false shot for
a catch. The score was 89 for five (net four with the nasty injury)
and we were beginning to think we had a chance of keeping the score
down to a reasonable target. The 25th over was a good one for Chobham
with fourteen runs coming off it - but we got a bonus of Jarvis being
caught trying to hoike Matt Oliver over the top. This stemmed the runs
for a few overs, then it seemed business back to usual and a couple
more wickets didn't hinder Chobham on their way to a attainable target
of 165 off their 40 overs at tea.
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Neal craftily keeps
one out |
John was sorely tested |
Mikey has no defence
mechanism |
And so we come to our reply. Reynolds bowled the first over and got
the wicket of Matt Oliver, who played back and got clean bowled
without scoring for his trouble. The second over was bowled by Rowe,
who steamed in from the Pavilion end, getting up a frightful pace from
the first delivery in the process. Johnno was this over's victim,
beaten purely by the pace. New man Neal Howarth managed a spawny four
off Rowe, who made this first over his last one also. The home side
seemed able to throw up a succession of bowlers who gave little away,
while taking the odd wicket here and there. Neal hit three fours
before snicking West's final ball of his second over off the edge of
his bat and into the hands of Rowe, at a position close to leg-slip.
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He liked it while it
lasted though |
Phil gets that one
that got him |
I wish it was more
interesting |
Lew West faced some difficult deliveries while carrying an injury but
managed to occasional boundary but lost partners. John McDonald was
caught for nought, while Craig Weston managed to stay but a short
while himself, allowing Mikey James to come in with West End
languishing on 37 for 6. "Twenty Overs" had also been called, the
overs we had to face before time could be called. Mikey, by his own
admission, wasn't really looking forward to the prospect of batting.
In a style, not too dis-similar to Like Bradley a few years back Mikey
hits the ball as if he has "no defence mechanism". In other words, he
tries to clear it our of the ground. This had the effect of upping the
run rate from pedestrian to galloping. The total moved on from 42 to
78 in just six overs and the entertainment value was enormous.
Next wicket down brought Adie Barrett to the crease to try and creep a
draw, giving nothing away. He was joined by Cap'n Beefy and the pair
tried to see through to the end but with the fifteenth-to-last
delivery Adie picked the wrong one and got caught close to the wicket.
The draw had been avoided and Chobham triumphed. A feature of
Chobham's time in the field was that all eleven men had a bowl!
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