Southwick Wanderers Cricket Club

A little one sided

Full match report to follow from the Master himself. TONY PRESTON!!! For now here are the Scorecards.

Staplefield Innings

Strange game, but good fun and a win’s a win, when all’s said and done (oh, yes, and Taylor took 5 – 32).

I stood in for Jamie as skipper following Jamie’s unfortunate ankle twist of the previous week, and promptly lost the toss. Phil, Staplefield’s genial skipper decided to have a bat, which I was happy about as we had a very strong (notwithstanding the absence of Jamie) bowling line-up and I wasn’t sure how the wicket would play. Prash opened from the pavilion(ha!ha!) end and got a prodigious amount of swing in his first over, including an outside edge that Morgan was unable to pouch diving to his right behind the stumps. Taylor bowled from the bottom end and (after a loosener – poetic license for tripe) bowled a good over. In his second over he completely bamboozled Simon, who was bowled. 3 – 1. With Prash bowling tightly from the top end, runs were hard to come by, then Taylor trapped Rob LBW. 6 – 2. Prash pulled a muscle, a great shame as he had looked dangerous, so he finished his third over off 2 paces then went off to strap it up. Our comings and goings started to resemble the England team with first Darren then Dave Field leaving the field for running (?) repairs.

Both Sam and Dalwal showed some aggression but it was clear that if we got our field right they shouldn’t last too long (which proved to be the case). Alan moved to short-ish cover and took two (one particularly so) good catches off the canny Taylor, whose variation in pace and flight proved too much for them. Once he had his fifer he came off and Dave came on, immediately settling into a good rhythm of line and length (just like the good old days, eh, Dave?)

SWCC Innings

As Nicky was still on her mercy run to fetch the sandwiches, we started our innings, and it was immediately clear that though we should not have a problem getting the runs, scoring was not as easy as it appeared from the boundary. We got off to a good-ish start and Darren hit one of his trademark straight sixes (his second of the afternoon) to take the score into the 20s before getting the faintest of outside edges, gratefully snaffled by the keeper. Tony was very out of sorts and it was ‘like watching paint dry’ to the spectators. However, everyone perked up as Morgan joined Tony and played himself carefully in until tea (taken a bit late as Nicky got stuck behind some Sunday drivers on her way back with the all-important sandwiches).

Tony was quickly out after tea, bowled round his legs by Staplefield’s skipper Phil for an unconvincing 8. Alan to the wicket, but couldn’t find the middle and was out for 2 off the aptly named Asbo. Mark Johnson was in next, and batted very well for his 1 not out. At the other end, Morgan was finding his touch and struck 4 fours and 2 sixes in his 40 not out, seeing us home by 7 wickets. One thing’s for sure, when we have a bowling side like this, we have a very powerful strike force, with plenty of variety.