Southwick Wanderers Cricket Club

Sunday 22nd June 2008 (Report by Anthony Higgs)

The match started well for the Wanderers as Paul finally managed to win the toss and inserted Mayfield. Their young openers had barely faced the first few balls when the Force 10 gale whipping across the pitch attempted to deposit the bails over the pavilion, and the match continued with stumps only for a while. Some excellent tight bowling from Jamie and Luke and quality wicketkeeping fom Jez restricted the scoring and Mayfield had ground their way to 11 when the first wicket fell, the batsman driving Luke to Paul in the covers.

Unfortunately this brought their talented No.3 Robertson to the crease, and after settling in he began to unwind, hitting Luke for several huge sixes down the ground and over cow corner. The previously timid leftie opener also began to play some more forcing shots through the off side, with one let-off when Kim missed a difficult chance diving to his left at gully.

The introduction of Dave F and then Paul slowed the scoring, and the frustration mounted for the Mayfield batsmen. Eventually Dave got his man, trapping the leftie lbw for 27 to leave Mayfield 94-2 without many overs in which to post a big score. Dave continued to bowl very accurately and finished with figures of 10-2-26-2. Robertson passed 50 and was then dropped twice by Wanderers before the introduction of Mark S proved his undoing, trapped in front going for another big hit, twelve short of his century. Mayfield were now 132-3 and the wickets began to tumble as they searched for quick runs. Mark picked up a good catch and Jez completed a sharp stumping, before the final over saw Mark almost complete a hattrick and 5 wickets with the final ball of the innings. Sadly for the drinkers it wasn't to be, but Mark still finished with excellent figures of 5-2-23-4. Mayfield's innings finished on 145-7, a very gettable target given Wanderer's recent good form with the bat.

After an excellent tea supplied by the Ballams, Wanderers' confidence was shattered within the space of the first few overs, as Robertson bowled both Keith and James through the gate and your reporter was adjudged lbw at the other end. From 4-3, Wanderers needed to rebuild and Mark and Simeon steadily moved the total towards respectability before Mark was bowled with the score on 32.

The Wanderers middle order then crumbled, with Simeon and Kim falling lbw and Jez being unlucky to be given out caught behind when the ball flicked his pad. Wanderers expected some fireworks when Jamie strode to the crease, but he pulled his third ball straight to midwicket to become the fourth duck of the innings.

The team needed a captain's innings to save the match and Paul duly obliged. With a mixture of nudges into the off side and sweeps to the fine leg boundary, Paul scored an unbeaten 27 and was ably assisted by Luke (11 not out). Their partnership was worth 47, easily the highest of the innings. In the penultimate over, Mayfield brought on their grenade-lobber to tempt the Wanderers batsmen. Luke calmly dealt with the first five balls before Paul attempted to mow the last into orbit and narrowly avoided being stumped. Luke then saw out the final over to deny the crowd a sight of Caribbean Dave. Wanderers finished on 92-8, a creditable total having been staring down the barrel at various points. McLeod was pick of Mayfield attack with 9-3-19-4, with Robertson bowling two excellent miserly spells for 12-5-23-2.

The winning run comes to an end then, but the unbeaten record endures!

Anthony