Southwick Wanderers Cricket Club

SWCC v Ashdown Forest – 23^rd May 2010 by Antony Preston

From the arctic Lingfield to tropical Ashdown Forest, or, put another way, from 8° - 28°  (interestingly, only about 5 miles away from each other) in 14 days.

The responsibilities attendant on family life took a serious toll on Wanderers’ resources, and we took the field with probably the weakest team for a number of years, in (see above), roasting temperatures.

Fielding first, and with a borrowed player from our opposition (in the very best tradition of Sunday cricket they had 12 and we had 9) plus a sub fielder, it promised to be a long afternoon. Mark Scholfield bravely donned the gloves, and did a creditable job, not having kept for several years (apparently he is now able to climb the stairs again, having developed a strange rigor mortis in his legs for several days after the match, and frightening his children with his eerily accurate impression of Frankenstein’s monster as he shambled round the house). Well done, Mark!

Back to the action. Jamie opened the bowling, and Ashdown’s opener, Malajczuk a left-hander from somewhere down-under, launched into his third ball, but didn’t middle it, succeeding only in hitting it straight up in the air to a great height. Jamie got himself into position, but even from the slips I could see it was swirling and spinning (no, I can’t use the Beefy-ism, however true it might be!! – anyone who wants to know what it is, consult senior Wanderers). Jamie suddenly had to adjust and move to his right, and was unable to pouch it.

Malajczuk, obviously a good bat, then proceeded to knock us to all corners of the ground (although there was a certain amount of streakiness in a lot of his shots). Both Jamie and Luke toiled manfully, Luke in particular beating the bat time and again, and indeed, he struck first, clean bowling Summers. Jamie then weighed in, inducing Sweet to play on. Jamie replaced himself with Darren, who generated some decent pace, and got Rose caught by Jamie. Malajczuk eventually perished, scoring 58 of the first 65 runs, clean bowled by the excellent Luke. The heat was draining, and all three bowlers bowled commendably. Luke was in a class apart, bowling 15 overs in one spell, clean bowling all his 4 victims for 44 runs. Wickets were falling, and at one stage we felt we might limit them to around 150.

Then another overseas player, Marshal came to the crease. Another left-hander, he was clearly intent on taking a leaf out of the opener’s book, and with a promising youngster, Bradford, moved the score along rapidly. It was highly unfortunate that we had no other bowlers at all apart from ‘Golden Arm’ Scholfield, who was behind the stumps. Steve Gagola, who had turned out at the last moment to help us put out a team, but who had not played for 5 years, had a try, but his two overs went for 35, and Jamie came back at the end. Ashdown Forest’s score had however raced on to 213, and it was pretty clear that we would struggle to overhaul them.

Tony and Kim opened the innings after tea, but Kim was unable to repeat his heroics at Lingfield and was bowled for 1. Darren came in at 3 and, putting his previous innings behind him, showed a lot of promise in moving to 18 with some classy shots, before being well caught off a full-blooded shot to leg. This was not before Tony, who had become bogged-down, and stuck on 6 for about half an hour, tickled the excellent youngster Rose, bowling left arm leg-breaks, to slip who gratefully took the catch. Jake King, Ashdown’s 12^th player and our 10^th, stayed there for a while before being bowled by Rose, who ended up with 4 for 17 off 13 overs.

Jamie, in next, batted well and hit 3 towering 6s and 5 fours in an entertaining innings of 47, before being adjudged LBW to Malins. Luke was promoted to the heady position (for him, at least) of 6 and batted well, scoring 10 then perishing to Rose, which brought Gemma to the crease. She batted with great resolve, and played some nice defensive strokes, very nearly seeing out the innings to the end, but being caught (again off  Rose) for 2, having been completely surrounded by the Ashdown fielders.

Steve Gagola was bamboozled by Rose, and didn’t trouble he scorer, and Charlie Almond and Mark had to negotiate the last over in order to claim what (in my opinion, at least, given our limited resources) was a merited draw. We made 93 – 8.

Here’s to our return visit to Hammerwood!

Ashdown Forest Innings

SWCC Bowling

TEA

SWCC Innings

Ashdown Forest Bowling