30/08/2015 v Shoreham

drawn

Chips? Where were the chips?

We arrived in Shoreham and it was not to be one of those beautiful sunny days but I still enjoyed looking at the broccoli tree (those more astute will know what I mean).

The pitch was very wet and with a hope that it may dry out later we did the sensible thing and decided we wanted to bat first. However, of course we had to win the toss. The toss was slightly ruined by the pre match discussion that they like playing timed games! I looked around for Adam in case he was high fiving himself but then checked facebook and he was in the US. We won the toss. (Secret formula I keep giving head I mean calling heads). Pete T and Peg headed out and soon after Pete T quacked himself back. Pete S was next out to the fore having scored a 50 recently he was given an upper order position and he started evidencing his more attacking mindset with a few boundaries and attempted spanks. However, the canny oppo decided to take the pace off the ball, considering the pitch swallowed up the pace of the bowling, where there was no pace in the first place, some of the bowling was quite literally rolling past our ankles. This meant that despite Pete S scoring in the 30’s and Peg jug evading on 47, we had scored quite slowly in the first hour of batting. We say jug evading but Peg did spank a ball towards midwicket who held out his left hand and held, what in village cricket standards, was a ‘worldly’.

Tim M (Me) came out with the aim of pushing on our run rate and was soon joined by Paul Allen following Peg’s departure. Paul and I played our natural game and forced through the runs despite encountering the same slow bowling that was hard to play in these condition. Paul eventually succumbing to a great catch in the deep that was almost a 6. Jason came in and continued to push the game forwards and with both myself and Jason seeing the ball well the score grew considerably. A few risks had to be taken and I was dropped at least twice in the deep. We eventually scored 207 (or thereabouts) with Jason having scored a quick 36 not out and me a 45 not out. No jugs were due this innings. We set out to bowl with Billy M and Steve R who ticked us along nicely but found there was no life in the pitch that was still sticking and punishing anything short. The opening pair scored at a decent rate and one of them soon hit a 50. Wickets by Peg, Jason (including his 600th wicket for the club had him so excited he not only shook everyone’s hands once but a second time too). No other player in the clubs history has ever taken 600 wickets. This is an achievement that should not be underestimated, putting it into perspective, if I was to reach that milestone I would require to be alive and playing for over 1200 years (yep got my calculator out for that one).

Some good bowling by Pete S added a couple more wickets with some good catching from Pete T and Peg. Billy M won himself a wicket from a random ball but they all count. New rule, if Billy apologises for his bowling performance in difficult condition we are doing an involuntary ice bucket challenge on him. This lad has got both quality and attitude in his favour and should be very pleased with himself. All the bowlers knew the pitch gave them nothing. Having said this, we ended up with them 9 wicked down with 5 overs left. Despite good and potentially wicket taking bowling from Jason and Pete T at the death (which included one dropped catch in the gloom that could have been), we did great to get them down to 9 wickets and as with a timed game, the best team didn’t win but walked off with a draw. It was a close game nonetheless and again played in a good spirit. For once the weather held off and for that at least we must be thankful.

We think Peg became the club's highest run scorer in this game