05/05/2002 v WILMINGTON

Won

Dressing room discussions had strongly favoured batting second, and so Wilmington were put in to bat. Conditions were ideally suited to Bob Dunkley’s medium pacers, Bob having cut down his run from 4 paces to 2 over winter. Next year I look forward to Bob standing still and bowling.

Neil Priddy opened from the pavilion end , and some good bowling from both saw Wilmington reduced to 10 for 3. Newcomer Mark Cooper picking up a difficult catch at point, and Chris Beard bagging 2 behind the sticks.

There were some rumours that the skipper was planning to take Bob Dunkley off after about 10 overs, but he was persuaded that this was but a short stint for Bob, and anyway once rested, he’d never come back. Bob went on to bowl 20 overs for the amazing figures of 2 for 24.

Neil was replaced by Martin (“I thought I’d retired”) Smith, and went on to bowl his best spell for years. Much discussion was had about the merits of winter nets, the lack of which this year seems to have improved the quality of most of the bowlers. Chris picked up a stumping and another 2 catches to match his haul of 4 catches and 1 stumping in a match last year. There was also another good catch from Mark Cooper, and one from the other newcomer Raul, the only Peruvian cricketer in the world. Mark came on to replace Bob from what we shall henceforth call the Cruckers end, and showed promise, Steve Lawton also bowled his slow stuff to good effect. The only reverse suffered was when Neil came back for the last few overs, only to be dispatched by Steve Oliver the number 11, for three fours in one over, this took Wilmingtons’ total to just over 100. It was scant justice for Neil, who had bowled really well.

Clive and Steve opened up, with Steve taking the Tony Day role, by striking some magnificent boundaries. Steve went to a clever ball from Andy Heselden, and Mark Cooper came in to prove that he’s not just someone who can catch and bowl. (What’s he doing in our team ?) A couple of fine strikes from Mark kept the score ticking over, and even Clive managed to get the ball off the square occasionally. Clive was bowled after playing a careless shot and was mightily relieved when Chris Beard and Neil Priddy carefully steered Old Dartech’s home. Chris played a typical knock of 32, mixing solid defence with aggressive intent against the bad balls, and Neil also never let the Wilmington bowlers dominate.

It was a very emotional dressing room after the victory was secured, Chris Beard pointed out that he hadn’t won a cricket match for over a year. The first cries of “Toverly out” were heard- Summer must have arrived.

Nice sheperds pie Sally- thanks….. An ODCC cap had been put on Andrews grave for the duration of the match, and when I went to collect it there was a half pint of lager perched carefully on the grass. Half a pint ! I never saw Andrew with half a pint.