Beechwood lost the toss and were inserted (ooh nasty!) to bat.
The pitch looked like it would play quite slowly and possibly turn a bit but we were wrong as it played bloody slowly and turned a lot.
Beechwood started slowly and were soon in trouble as first Hill and then Makin were out to questionable shots showing that both had taken very little notice of the pace of the pitch.
Kelly and Warner then set about repairing the damage, slowly at first, but some generous bowling allowed them to increase the run rate. Kelly found scoring hard going as his natural game of timing the ball was not condusive to the conditions. Warner chose the aerial route and clocked up quite a few air miles with four sixes. Kelly was finally undone coming down the track once too often and was stumped in slow motion. Warner was then joined by Proctor but he soon saw him off with a 'soft shoe shuffle' in the middle of the pitch running him out for not many. Woody arrived and quickly dispelled the myth that you can't take any top six batsman lightly but the opposition appreciated that we were doing our bit for 'Care in the Community' by having him in the top six.
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Warner finally perished for a determined 65 after going for one aerial shot too many. Woodward gave umpire Makin a straight forward LBW decision to make and all of a sudden 120 looked a long way off. Robinson was dismissed quickly but fortunately Cooksley, McCrea and in particular Cowell all applied themselves and enabled Beechwood to crawl to 119 for 8 at the end of the innings.
Chevening Amblers started cautiously to begin with (yeah right!) and quickly reduced themselves to 11 for 4 showing the sort of adventure that Chris Bonnington would have been proud of. This was compounded by some outstanding bowling from Proctor backed up well by Cowell.
Woody chose this point to enter his audition for Billy Smart's Circus, fortunately this was not costly as Proctor continued to torment the opposition with a probing line and length that rewarded him with a 5 wicket haul.
Woody decided to introduce Boss and McCrea to the attack with instant success as McCrea removed 'The Vicar' with a dubious LBW decision. Once Boss had managed to loosen his ageing bones it was only a matter of time and Mcrea eventually took the winning catch as Chevening were humbled to 34 all out.
All round this was a fine first match performance and one that was confidently skippered by Woody. |
