The day began with rumours that Beechwood veteran Colin Robinson would be unavailable to take up his place in the team due to illness. This was initially treated with scepticism as "Bobby" is well known for his ability to play through the pain barrier. However, once it was confirmed that he had been unable to eat breakfast it became obvious to the selection committee that he must be really bad and Brendon Chapman was drafted in as a replacement.
On arrival at the ground the team found a high quality astro turf surface for the outfield on which a plastic mesh strip was laid out. The main drawback was the short square boundaries, a result of the fact that the facilities were primarily developed for football.
True to form captain Freeman lost the toss and was invited to bat first. Sean Quinn opened the batting with Simon Massey and provided the side with a brisk start with both players scoring impressive early boundaries. Massey was the first to be dismissed when he attempted one big shot too many and was bowled for 11. Quinn soon followed for 14 when he was given out caught behind, although the batsman's reaction suggested that he may have hit the ground rather than the ball.
Cunningham came to the wicket to join Brown and immediately picked up the pace once again by hooking a short delivery into the adjacent field. Ibiza then showed some generosity in the field by dropping both players, but Cunningham was unable to take advantage of his let off as he was yorked by Parmeter shortly afterwards. Tony Freeman then came in and looked good as he punched his first delivery into the covers for no reward. But second ball he prodded forward and despite getting in a good stride was adjudged LBW.
At 77 for 4 Beechwood now needed to rebuild the innings, and the Aussie pair of Treve Brown and Brendon Chapman began the process. Brendon tended to hit the ball hard and straight, while Treve was working the ball around and being a good judge of when singles were available. Gradually Brown was starting to find his range and the boundary. The partnership of 43 was ended when Chapman was bowled by one that kept a little low.
Gibbons came in to join Brown, who was now looking to completely dominate bowling. Although his timing was not always as he would have wished, he was still able to to clear the short square boundaries. This culminated in one over from Short going for 34 runs. After receiving a couple more lives, Brown was eventually caught in the deep for a brutal 137, and the Beechwood total on 230.
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Patel joined Gibbons and provided good support, rotating the strike and allowing Mark to take up the mantle as the destroyer of Ibiza´s bowling. Initially he played forceful shots along the ground, but once well established went more aerial. Mark was dismissed on the penultimate ball of the innings, LBW for a stylish 85. Beechwood legend Keith Makin came out for the final delivery, but only succeeded in running himself out for 0! The Beechwood innings closed on a massive 318 for 8 off the 40 overs, with Patel finishing on 10 not out.
Woodward and McCrea opened the bowling in the Ibiza innings, but runs flowed freely initially with Short hitting both bowlers for early 6´s. With Woodward struggling to find a consistent line and length, Freeman replaced him with Patel. McCrea had now settled into a good rhythm and Beechwood started to slow the scoring rate and gradually take control in the field. Patel made the initial breakthrough by dismissing Collins LBW for 14 with the Ibiza score on 44. McCrea completed his spell of 8 overs with figures of 0 for 23, which was scant reward for such a fine spell of bowling.
Massey then came on to bowl with immediate effect, dismissing Gillette with McCrea taking the catch on the backward point boundary. Patel was continuing to bamboozle all the batsmen and bowled both Feeshi and Short to finish with figures of 3 for 26. Keith Makin had been keeping well to all the bowlers, but then had an aberration in one over from Massey when he managed to miss 3 stumpings. Technical advice was being offered by Kelly from the boundary, but this seemed to fall on deaf ears. Massey then removed Makin from the equation and bowled Parmeter, R.
Woodward came back on to replace Patel and was roared in by the Beechwood Barmy Army, who were then reprimanded by skipper Freeman. However, this encouragement inspired the bowler to dismiss Browne LBW. Massey then took a 3 rd wicket when Parmeter, J was out bowled. Woodward then took 2 wickets in 2 balls bowling both Cocol and Cobby. A hat-trick was then narrowly missed as Makin impressively removed the bails from a leg side take, but the batsman just got his foot back in time.
Ibiza then showed some tail end resistance with a stand of 46, with Cunningham coming in for some severe punishment. One 6 sounded like had caused severe damage to a car parked just outside the ground. Woodward finally ended the innings when he bowled Makepiece off his pads to dismiss Ibiza for 136 and seal victory by 182 runs.
Just as a footnote, Colin did rise from his sick bed later on that night and his recovery seemed to be complete when advised of Keith's run out earlier in the day.
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