Beechwood, welcoming David "Rodders" Williams for his debut won toss and elected to field on a pitch still a bit damp from overnight rain. It was gloomy and chilly.
Hill and Woodward opened the bowling and after a few early blows Makin was soon into the action, taking a smart catch up at the stumps from a Hill half-tracker to remove Spencer, followed by pouching Ince off Woodward.
Savory then astonished everyone by clinging on to one over his shoulder at mid-off to remove the dangerous Bird, Woodward again the bowler and 'Boro slightly reeling at 48-3.
With the introduction of spin a steady stand took the score to 103 when Boss, replacing the luckless Cooksley, caught and bowled G.Browne followed by Rodders taking an outrageous catch on the deep square leg boundary off a rank Savory full-toss to remove J.Browne.
Boss and the returning Hill took care of the lower middle order and with 'Boro stuttering to 136-8 it looked like a job well done. Unfortunately a stand of 54 from the 9th wicket pair who seemed to enjoy the ball coming on to the bat, meant it wasn't to be, and the score raced up to 190 before Woodward and Valentine (in spinning
mode) wrapped up the innings with Beechwood perhaps missing a trick in the last few overs.
For Beechwood to reach their target we would need Freeman to bat for most of the innings and at least two of our big guns to fire. With Deano absent, Val was promoted to open and all was going to plan as an initially watchful Val started to play some gloriously powerful shots, reaching 40 before being caught and bowled. |
Warner then fell to a good'un from Pilbeam without scoring and with Rodders and Hill falling soon after for 6 apiece, suddenly Beechwood were reeling at 70-4. After a brief Robbo cameo, he and Makin were triggered by umpire Cooksley in successive balls and with that and the sight of Savory strolling out to bat next meant for some frantic en masse padding-up by the tail!
Tony was still there though and even while not at his most fluent there was still hope, but with Beechwood falling behind the run-rate he holed-out trying to push the score along for 29 followed by Woody, who having secured the strike for the whole of his innings, dinked a full-toss to a gleeful square-leg for 6.
Survival was now the objective and Cooksley joined Savory with 13 overs to go, Savory mixing wild slashes with council estate defence and Cooksley opting for a more responsible approach with the odd cock-legged on-drive. With 3 and a bit overs remaining Cooksley nicked one behind bringing Boss to the crease for his annual innings.
This last pair duly survived with the Bossman chipping one agonisingly between 3 fielders in the last over and umpire Makin calling the last scheduled ball of the match for a wide (!?!).
Beechwood survived on 139-9, infuriating, one would suspect, a previously chirpy 'Boro side. Off to the pub then, which had a jukebox that played 'Mr Blobby', 'Mouldy Old Dough', and 'Chirpy-Chirpy-Cheep-Cheep'!!...Loudly! It may be advisable not to return next time...as I'm liable to join in!
Team: Boss, Cooksley, Freeman, Hill, Makin (w), Robinson, Savory, Valentine, Warner, Williams, Woodward (c) |
