Scorecard

Gt Brickhill II v Horspath Cricket Club 3rd XI on Sat 14 May 2011 at 13.00
Horspath Cricket Club Won By 1 Wicket

Match report The game turned out to be a corker – every wicket turned out to be crucial in a game of ebb’s and flows. If I’m honest I felt that 80 overs out of the 100 we were probably on top of the game and so to leave without 25 points would have been gutting. However, it’s more than possible to lose a game in just a few overs and we did make life difficult for ourselves. A top opening spell by Moony and a mixed bag by me produced wickets at regular intervals and pinned them back at 50 odd for 3. By drinks an economical but unrewarded Ricksy and a scalp to Spuddy left them teetering on about 80-4. Brickhill were then left reeling when Spuddy took his second in the over after drinks.

All these wickets had been taken by sharp catches behind the stumps, with Headley, Cooke, Belch and I filling our boots. It’s great to see the majority of these chances being taken (I won’t mention your drops Cookey!) However, we lost our way somewhat between overs 28-40 as Brickhill’s fifth wicket partnership put together an aggressive partnership which was difficult to contain with one noticeably small boundary.

Eventually Ricksy, tripping over in his run up, did the hokey cokey and he turned around, and that’s how he got one out.

The remaining four wickets fell in quick succession and we were crucially able to get them all out for 220 in 49.4 overs – leaving us with an additional 3 overs to bat. Myself and Spuddy finished with three-a-piece whilst Moony chipped in with two.

The team talk at tea was straight forward. If we bat for 50 overs we are going to win this game. And we got off to a flier as Cooke and Ian Belcher played without fault until Belch was undone by a very sharp catch at gully. It was evident that the pitch had started to deteriorate at this stage and the ball started popping off a length. Bilal hit a couple of decent boundaries before top edging to mid-on. The quick loss of Alex Eason to a blinder of a catch at first slip brought Dom O’ Connor to the crease who once again played fluently, hitting some lovely boundaries.

At about 140-3 at 35 overs we were cruising. Too easy in fact, so it was written in the script that we’d have a mid order collapse. Dom and Robbie holed out to simple catches in quick succession and Delamore, Headley and Myself all failed to get going. This left us staring defeat in the face at 160-8.
As Spuddy and Moony unconvincingly scratched around I started counting the points we were guaranteed; a paltry 8 if we failed to draw. Then, out of the blue, Spuddy saw red and produced a mercurial batting display, smashing two huge slog-sweep sixes and a string of fours. Moony joined in too, crashing a few through the covers (and plenty in the air). He was dropped at deep mid-on with us needing less than ten to win and this appeared to seal the fate of Brickhill. Spuddy was agonisingly bowled on the last ball of the penultimate over with scores level – meaning releasing Ricksy from his cage and onto the pitch at the non-strikers end. A heart in mouth moment saw Moony spoon the first ball of the last over, which dropped just short of extra cover before he dispatched the fourth ball for four and a memorable win for the 3’s.

Gt Brickhill II Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 10 wickets
0
220 (0.0 overs)		     
Cook ct  Moon 16
Sibley ct  Murray 21
Boad ct  Murray 4
Hiles ct  Alder 35
Patterson ct  Alder 7
Chapman ct  Ricks 53
Burrows b  Murray 50
Ward Run out  1
Hastings Not Out  7
Henchey b  Moon 1
Burrows ct  Alder 1

Horspath Cricket Club 3rd XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Tom Murray11.0146315.334.18
Hayden Moon11.0437218.503.36
Clive Ricks14.0450150.003.57
Paul Alder9.4051317.005.28
Bilal Hamid5.002900.005.80

Horspath Cricket Club 3rd XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 9 wickets
0
223		        
Ian Belcher ct  Boad 16 1
Robbie Cooke ct  Henchey 60 2
Bilal Hamid ct  Boad 10
Alex Eason (T) ct  Patterson 1
Dominic O'Connor (407958) ct  Burrows 34 1
Oliver Delamore lbw  Burrows 4
Adam Thompson b  Henchey 4 2
Tom Murray ct  Burrows 4 1
Paul Alder b  Boad 38
Hayden Moon Not Out  22
Clive Ricks Not Out  0 1

Gt Brickhill II Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Hastings5.003000.006.00
Boad17.0466322.003.88
Patterson6.0025125.004.17
Burrows10.0146315.334.60
Henchey11.4244222.003.77