Cowley CC v Alcester & Radley Park CC Sunday 18th August 2013

Sitting in the grounds of Radley Hall, we enjoyed a fantastic picnic prior to the game in the picturesque setting.

Put into bat on what appeared to be a hard bouncey wicket, Dave and Jake weathered the opening spell putting on 24 in the first 7 overs before Jake had his stumps disturbed to be bowled for 9. It was evident the pitch was not bouncey and in fact the odd ball was already keeping low. Will Cook joined Dave but was also bowled with the score on 33, Will falling for 2. Conrad entered the fray and got stuck in imediately. His first 5 scoring shots all boundary fours. One over was plundered for 22 as Dave and Conrad put together a valuable partnership of 46 when Conrad was bowled for 29 (28 of these in boundaries). Tim found the boundary once before also being bowled (5) and we were wobbling at 88 for 4. Sam proved a worthy partner for Dave, however Dave gave a rare chance; mistiming a shot which was gratefully caught and his vigil was over for a well made 29. Sam who was playing very nicely and also giving no chances, until mistiming a shot only for the top edge to dolly up for a breezy 20. Adrian, like Tim found the boundary once before showing terrible shot judgment and being plum LBW for 6. This brought Jon and Jonny to the crease. Despite the help of extras we were still quite a bit shy of the 200 which we felt we would need to defend the short boundaries, however we were running out of wickets. Jonny managed a single before being bowled and James joined John at 157 for 8 and still 7 overs to go. Jon and in particular James looked to be positive and James dealt mainly in boundaries on his way to a quickfire 30 (7 fours) top-scoring with the bat, and with more help from extras who passed 50 with an ironic cheer, we nudged past 200. Eric (3) and Jon (19) batted out the final over to complete our innings on 207 for 9.

Several of our batsmen had got in and showed what could be possible before getting out again - would we pay for this in the second half of the game or could we restict the opposition.... Following a jolly decent tea we took to the field as Alcester began their reply.

James and Sam got things underway for us but it was obvious the batsmen were not going to be shy about playing some shots. Sam was the first to breakthrough as he bowled a magic indipper (later described as the best ball he had bowled this year) to bowl one opener for 13 with the score on 36. The next wicket was harder to come by as another powerful hitter came to the crease and played freely. The score had rattled on to 92 before Jake caused a rare loose but forceful drive which was well held by Sam and the other opener had to depart just short of his 50. Conrad at the other end was bowling a very menacing spell and had the no3 caught by Dave reeling backwards for 28. Conrad struck again as a full straight delivery thudded into the boot of no5 and the LBW appeal was upheld. He was unlucky not to have a third victim as the whole ground appeared to hear an edge (which was well pouched by 'keeper Will Cook) except crucially the batsmen or umpire. Perhaps justice was served shortly afterwards when an athletic Will swooped from behind the stumps to run him out with a fantastic direct throw at the non-strikers end. 92 for 2 had become 125 for 5 and we were feeling we were right back in the game. However the fluent no4 forged another good partnership with the incoming no7 and they added 80 for the 6th wicket to take any wind out of our sails as they cruised towards victory. Eric had the consolation of removing the topscoring no4 (61) thanks to another good catch by Sam - this time on the boundary. There were to be no miracles today as the target was reached comfortably enough with the best part of 10 overs to spare as the home team won by 4 wickets.

Credit to our bowlers and 'keeper Will that our extras tally was a miserly 16, but despite scoring easily our largest total of the season we couldn't stop the Alcester batsmen from showing their class in chasing it down. A very pleasant sunny day in a lovely setting finishes off our august games - a shame we could only manage second place today. We have 4 more games in september so lets hope the sun continues to shine as we face our next challenge in 2 weeks.