Rampant Waverley steamroll Milford

Complete display leads to big win...

The second match of this June weekend saw Waverley travel to Milford, for the first time in a few years. An earlier pull out meant that the Wave only had 10 men for the trip, with James Wright (Mongo), Marcus Carmichael (MC), Russ Golding (Raoul), Simon Brewer (KV), Chris Beanland (Beanie), Matt du Gay (Doogs), Sam Tempest (Troy), Jamie Harris (Teabag), Peter Brewer (MrB) and Dan Litwin (Chuckie) the selected few.

Doogs won the conversation for an unprecedented third game on the bounce and elected to bat first, with Mongo and MC striding out to the middle to start proceedings. MC was fresh off his career best score of 43 at Ebernoe the previous day, but fell in the first over this time round, just getting a glove on to one that popped up at him. This brought Raoul to the crease, with an unseen energy which was especially surprising considering he’d been out on the town the night before. When he slapped his first two balls back over the bowlers head for six, the tone was set for the rest of the innings. Raoul and Mongo kept the run rate ticking over at a healthy clip, finding the boundary with alarming frequency and punishing the bad balls. It was Raoul who reached his half century first, before trying one lusty blow too many and holing out for 68. The wicket offered little respite for the home side though, as Mongo was joined in the middle by KV. Mongo brought up his own half century shortly before drinks, at which point the Wave were (147 for 2) and cruising. The next part of the visitors' innings seemed to become a race between Mongo and KV as to who could reach their ton first. Mongo wasn't timing the ball as well as he liked, despite middling one straight back into the bowlers ribs at one stage, but the run rate kept ticking along very nicely. Both batsmen cruised into the 90’s, before KV was caught out trying one big shot too many, eventually dismissed for 95 (despite having been given a chance by his mate Rob). With a handful of overs remaining, Mongo was joined in the middle by Beanie, and the two saw firstly Mongo over the line for his ton and then the innings home, Waverley ending on 310/3 off their 40 overs.

After an excellent tea, grumpy quicks Teabag and Chuckie were given the new ball. With a big total to aim for, the home side needed to bat aggressively to be in with any chance of chasing down their target. Their chances took a hit when Teabag picked up his first wicket, Beanie holding on a sharp chance at point. Chuckie picked up his first wicket soon after, opting to clean bowl the batsman having seen a chance go down earlier in the same over. Teabag struck again soon after, Doogs holding on to a catch at mid-wicket to give big grumpy quick J his second wicket of the match. Not to be outdone, Chuckie added another wicket shortly afterwards, Troy running in to get under a skied ball. With the home side on the ropes, Doogs shuffled his pack and introduced Mr B and Troy. The changes paid dividends in the very first ball, a rank half tracker slower ball bouncer from Troy being held by Raoul. Troy picked up another wicket soon after, Doogs just about holding on to one at deep midwicket. Mr B was bowling well from the other end and also picked up a wicket, caught by Beanie). Troy had his third soon after, Doogs pouching his third catch of the game at mid-on. The visitors continued to turn the screw and Troy bagged his fourth scalp of the game to end his eight over spell with 4-19. The visitors needed one wicket for victory, but despite Doogs trying some off-spin and Beanie finding some rhythm, the home side’s last pair were proving hard to shift. The game was meandering into a slow finish, until the home batsman decided that they were bored of padding out and decided to try a suicidal single. Beanie duly took charge of the ball which was knocked straight back to him, running out the batsman to wrap up a convincing win for the Wave.

MC was awarded the pink T-shirt, for canoodling with his missus on the boundary, right in front of the skipper no less. Doogs was awarded the *Anchor hat for allowing a ball to drop between him and the rope for four, a precedent having been set for that offence. The man of the match hat went to Mongo for his batting, although mentions went to Troy, Raoul and KV for their contributions. Despite only having ten players, it was a commanding display from the Wave, matched only by Beanies dancing to Eric Prydz in the changing room after the game…

Match report courtesy of Matt Du Gay