Waverley battle back

Visitors recover twice to see off Thursley...

Waverley arrived at Thursley looking to bounce back from last week's disappointing defeat at Medstead. James Wright ("Mongo"), Chris Beanland ("Beanie"), Marcus Carmichael ("MC"), Simon Brewer ("KV"), Adrian Day ("Mog"), Sam Tempest ("Troy"), Will Knox ("Will, Son of Knox"), Matt Du Gay ("Doogs") and Peter Brewer ("Mr B") were joined by Nick Hales ("Bubble") and Adam Carmichael ("AC"), making their first appearances of the season.

It being the hottest day of the year, Doogs wasted no time fulfilling ECB's pre-match prediction by losing the toss and bowling first in what was to be a 35 over game. Grumpy quicks Troy and Mog were given the new ball, but it quickly became clear that the pitch was going to offer little assistance to the quicker bowlers - Troy and Mog were given no margin for error and despite not bowling badly, Thursley openers Olley and Feezan helped themselves to 79 runs in the first eight overs. In a bid to stifle the run rate (and the prevent what was looking like being a very long 35 overs), Doogs introduced himself and Mr B into the attack and this quickly had the desired effect. In his second over, Mr B saw the dangerous Feezan (who had just passed 50) caught by Doogs. Doogs then castled new batsman Smallbone in his second over, before Mr B trapped Olley LBW for 36.

With the top order removed in the space of three overs, Waverley looked to press home their advantage and it was not long before Mr B helped himself to a third wicket - a false shot from Aris pouched by Bubble. Doogs was also turning the screw at the other end, removing first Deakin (stumped by KV), then Cook (bowled) and finally Elkins (a feathered catch to KV) in consecutive overs. At the conclusion of their seven-over spells, Mr B and Doogs had shared seven wickets for just 72 runs. AC replaced Mr B and wasted no time getting off the mark for the season, having Rapley caught on the boundary by Doogs. It was left to Will, son of Knox to tidy up the innings as he saw off Aza (caught Mog) and bowled S Olley inside two overs. Having been 89-0 after ten overs, Thursley lost all ten wickets for just 69 more runs to set Waverley a target of 159 to win.

After tea (up to its usual good standard), the visitors looked to put last week's batting horror-show behind them with Mongo and Beanie looking to chase down the runs. Mongo farmed the strike and after seven overs he had a large majority of Waverley's 47 runs. With Beanie having earlier been grumbling about a hangover and claiming not to have eaten since Friday, it was perhaps understandable that his knock came to a premature end when he was bowled by Elkins without really troubling the scorers. However, his dismissal was the start of a trademarked Waverley Wobble. Mongo, to that point looking extremely confident and at ease with the bowling, inside-edged Elkins onto his pad and flicked the ball onto his stumps for a jug-evading 47. Bubble was next to fall victim to Elkins, chasing a wide delivery and edging behind to Smallbone for six. When MC swiped over the top of a straight one for eight, Waverley had stuttered to 67-4 off 15 overs. However, KV and Mog steadied the ship and with Mog the immovable object at one end, KV was free to cut loose and soon started dealing in boundaries. Waverley rode their luck at times, aided by a couple of dropped catches, but the runs continued to flow and soon KV reached his second half-century in three games. It was left to KV to score the winning runs with a six, Waverley's fifth wicket partnership yielding 94 runs with KV 67* not out and Mog 17* not out at the close. In the end Waverley romped home to win by six wickets with nine overs to spare.

The Man of the Match Hat was awarded to KV for his match-winning score of 67, although there should be honourable mentions to Mr B and Doogs for their haul of wickets. The *Anchor Hat went to Mr B for "batting from the pavilion" (throwing his hat to the ground when he believed not enough boundaries were being scored), whilst the Pink T-shirt went to Beanie for recoiling when the ball flew vaguely in his direction whilst fielding. Did he mention that he was hungover and hadn't eaten since Friday? Maybe once or twice...