Bank Holiday Battle

Thrilling cricket match ends in narrow defeat for Waverley

A scorching hot bank holiday Monday saw the mighty Wave travel to Eversley. Turning out for the Wave were James Wright (Mongo), Nick Hales (Bubble), Warren Vass (Wozza), Simon Brewer (KV), Sam Vass (Sausage), Adrian Day (Mog), Matt du Gay (Doogs), Will Knox (Captain Canoodler), Sam Tempest (Troy), Toby Elborough (Stokesy) and Peter Brewer (Mr B).
After a discussion with the home skipper, Doogs was talked into batting first. Looking to set the tone for the Wave were Mongo and Bubble. However, the home side’s openers kept a tidy line and length, which was hard to get away and made scoring in the early exchanges difficult. Mongo was timing the ball well, but was picking out fielders with the majority of his shots. A few lofted drives did help to speed things up, before he fell for 24, caught at mid-off. The next man in was Wozza, but he was back in the hutch soon after, for just 2 runs. Next to join the Bubble in the middle was KV, and the pair tried to move things along. However, a comical run-out saw their partnership broken. Bubble was guilty of ball watching a lofted blow from KV which looked set to roll for 4, but was cut off at the last minute by the fielder. With both batsmen stood next to each other having not completed a run, it was Bubble who had to trudge off for 28. Sausage came and went without troubling the scorers, and Waverley looked to be on the ropes. KV was starting to free his arms and add some runs, but one big shot too many saw him spoon a simple catch into the leg side. Mog and Doogs were the new men in, but their partnership was also over relatively quickly, a top edge from Doogs easily taken at square leg. Captain Canoodler was the next man to try and accelerate the scoring, but he was quickly back in the pavilion after only adding 3 runs. Troy joined Mog in the middle, knowing that they needed to score quickly to push the away side to a defendable total. They did just that, with some lusty blows and inventive nurdles helping Waverley to 152-8 at tea, with Mog undefeated on 28 and Troy 21 not out.

After an excellent tea, Troy and Stokesy were given the task of keeping a lid on the home side’s run chase. Conversely to the Waverley innings, the Eversley batsmen were scoring quickly in the early stages and it looked like they might cruise to the total in double quick time. However, 2 wickets in 2 balls from Troy stopped the flow of runs, and gave the visitors a foothold in the game again. A shin injury (more on that later) to Troy forced Doogs to shuffle his pack, and he introduced Mr B to take the pace off the ball. At the other end, Stokesy had bowled well with no reward, a few edges and half chances falling short or wide of the fielders. Captain Canoodler came into the attack and looked struck with a wicket in his first over. Mr B also got in on the action, inducing a stumping chance which KV took care of. Captain Canoodler picked up another 2 wickets in quick succession, and it looked like Waverley were in with a shout. Doogs mixed things up again and brought himself on to try and buy a wicket. He struck in his first over, Troy holding on to a sharp chance at mid on. When Captain Canoodler picked up another wicket, his 4th, it looked like the visitors might snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, neading just 2 more to pick up the win. Mog was brought into the attack, and he also struck in his first over. With the time effectively taken out of the equation, it was down to whether Waverley could pick up the final wicket before Eversley knocked off the few remaining runs. Sadly for the visitors, they couldn’t find the final break through and the home side picked up the win in a closely contested match.

The post match awards saw Bubble pick up the wAnchor hat for his comical run out. Troy picked up the pink t-shirt, for asking to stop bowling because of an injury. Troy also picked up the man of the match hat, for his wickets, runs and catches, though Will also got a mention for his terrific bowling spell.