Horsley Send Waverley Home Defeated

9-Man Waverley beaten by Horsley & Send.

Sunday’s game saw the mighty Wave travel to Horsley & Send. Despite some torrential downpours overnight, the pitch looked in a good condition upon arrival – unlike the Waverley teamsheet which was a couple of players light, a combination of unavailability, holidays and other miscellaneous excuses leaving the visitors with just 9 players. Doogs promptly lost the toss, and the Wave were invited to bat first. Taking up the charge for the Wave were James Wright (Jim Jam), Adrian Day (Mog), Nick Hales (The Bubble), Marcus Carmichael (MC), Simon Brewer (KV), Matt du Gay (Doogs), Matt Pride (Pridey), Peter Brewer (Mr B), and Dan Litwin (Chuckie). Also hobbling over to observe was Andy du Gay (Daddy Doogs), who happened to have his kit with him, and was willing to have a bat, despite his bad leg. Which he hardly mentioned…

Jim Jam and Mog were tasked with setting the tone for the Wave and the first few overs passed without incident. However, Jim Jam was the first to fall soon after, not quite getting hold of an uppercut and picking out the man on the point boundary. Mog was joined in the middle by the Bubble, and the pair looked to keep the score ticking over as much as possible, despite some tight bowling from the home side’s opening pair. The second Waverley wicket fell in slightly bizarre fashion, a straight drive from Mog turned on to the stumps at the non-strikers end by the bowler, leaving the Bubble stranded and run out for 10. MC strode to the middle, on the back of hitting his personal best score last weekend. He could only add 5 to the score though, before being caught. This brought KV to the crease, and he looked to attack from the off, getting off the mark with a boundary. Mog was the next batsman to fall, caught after top edging one straight up for a well-made 28. Doogs joined KV in the middle and told his comrade that they should look to build a partnership and get some runs on the board. This lasted all of 3 balls, before Doogs gently spooned one back to the bowler like a complete and utter tart. At this point, Waverley were 70-5 and looked as if they might struggle to post a competitive total. However, KV took it upon himself to pick up the run rate, and started smiting the ball to all parts. Pridey and Chuckie both played their part in supporting KV and giving him the strike, before he was eventually caught for 56 (jinxed by Pridey who had just mentioned how he fancied Si to get a big score). Mr B was joined in the middle by Daddy Doogs and looked to add some vital “runs” – most of which were taken at a very, very casual pace. When Daddy Doogs was triggered by Jim, Waverley had only managed to use 31 of their 40 overs, posting a final total of 128.

After an excellent tea, Doogs and Chuckie looked to make in-roads to the home sides line up. With a fairly meagre total on the board, the pair knew that keeping a lid on things was important. They did just that, both picking up 5 maidens in their 8 over spells (including a run of 51 dot balls). Doogs also picked up a wicket, clean bowling J Hunt. Just 35 runs had come from the opening 16 overs, and the Wave sensed they might be in with a chance of picking up a victory. Mr B and Pridey were introduced into the attack, and they too kept a lid on the run rate. Mr B claimed Waverley’s 2nd wicket of the day in his 2nd over, getting one to turn sharply and bowl Mair. The visitors had another wicket a few overs later, Mr B’s slower ball deceiving J Hind and knocking back his middle stump. This brought Judd to the crease, as the home side looked to accelerate to keep up with the required rate. Doogs shuffled his pack and introduced Mog, hoping to pick up a wicket with a change of bowler. Judd was still scoring freely though, and the home side were edging closer to the required score. With Mr B bowled out, the ball was thrown to Jim Jam. He did manage to pick up the key wicket after bowling Judd, but took a few balls to find his radar, the home side picking up 14 runs from his first 5 balls of the over. Mog was bowling well at the other end and was unlucky that a few aerial shots dropped into gaps. With 6 wickets needed for the Waverley win and just 2 runs for the home side to win, specialist death bowler Nick Hales was asked to clean up the tail. He was unable to do so unfortunately, Webb flicking the ball off his hips for 4 to bring up his 50 and the home side’s win in the 37th over of the innings.

Despite only having 9, the visitors put up a valiant effort and kept the game fairly competitive right to the end. For a string of offences (canoodling, saying ‘ow’, just generally being a bit pink) Pridey was awarded the Pink T-shirt. The wAnchor hat went to Jim Jam being very quick to point out that he had the best bowling average for the visitors, despite his one over costing 14 runs. Man of the match hat went to KV for his 50, which went a long way to making a competitive game possible.

**Special thanks also to Horsley & Send for generously providing the visitors with some fielders, and for their excellent all round hospitality. A very nice club which we always look forward to playing, and hopefully will bring a full complement of cricketers next season!**