Waverley all over Alfold

Mincer leads the charge...

Despite the threatening skies, Waverley's match against Alfold went ahead as scheduled (with the weather only getting better as the day wore on). With skipper Matt Du Gay missing the match with a back injury, James Wright ("Mongo") took charge. Following him into battle were Andy Minshaw ("the Mincer"), Marcus Carmichael ("MC"), Chris Beanland ("Beanie"), Simon Brewer ("KV"), Jamie Harris ("DJ Teabag"), Sam Tempest ("Troy"), Toby Elborough ("Stokesy"), Dan Litwin ("Chuckie"), Peter Brewer ("Mr B") and Adam Carmichael ("AC").

Keeping up this season's tradition of losing the toss, Waverley were put into bat on a green-looking surface. Mongo and the Mincer negotiated the earlier overs with consummate ease, so it came as something of a surprise when Mongo holed out for 29. With MC not troubling the scorers, it appeared that the spectre of another Waverley batting collapse was about to hove into view. However, the Mincer was anchoring the innings and having got his eye in, he started to accelerate the scoring rate and soon brought up his half-century. Beanie was the third wicket to fall, chasing a ball down leg and shovelling it into the hands of the wicket-keeper; however this brought KV striding to the crease and he soon started piling on the runs. Dealing mostly in boundaries, he contributed a score of 55 and a partnership of 103 with the Mincer before one big shot too many saw him back in the pavilion.

The Mincer continued unfazed, offering up no chances to Alford during his innings (although he'd had a good go at running out MC and Beanie). A leg-glance brought up an excellent ton and Waverley looked to be in a commanding position. By now Teabag had joined the Mincer at the crease and was also contributing runs to the scoreboard, rotating the strike and dispatching the bad ball to the boundary. Just as it looked like the Mincer might carry his bat, the ball managed to get through his defences in the final over of the innings and his imperious knock came to an end at 123. There was just enough time for Troy to contribute four runs to the score, with Teabag finishing 26* not out and Waverley posting a commanding 267-5 from their 40 overs (the team's highest score with the bat this season).

Alfold's tea was up to its usual high standard (and reasonably priced!) and having had their fill of sandwiches and cake, Chuckie and Stokesy took the new ball and looked to make early inroads into the Alford attack. In the fourth over, Stokesy got the breakthrough when he castled Carter. The second wicket also came courtesy of Stokesy's bowling when Lorimer tried a single to MC at square-leg, whose pinpoint throw back to the bowler saw the batsman just short of his ground. This brought a small boy a big, brutish batsman to the crease and Mongo decided it was best to introduce AC into the attack. This yielded the third wicket of the innings as AC duly sent the small boy the big, brutish batsman back to the pavilion with his stumps rearranged (that his next over went for 14 suggests karma was not AC's friend). Chuckie was brought back into the attack to complete his spell and he too got in amongst the wickets, bowling N Watson.

With the hosts 54-4 Waverley were undoubtedly in the ascendancy. However, J Harding and T Pullen were looking menacing and were starting to find the boundary with some regularity. Troy's introduction had the desired effect as he eventually got a delivery through Harding's defences to bring his innings to a close on 33. With the game looking almost beyond Alfold, L Arnold was the unfortunate victim of a risky single and yet more superb ground fielding from Waverley (this time Beanie doing the business). By this stage Waverley were down to ten men as Teabag had been forced to leave the field, having injury his hand trying to take a catch. However, when the ever-dependable Mr B got the wicket of Pullen (thanks to a trademark high catch from MC), Alfold's resistance was ended. With Troy bowled out, AC was re-introduced and took two wickets in three balls (including a good catch from Stokesy) to reduce Alford to 126-9. It was Mr B who rounded things off, a simple catch to Chuckie at short-mid-wicket to complete a convincing 134 run win for Waverley.

There was no contest for the Man of the Match Hat, the Mincer's knock having set the stage for a Waverley victory. MC was awarded the *Anchor Hat for making a bit of a hash of a chance off the bowling of AC. The Pink T-shirt went to Teabag, there being no sympathy in the Waverley camp for a player heading off the field to get some ice for an injured finger. As for the rest of the team, they celebrated victory in the only way they know how: rocking in the showers to "Come on Eileen"...