1st XI v Water Orton

A splendid century from Bruce Thomason was not enough to prevent Brewood slipping to their second defeat of the season. The home side, now without a win since the second Saturday of the season, were left to chase down a daunting first innings total for the second week in a row. This week, however, they were unable to survive and claim a losing draw.

Water Orton came into the game on the back of a disappointing run of 3 consecutive defeats, their batting totals in those 3 games being 121, 110 and 95, although you wouldn’t have known that based on Saturday’s evidence. After winning the toss, home skipper Cameron Fox invited the opposition to bat and, despite David Wedge picking up the early wickets of Matthew Dawes for 12 and Sukhjit Singh for 22, their innings got off to a positive start and their run-rate remained impressive throughout. Paul Bedford kept the momentum with a brick 33, before he was trapped L.B.W by Chris Tranter, and when Tranter claimed the further wickets of Gary Crouch, clean bowled for 14, and Grant Roscorla, caught by Robbie Byrne at slip for a second ball duck, the visitors went into the drinks interval in the slightly precarious position of 121-5.

It was Ed Harris and James Lloyd who swung the game in Water Orton’s favour with an impressive century partnership in which both batsmen made half centuries. Having played themselves in, Harris and Lloyd took advantage of some inconsistent Brewood bowling and some sloppy fielding to smash a flurry of boundaries. With Tranter bowled out after an impressive spell of 3-53 from his 17 overs, the remainder of Brewood’s attack struggled to build any pressure and were punished by some positive stroke play. Harris eventually fell for 65, made from just 72 balls, when he picked out Tim Friend on the boundary to become Tom Bird’s maiden first team wicket. Byrne removed Lloyd for an excellent run-a-ball 63, including 9 fours and 2 sixes.

But the visitors weren’t finished there! Australian Matthew Ringin and wicket-keeper Warren Badger smashed a quick-fire partnership of 56 from just 5 overs to take Water Orton’s eventual total to 286. Ringin clubbed 3 fours and 4 sixes as he raced to 41 off just 16 balls. He was well supported by Badger reached the boundary 3 times in his unbeaten 18 from only 7 balls. Ringin’s entertaining knock was ended when he was well caught by Tranter to become David Wedge’s third wicket of the afternoon, albeit at the expense of 74 runs from just 9 overs! His wicket also prompted a declaration, the visitors leaving themselves 56 overs to try and bowl Brewood out.

Ringin was soon in the game again as his miserly opening spell saw him remove opener Lewis Jelfs for just 5 as Brewood’s reply got off to a faltering start. Fellow opener Richard Hewitt survived a difficult opening spell and started to settle at the crease and with Fox looking in good form at the other end, Brewood’s innings began to gather pace. Once again, however, just as Fox was looking set for a big innings, he was well caught by Ed Harris on the deep long-off boundary off the bowling of Stephen Bevan for 35. But with Hewitt starting to play more freely and Thomason looking in good form, Brewood remained on top of the run rate.
Hewitt’s innings ended on 43 when he popped up a simple catch to Warren Badger when attempting to sweep Sukhjit Singh, but Chris Tranter continued another impressive all round display with a brisk 45 off just 46 balls, including 4 fours and 3 sixes. With Thomason passing 50 at the other end, Brewood appeared to be on course to reach their target. It was Tranter’s dismissal, feathering a Ringin delivery through to Badger, that ended Brewood’s hopes of victory. Thomason, continued to plunder runs, smashing 13 fours and 2 sixes on his way to exactly 100 off 98 balls, but he was quickly running out of partners. David Wedge fell first ball to Singh, Luke Bird and Andy Day were both removed by Bevan for 5 and 0 respectively. Bevan went on to collect the all-important wicket of Thomason when he picked out the safe hands of Matthew Dawes on the deep long-on boundary.

Tom Bird’s inexperience unfortunately cost Brewood another wicket with the next ball as the debutant came out his crease in an attempt to hit Bevan over the top, only to be stumped by Badger for 5; a breakdown in communication failed to alert the youngster that a losing draw was no the priority. This left Tim Friend and Robbie Byrne 5 further overs to bat out, as task they couldn’t complete as Friend was trapped L.B.W by Singh off fifth ball of the 54th over.

All this gave Water Orton the maximum 24 points from an entertaining encounter that fluctuated one way and another and certainly kept a healthy crowd interested right up to the end. Brewood very much played their part, but will ultimately be disappointed in only picking up 7 points from another game that they could have won, but certainly shouldn’t have lost. In order to get back to winning ways, they must start to take advantage of strong positions they find themselves in and not allow the opposition to bat them out of the game.

Phil McShane 26/6/14