1st XI v Water Orton

An incredible game of cricket took place at Water Orton last Saturday when at one point it looked like the match would finish by mid-afternoon with ‘beer and cakes’, Brewood staged a remarkable turnaround to take the game to the 47th over in the second innings and unfortunately grab ‘defeat from the jaws of victory’!

Skipper Fox lost the toss and Brewood were inserted which didn’t seem to be a bad toss to lose on a used wicket together with Brewood’s difficulty in sometimes chasing a score down. Chaos then ensued with veteran seamer Lesroy Irish demolishing the Brewood top and middle order to leave us on 9 for 6 off just 7 overs! Irish claimed all 6 wickets, 4 bowled and 2 LBWs and finished with figures of 10-1-16-6. Only Bruce Thomason of the top order remained at the crease to eventually produce what I would say was one of the best batting displays I’ve ever witnessed in over 45 years of playing and watching cricket. Jamie Lunn batted resolutely for 7 off 24 balls to take the score onto 35 before he was dismissed. Our usual number 11 Robbie Byrne was promoted to 9 in an attempt to ‘hold up an end’ with Bruce and recorded a battling 21 off 69 balls taking us to 93 for 7 with Bruce on 53 – ‘beer and cake’ successfully avoided!

David Wedge entered the fray and soon perished to record the 5th duck of the day leaving Brewood on 97 for 9. To the crease came 16 year old Ally Carey playing in just his second Birmingham League 1st team game having deservedly been selected following his 3 wickets on debut at Tamworth last week. As this was our last wicket partnership Bruce upped the tempo and with judicious shot selection, controlled aggression and astute running to keep the strike they took the score onto an incredible 190 with Bruce being dismissed in the 47th over for a brilliant 139 off 146 balls with 20 fours and 3 sixes. It was an incredible innings with young Ally Carey scoring a most valuable 3 in a partnership of 93! Ally certainly showed some of our senior batsmen how to defend and all credit to him - well done Ally. Unfortunately I have run out of superlatives to describe the quality of Bruce’s innings which will stay in the memory for a long time. It’s just a pity that the only Brewood supporters present were the Bank’s family to witness it – come on guys let’s give the team more encouragement on its travels!

Taking early wickets would be the key with the Water Orton innings and the first one fell to Jamie Lunn in the 3rd over. It wasn’t however until the 11th over with the score on 48 that the 2nd fell with Robbie Byrne taking a low catch at cover to dismiss the dangerous Dawes for 33 off the bowling of Lunn. Thereafter wickets fell at regular intervals with most Water Orton batsmen getting a start but failing to convert it to a 30+ score. By the 36th over the Water Orton innings had dramatically been reduced to 151 for 9 with all the bowlers chipping in. The game was there for us to lose having totally turned the momentum of the match and lose it we did with a stand of 40 for their 9th wicket led by skipper Gary Crouch who finished on 50 not out ably supported by Irish who finished on 4 not out.

Skipper Fox varied the bowling and with Ally Carey unable to bowl more than 7 overs rightly gambled on keeping his main bowlers to get that elusive last wicket. However it was not to be and Jimmy Banks was thrown the ball for the 47th over with just 3 runs needed and so the game finished on the first ball of his spell - but no blame placed on Jimmy for stepping up to the plate to bowl that over.

Jamie Lunn finished on 2 for 27, Andrew Day 2 for 45, David Wedge 2 for 48, Ally Carey with another excellent spell of 2 for 20 off 7 and Robbie Byrne 1 for 45 despite having being taken for 28 off his first 4 over which is most unusual for Robbie who last week at Tamworth went for 1 for 3 off his first 8 overs.

Disappointed with the result, however taking an invaluable 6 points, some harsh words were spoken in the dressing room after the defeat which in a way if you can recall mirrored our victory over Eastnor the other week. Matters soon calmed and all I would say is that ‘some harsh words’ speaks volumes of the desire and passion to win with the disappointment of a defeat. Fines were duly administered after the game with the usual skill and tenacity by Wedgie. We didn’t however give Water Orton the pleasure of witnessing 5 players quacking their ducks as we found out and celebrated our survival in Division 2 with our 6 points and results from other games going our way – well done guys!
Simon Marsh 02/09/14