Runs, Runs and More (But Not Enough) Runs!

The second half of the season started with the visit of Colwyn Bay, and Elliot Ketteringham took one against the head when Sion Morris employed the discredited “tails never fails” strategy at the toss and the coin came down heads. On a cloudy, but warm afternoon with a short boundary on the tennis club side, it was a clear decision to bat first for Formby.
Ollie Sutton, complete with his new weapon of choice (courtesy of Lukey’s Sports) opened with some caution against Jeewantha, getting off the mark with a single before doubling his score from Holtby’s first ball from the hockey pitch end. James Seward took a more aggressive approach with 2 fours and a single from the next 4 balls. Unfortunately for him, he played all round the first ball of Jeewantha’s second over, and departed to a plumb lbw decision, bringing Tatenda Taibu to the crease.
The Formby pair played sensibly, taking singles where they could and waiting for the bad balls to attempt to hit boundaries, which they usually succeeded in doing. The fifty came up in the 10th over and Taibu’s fifty (from 79 balls), just before the drinks break, after 24 overs. 3 balls later came the hundred and shortly thereafter Sutton reached a well-played fifty from 72 balls. A couple of runs later, with the stand at 126, Sutton holed out, somewhat carelessly, well inside the short, tennis court boundary, caught by Ramsden off Jenkins.
Sam Oldham didn’t stay long, playing on to Campion for 5 at 152-3 a ball short of 35 overs. Jason Underwood started steadily, with just 5 singles in his first 15 balls. Taibu’s hundred had looked a racing certainty for some time, and it duly came, from his 130th ball, shortly before Underwood reverted to junior cricket “six and out” mode, easily clearing the boundary to take the total to 196 but daftly holing out straight to Holtby off the next ball for 19.
Lukman Vahaluwala contributed 18* to an unbeaten stand of 63 as Taibu opened up with the declaration imminent, hitting the last 2 balls of Campion’s 11th over for six into the vacant tennis court to raise the 250 and Ketteringham called his men in at 259-4 from 49 overs. Taibu finished with 144* from 156 balls (9 fours and 6 sixes) and Vahaluwala 18*. The Colwyn Bay bowlers had little to brag about - Campion’s 2 wickets came at the cost of 71 runs in 11 overs and Jenkins’s (1-80 from 18) indicated an absence of help for spinners from the surface. Only Jeewantha, with 1-32 from 10, kept his economy rate significantly below 4.5 an over
This would allow Colwyn Bay several more overs to chase (55 as it turned out) – plenty of time with the pitch looking so batsman-friendly. Ben Aitchison and Dewi Jones opened the Formby attack, the former bowling tightly and inducing several play-and-misses, whilst Jones had a bit of trouble with foot-faults, and gave way to Sutton after his 5th over. Sutton was accurate, posing problems to both batsmen, though it was Aitchison who broke the stand at 47, having Gidlow caught behind by Seward for 20.
Sutton continued to hurry the batsmen, and beat Ramsden (25) all ends up (and all stumps down) in the 20th over, his 5th. In his next he proved too good for Johansen, who edged to Ketteringham at second slip without troubling the scorers.
This brought in Campion, and with Sutton having to be rested after 7 overs 4 of which had been maidens (including the last 3), with the remarkable figures of 2-8, easily the best spell of the match. Colwyn Bay could count themselves fortunate he’s still officially under-18.
Sam Oldham had replaced Aitchison and almost immediately had a couple of very strong lbw appeals against Morris turned down (the ball hitting pad and bat, but its subsequent trajectory out in the direction of extra-cover appearing to indicate pad first).His spell of 7 overs ended wicketless, for 29, bur contained only 9 scoring shots (and a couple of no-balls).
After his early reprieves, Morris settled in and the 100 came in the 32nd over, just before drinks. 3 overs later, the total stood at 123-3 as the last hour was signalled. Jones and Oldham bowled the first 6 overs, and found it hard to keep the runs in check, 52 being added. Ketteringham tried Patel, but his first over went for another 13. Sutton switched ends for his second spell, and batting looked rather more difficult, though the last ball of his first over went for four off an edge. 11 runs were added from Patel’s next, including 3 byes, and a couple of overs later, Colwyn Bay’s target had shrunk to 52 from 10 overs, and 2 overs later, 40 from 8.
They appeared to be cruising to an easy win, but Ketteringham had something up his sleeve, literally: his right arm. He deployed it at the hockey pitch end, his opening 2 overs costing just 6 singles, one of which brought Morris his century. Sutton responded in kind and held the batsmen to a further 8 runs. The target was now 36 from 4 overs and Formby desperately needed a wicket, particularly as Morris glanced the first ball for three. Campion (on 71, 56 balls, 8 fours, 2 sixes) tried to lever the next delivery over the long-off boundary, but failed to make the distance and Sutton took a vital catch. Just three singles came from the next 4 balls, leaving 20 required from 3 overs. This jumped to 16 from 2 as another accurate Sutton over contained 3 dots and, crucially, no boundaries.
Ketteringham’s last over started with a dot, then Higginson took a mighty swipe at the next and made decent contact. Sadly for him, it sailed straight to Aitchison at long-on, who pouched it nervelessly within a few inches of the rope. Morris and Jeewantha managed a single each, leaving 14 required from 8 balls, before, in a desperate attempt to find the boundary, Morris’s fine innings came to an end at 109 (138 balls, 13 fours, 2 sixes) in identical fashion (though this time Aitchison had a little more leeway to the rope behind him).
With 13 to win and Jeewantha on strike, courtesy of a single from Ketteringham’s final ball, Sutton needed to restrict his opponents to no more than 12 to ensure a draw. Having bowled so well, he had no intention of failing in this, and his first 5balls yielded 4 scrambled singles and a two, meaning his task was done as long as he didn’t overstep or stray too wide. He cose to bowl on just wide of the pads, which Jeewantha glanced into Seward’s gloves and Colwyn Bay finished on 253-7. It was a draw, but one of the most exciting games of a season full of exciting games, particularly at home! Remarkably, the last 8 overs had yielded zero boundaries.
Ketteringham’s decision to unleash his bowling arm could hardly have been more successful, his 3-15 from 4 overs his best League return (of a very small sample – now in his 10th season he’s bowled just under 200 overs in 1st XI League matches, and taken 25 wickets, though back in 2010 he took 3-18 in 7 overs away at Orrell). Sutton bowled two excellent spells of 7 overs each, finishing with 3-41, whilst Aitchison’s 11 overs brought him 1-28