Nuthurst hold on for a draw against Yellow Stumps

From the pen of Ollie Prior the Yellow Stumps match report.

On the afternoon of 8th September 2019, the Nuttters eagerly awaited the rematch from last years much enjoyed match against Yellow Stumps CC. The toss was won by Nuthurst’s own Captain Bob who decided to put the visitors in to bat first.

The decision to bowl first looked to be a good one when yellow stumps found themselves in trouble early at 2-2, with Keith Greenwood dismissing opener E.Lovergrove for 1 run caught by Bob Samways. Graham Prior quickly adding the pressure to Yellow Stumps bowling the new batsman M.Shoulders for a duck. Yellow Stumps at this point needed to rebuild and find a partnership to cope with the bowling attack of Prior and Greenwood and this is exactly what they did putting on an impressive 42 run partnership between F.Gardiner and M.Reynolds before the former fell to a well taken catch from David Thompson of the bowling of Keith Greenwood.

After making a steady start with the bat the Yellow Stumps seemed to take there innings in to overdrive with M.Reynolds dispatching the ball all round the pitch and G.Hose batting steadily at the other end, there total started to look ominous. Nuthurst turned to the bowing of Raggy Singh and Jeremy James to attempt to steady the flow of runs and both bowled well. The breakthrough came with Bob Samways taking a catch off the bowling of Jeremy James to remove G.Hose for 3 runs. B.Gardiner was next to the crease and alongside M.Reynolds they continued to pile on the runs before Gardiner was by a fine delivery from G.Prior. M.Reynolds was now edging ever closer to his century before Yellow Stumps declared leaving Nuthurst with a total of 194 runs to chase.

After tea the Nutters set about chasing down the impressive total of 195 needed to win. The opening pair of Willis and Jobanputra made an encouraging start getting the home side to 41 before Rahul was caught of the bowling of Poland for 28 runs. David Butcher was the next man in and with Jonny Willis took the Nuthurst total to 68. Willis was dismissed by the bowling of F.Gardnier. David Butcher departed soon after leaving Nuthurst at 74-3 and the two new batsmen Bob Samways and David Thompson set about rebuilding the innings and took the total up to 113 before Samways was bowled by M.Reynolds for 18 runs.

David Thompson then found himself at the crease while wickets tumbled around him Robbie Keen and Olly Prior fell for 3 and 2 runs respectively. Raggy Singh was next up with the Nutters in a spot of bother and a draw looking like the best chance of Nuthurst getting something from the game.

David Thompson was the next wicket to fall for a well earned 19 runs after a typically stoical innings. Graham Prior made his way out to the middle to join Raggy and the pair batted finely and swathe Nutters over the line to a well-earned draw.
After the game both teams converged for the traditional post game debriefing and re-hydrating session in the Black Horse to round off what was by all accounts and even and competitive game for all involved.