Cup Dreams Shattered

Sunday saw us travel up to Long Marsden for the 2nd round of the Fred Fleetwood Cup. The weather was in dramatic contrast to the day before. Blue skies and cotton wool clouds, a light southerly breeze and the temperature in the low 20’s. In fact perfect for cricket. Saturday had seen the now traditional abandoning of the 1st team home match but the Long Marston ground showed no ill effects from all the rain which had fallen and the wicket was surprisingly firm, a great compliment to their grounds men.

Despite only playing one game this weekend we couldn’t muster anything like a strong first team. Thanks go out to the five 2nd team players who stepped in to fill in for their missing 1st team colleagues. Some of the juniors had already played a game in the morning.

With such a patched up team it was Peter Batty who became our 4th team captain of the season. He didn’t do too bad a job with winning the toss and decided to put Long Marston in. Long Marston must be one of the largest grounds in the league probably wider than it is long and it slopes down from the score hut to the far boundary. Today’s wicket was on the side of the square closest to the score hut making it a very long hit on the other side to reach the boundary. As mentioned earlier the wicket looked smashing but the slope across it would cause our bowlers one or two problems.

Loz White opened the bowling from the pavilion end and was from the off on a good line and length. Jack Hebden bowled from the other end and his pace troubled the Marston openers. He also found a length and was the first to make a break through with a lovely Yorker which crept under Kieron Trotter’s defences.

Runs were in short supply and it wasn’t till the 7th over the first boundary was conceded. Marston’s wicket keeper Simon Lewis played steadily and together with #3 Lenny Miller pushed the score on to 65. Loz finished his allotted 8 overs with just 23 runs off him but alas not picking up a deserved wicket.

Just before the drinks break we managed to make another breakthrough when Sam Thomas got Miller caught by father Dewi. An excellent catch from Dewi diving forward at mid on. Even more impressive was that he managed to keep his corona cigar from been dislodged and hitting the ground.

So at the half way point Long Marston were 68 for 2 but critically Simon Lewis was still at the crease. He held the innings together and in the 28th over reached a well deserved 50. He only gave one real chance when stand in wicket keeper Ben White missed out on a stumping. To be fair to Ben apart from this he kept wicket really well and the concession of only 3 byes shows how well he did as some of the Milford bowling was a bit wild.

The Marston innings continued to slowly build a total and it wasn’t until George Dabby joined Lewis that the scoring rate increased significantly. George swung the bat at most things and lady luck was with him today as all his edges found gaps. He and Lewis put on 55 for the 5th wicket and Marston closed on 160. Simon Lewis ran out in the last over for 64, Dabby unbeaten on 31. Best bowling figures for Milford was Joe Barr on 2 for 19 off 5 overs. Nice to see Joe continuing the form he had produced in his morning match when he had collected 4 wickets.

Long Marston teas were nice and all the usual suspects were on offer on top of pool table. Unfortunately the sweet stuff looked bought but that’s just been picky. The scorer did return for another slice of the cheese & ham quiche. He later found out it had a fair bit of red onion in it. Red onion, the gift that keeps giving.

So was 160 a good target or a little below par ? A run rate of 4 an over didn’t seem a big ask but with most of our inform batters missing today it might prove a big ask.

Peter Batty and Steve Korko opened the batting, we needed another innings liked Pete produced in the last round when he scored 157 no against Green Hammerton. That was against only 8 men though and at Milford which is considerably smaller than the Long Marston pitch.

Both Steve & Pete found it difficult going early on, Steve Barnet in particular causing problems. He was quite nippy and conceded just 14 runs in his 8 overs, more remarkable 8 of those were wides. To make it even better he accounted for Peter and Jack Hebden who came in at 3.

Jack may well have produced an award winning performance, his single off 21 balls may mean he breaks Jonathan Barr’s hold on the Escargot Award. A truly glacial strike rate of 4.8. Your really going to have to shut up shop to beat that Jonny, and if you do please don’t do it when I am scoring.

Ben White has been batting really well so far this year and been a match winner on more than one occasion. Unfortunately he couldn’t do this again today as he found the boundaries at Marston just a bit too far away. A good catch from Kieron Trotter seeing him back in the shed for 7. In fact the Long Marston fielders made some excellent catches today, Lenny Miller getting two sharp chances.

When Steve Korko was bowled for our best score of the day, 27, it looked like the game was up. Even a torrential rain shower which came when Loz White & Dewi Thomas were batting was not going to save us. Dewi looked relieved when he was bowled for just 2 almost jogging back to the pavilion to get out of the deluge. He obviously didn’t fancy trying to revive a soggy Corona.

The last wicket pairing of Matty Paul and Joe Barr made our score somewhat respectable with a partnership of 32 but Joe was bowled when George Dabby finally managed to bowl a ball which bounced and was on the stumps. Milford all out for 121 in the 38th over.

If we are ever to reclaim the Fred Fleetwood Cup it is going to have to take more commitment from our 1st team squad as you cannot rely on the opposition having a similar pick n’ mix team.