Milford’s Batting Fail (Twice)

This season so far it has been the top order which has won us most of our matches. Been able to score over 200 nearly every week has meant that the slightly misfiring bowling attack has been given enough leeway to skittle side while still been a bit expensive. The last two games, in the league against Kirk Hammerton and the Senior Evening Cup at home to Kippax, has seen what had seemed a reliable batting attack start to fall apart and some of our inform batsmen struggle for the first time this season.

Saturday saw the start of the 2nd half of the season with the return match against Kirk Hammerton. The afternoon weather was much improved from the thunder & lightning which had woken us all up in the early hours. Sunny & warm but still feeling humid. Some of the storms torrential rain had found its way under the covers leaving a big damp patch in the middle of the wicket but this did not delay us. Skipper Paul Hebden once again won the toss and decided to put Kirk Hammerton in, figuring the wicket would only improve as the day progressed.

We had two familiar faces back with us today. Firstly former 1st team skipper Jimmy Liddle had been persuaded to make a comeback, about time. Fittingly Jimmy’s last match for us had been against Kirk Hammerton at the end of the 2011 season when we tied with them. The second returnee was Greg Jarret-Kerr. Greg returning to the fold after a spell at Tadcaster Magnets. He challenged me to find when it was that he last played. Alas I couldn’t find anything which makes it possibly at least 10 years ago. My how time flies.

Matches between ourselves and Hammerton have a reputation for been high scoring affairs and it looked like this might be the case again when the opening over from Dan White was blasted for 11. His dad Loz opening at the other end calmed things down with a maiden and then Dan opened his account by bowling Tom Main in his 2nd over. As it turned out this was the worse thing he could have done as it brought Alex Bramley to the crease. Though not in the same form which saw him win the Division 2 batting last year he is still a formidable batsmen.

It’s amazing how many visiting batsmen struggling for a bit of form find a visit to the Swan Croft seems to put them back on the right track. Alex was another who seemed to benefit. Together with opener Liam Fisher he put on 68 for the 2nd wicket. Soon into the groove they saw off the all White opening attack but the golden arm of Sam Thomas broke up the partnership. He got Fisher to pop one into the hands of Ben White.

Bramley though seem un-fazed by the introduction of spin and anything resembling a pie was quickly smashed for a 4 or 6. His fifty coming up in exactly 50 balls. Together with new batsmen Kieron Grant he put Hammerton in a fine position by the drinks break.

Dan Ward had been brought into the attack but had proved ineffective and was withdrawn after 6 overs. Then we had the sight of a twin spin attack as Ben White replaced him. A very rare sight at Milford. Sam & Ben has bowled in tandem once before at Milford but if anyone else can remember the last time this has happened before them let me know, my guess might be Billy Wright & Chris Allen.

To be fair Ben was pretty erratic, there were some really good balls but when they were many bad ones. Going for 19 in his first two overs. Crucially he did break the partnership bowling Grant for 25. He then followed it up by 2 more wickets in his third over the 2nd the prized scalp of Bramley. Alex looked set for a well deserved century just needing one run but he edged one to Alex Ward behind the stumps. A real sickener.

The loss of these wickets seemed to perturb Hammerton, looking set for something close to 300 panic suddenly set in. Sam mirrored Ben with two wickets in the next over to see Hammerton go from 169-3 to 178-7. None of the Hammerton lower order appeared to have a clue how to handle the all spin attack and two further wickets in consecutive overs put Milford in the driving seat. Ben then completed the rout by getting Harry Woodward stumped. His first ever 5 for.

Ben led the bowling attack with 5 for 44 just piping Sam who ended with 4 for 37. Congratulations to Ben, though I am sure there will be days when he bowls a lot better than today and gets nothing in reward. Hammerton bowled out for 197 inside 36 overs. So we have 55 overs to knock them off, shouldn’t be a problem with our current batting form.

Seems you at the moment you cannot keep a member of the White family from whatever is happening either with bat, ball or fielding and the teas were another White effort. Always a good selection when they are on the rota and the sausage twist been the standout item. A dash of mustard bringing the best out of it. Alas the sweets didn’t match the high standards of the savoury selection so it meant a 3rd pass along the buttie selection.

I was expecting the section for our innings in the report would have been a brief one with somewhere in it the line Dan/Ben (delete where appropriate) White led Milford to comfortably knocking off the total. WRONG !!!!

For the 1st time this season our batting failed, Dan edged a leg side delivery into wicket keepers Chris Neesam’s gloves. Credit to Dan, he walked without needing to look at the umpire. Peter Batty fell soon after and Ben White inside 12 overs. Only Alex Ward was able to stay at the crease. So far this season Alex was the only member of our top 5 who had not got a 50 but he joined the club today. Looking a bit scratchy early on he settled down and soon began to play some lovely shots. If he could find someone to stick with him we might be able to scramble the win. Alas no one could, the returning Jimmy Liddle getting a poor decision from the umpire after taking a massive forward stride. Seems these days that you have to hit the ball with the bat otherwise LBW looms large. Hopefully that won’t deter Jimmy coming back again.

Skipper Paul Hebden collected his first duck of the season and Adam Brown played across the line one too many times. Then Alex was joined by Greg Jarret-Kerr. This pairing was our last hope of salvaging the game with 96 runs needed. Together they dragged us towards the target but after reaching his 50 Alex started to struggle. Trying to play a bit straighter he smashed one into the hand of bowler Mark Wilson. Much to Wilson’s surprise it stuck. Ward out for a very creditable 66.

Greg had batted really well on his return, always looked a stylish batsmen. Though the scruffy beard these days does detract from this a bit. Realising he was our last hope of getting the win he failed to make his ground in a quick single when trying to regain the strike. A very promising 37 on his return and hopefully we will see a lot more of him in the rest of the season.

The Milford tail then failed to wag and we were all out for 164 much to the delight of Kirk Hammeton who at tea had thought they had been heading to defeat. I suppose we were due to have a hiccup with the batting sometime during the season. Hopefully this will be temporary.

Senor Evening Cup v’s Kippax.

Batting – awful
Running between wickets – awful
Bowling – mostly awful
Enough said.

I’ve had enough, going to watch some aeroplanes instead. See you all for the St Chad’s game