Dan’s 3rd Michelle Clinches Win.

With St Chad CC leaving for the Aire Wharf league next year this Saturday was our last visit to that unique little ground. Nestled in the middle of Headingly it is hidden from the busy Otley road by a large hedge. With the church at the far side and the slope coming down to the pavilion it is almost a village cricket ground stuck in the city.

The weather was perfect for the cricket with lots of sunshine turning us all into lobsters by the end of the day. There were a couple of changes from last weeks team which had been comprehensively rolled over by Barwick. Peter Batty was back and Harry Jackson came in to replace Will Hodgkiss.

Milford skipper Paul Hebden once again won the toss and decided to bat. Another new opening batting partnership this week as Stu stepped down the order and Pete Batty was joined by Alex Ward. Alex may be the junior member of this batting pair but he dominated the 60 run partnership they put on. A lovely gimme of a ball 1st up settled him in and he seemed to farm the majority of the balls. By the time the 50 was reached in 74 balls Alex had faced 75% of them and was well into the 30’s.

Just as this pair looked to be set for a big score Peter was run out by a direct hit from Kasim Rehman. This making up a bit for Kasim having to retire from opening the bowling when he tweaked his knee after just 4 overs. Nothing wrong with his throwing arm though.

Dan White replaced Peter but was soon joining him back in the pavilion, another rash shot at the start of an innings finding a fielder. Just when we thought we were going to applaud Alex’s first half century of the season he holed out to Chad’s overseas player Tyler Johns.

Time now for what has become the traditional South Milford middle order batting collapse. From 60 for 1 we suddenly found ourselves in trouble at 95 for 5 at the 30 overs mark. Spinner Atiq Khan slowing down the scoring rate as he bowled from the pavilion end. His first nine overs only conceding 11 runs.

Not for the first time this season skipper Paul Hebden found himself having to rescue the innings, together with Billy Thompson they put on 74 precious runs for the 6th wicket. They managed to knock Khan off his line & length and then they both piled into Aussie Johns. Paul had just smacked Johns for a maximum when he top edged the next ball to the keeper. Shame.

Still this didn’t stop the momentum we had built up as Steve Winspear came in swinging. His new stance modelled on Jonny Bairstow doing the trick, as long as he doesn’t go ginger. Billy & Steve finished with a flourish putting on 30 runs in the last 3 overs. Milford’s innings closing on 195 for 6, amazing as at one time we looked like we might struggle to reach 150. A real boost to the moral to end the innings so positively and to cap it off Sam Thomas & Dan Ward found a new Pokémon in the undergrowth while routing for a ball. Two young lads playing Peekaboo in the bushes !!!!!

Probably best to gloss over the St Chads tea and say one thing I always look forward to when scoring at Chads is watching the airliners coming in to land at LBA. A couple of nice spots this afternoon were the British Airways Airbus A319 still in the 2012 Olympic Golden Bird livery, and Austrian Airlines Fokker F70 and a KLM Embraer 190.

The lower order fight back had left us with a total we could defend but our bowling had to be a bit more penetrative than last week. Dan White was much improved, pounding in down the hill from the church he looked really dangerous from the off. Getting plenty of pace and bounce he had opener Mathew Stevens caught in the slips with only his 4th ball.

Steve Winspear has had a really great season this year but I bet he has not often had his first ball of the afternoon smacked for 6. Well this is what Will Lander did and followed it up by smacking a second and two fours in Steve’s first two overs. Obviously a man who knows only one way to play. Fortunately for Milford Dan was having much more success at the other end picked up a brace of wickets in his 3rd order. He was almost unplayable at this stage.

Steve finally got his revenge on Lander thanks to a magnificent leaping catch by Dan Ward at deep midwicket. Chads batting were now really struggling and when Dan picked up his 3rd five wicket haul by trapping Aussie Tyler Johns LBW we looked home and dry. Everything was going our way, Dan Ward claiming a run out with some smart fielding and Peter Batty taking a brilliant diving catch which may well be the pick of the season.

Just as we were starting to get the champagne on ice St Chads started the fight back, wicket keeper Dave Crang and Atiq Khan starting to find the boundary and beyond. Khan hitting Sam Thomas for 17 off his opening over. Surely we couldn’t give it away at this stage ?

Skipper Paul Hebden then made a tactical masterstroke and swapped Sam to the church end and brought Winspear back on. This did the trick and Sam got Kahn caught by Dan White. He also trapped Crang LBW two overs later. Still Faisal Shah was defiant trying to keep the one legged Kasim Rehman off strike. He smashed Winspear for 14 runs to make us all wonder if he could pull off a remarkable victory. Alas it was not to be as he left Rehman to face a 2nd full over from Sam Thomas.

Rehman had seen his first over of Sam’s spin out quite comfortably but ball # 11 was one too far, he spooned a return up to mid-wicket and there was no way anyone else but Sam was claiming the catch.

Another great away win for Milford sees us now with 8 victories for the season. Well on our way to finishing with a better than 50% record. Hard fixtures in the next couple of weeks as we play the top teams in the division but with everyone chipping in we may well cause the odd upset.