It’s getting towards the end of the season and this week saw us travel to Scarcroft. A long time since I have been there, a nice looking ground in a strange setting. It sits in the grounds of what used to be the YEB headquarters. So to get to the ground you need to get through a security barrier and then park in the staff carpark. Not a lot of atmosphere at the ground as they get very little support from the village. It may all change in the future as the current landlords, Npower, are planning on shutting the offices and selling up.
Poor weather as well, the wind was really roaring through the trees which circle the ground and showery rain was constantly been pushed over the ground. One such shower delayed the start of the match by 10 mins and caused another 5 mins delay halfway through the 1st innings. Though most of the showers were so brief they were gone before we could get off the field.
Perhaps we were fielding our strongest first team as we had Dan Ward and Sean Nesbitt returning this week. Captain Paul Hebden lost the toss and Scarcroft decided to have a bat.
The Scarcroft wicket was perfect for bowling been hard, fast and bouncy. Nice and juicy from the rain and with a strong wind blowing across it helping swing into or away from the batsmen, depending which end you were bowling from.
It seemed Scarcroft had made the wrong choice when they were 28 for 3 inside 12 overs. Steve Winspear picking up 2 wickets and a tidy bit of ground fielding from Dan White saw Anas Initias run out.
Runs were hard to come by even though the outfield was like lightning. We could have had Scarcroft in real difficulty if we had held our catches. At least 5 went down, Stu Morley shelling 2 in sthe slips, Harry Jackson dropping a caught & bowled chance. Perhaps the worst one was Alex Ward’s juggle behind the stumps. That could have gone down as about 5 missed catches as he juggled it. By the end it seemed harder to drop it then actually take the catch. How embarrassing.
Alex made up for it later when he knocked Harry out of the way to catch Mike Young. The ball went up high to cover and both Alex & Harry ran towards it. They called for it at exactly the same time and then Alex punched Harry in the face as he reached out for the ball with his gloves. Harry bounced off Alex and ended on his bum with a bewildered expression on his face. Still he got another wicket in the bag.
Dan White showed the rest of the team how to take a catch when he held on to a real monster that went high into the gusty wind and almost cleared the boundary at long off. Milford once again had Scarcroft in trouble at 123 for 8 but their tail wagged well and by the time we had them all out the total had risen to 170. Sean Nesbitt claiming most of the last wickets and finishing with his best of the season 4 for 26 off 9 overs.
If the Milford bowling & fielding had been a mixture of good & bad the batting was just bad. With a fairly modest total to chase and 3 extra overs in which to get them we looked in good shape to collect all 6 points. Well the first 5 overs of our innings made that prediction look silly.
Scarcroft bowled really well with both pace & bounce proving too much for the Milford batters. Alex Ward tamely picking out a fielder with his 4th ball, Pete Batty got trapped LBW on his 6th ball and Dan White swished an edge to the keeper when he had just scored 3. Oh dear, 6 for 3.
It got worse when Ben White gave a simple return catch to the bowler after a very un-characteristic innings of 4 in 21 balls. Stuart Morley and captain Paul Hebden tried to rescue the innings but that proved to be beyond them. Paul did manage a couple of lovely sixes clipped off his hip but both himself and Stu fell when on 18.
The lower order failed to spark. The last three batsmen getting ducks. Harry Jackson the most unlucky when called for an impossible single by Sean Nesbitt and failing to make his ground.
So bowled out for our lowest total of the season 65. Hopefully this is just a blip and we finish what has so far been a very successful first season back in division 1 with some good cricket. Still with current league leaders Kirk Deighton due at the Swan Croft next weekend we certainly need to pull our socks up when it comes to batting.