Youth Cannot Stop Sicklinghall Double

This week South Milford must have fielded what was the youngest ever 1st team bowling attack. With certain players unavailable and others injured it was a very inexperienced bowling attack that tried to defend a very average total.

It has been a bad week for Milford bowlers, two ruling themselves out for perhaps the rest of the season. Both having themselves to blame. Sam Thomas forgot he has a shoulder as brittle as an Airfix kit and while playing rounders (what !!!) tried to throw overarm. Not only did he throw the ball but his ball out of the socket. Gareth Dodson forgot he is not 17 anymore and tried to jump over a fence. A badly bruised heel proved he was no longer a spring chicken….

This lack of bowling meant we had a twin Bramley spin attack this week, younger brother Charlie joining elder brother James for the first time.

The lack of bowlers meant on paper the Milford side was heavy on batting with recognized batsmen down to 9 on the card, perhaps with this in mind skipper Paul Hebden decided to bat first when he once again won the toss.

Like every other ground Sicklinghall was bone dry and like concrete, though the outfield was greener than ours back home. The weather though was overcast and it felt a little nippy, perhaps we had been spoilt with all the 25+ days recently that a 19-20 degree day felt chilly.

The Sicklinghall wicket certainly gave the bowlers plenty of help the bounce a little unpredictable, some keeping low others well over the batters head. None of the Milford batters looked comfortable on it and after a very slow start we were soon in trouble when opener Peter Batty was bowled for just 6. His partner, Stu Morley, joined him back in the shed with the score just 54. Stu was the top Milford scorer with 36 as the batting biased line up failed to fire.

Martin Bramley hung around but never looked comfortable, Ben White, fresh from the clubs first century of the season last week, picked out a fielder with a uppish cover drive. Joe Barr’s terrible run of form continued with his second duck in two matches. Billy Thompson couldn’t reproduce his form from the Wetherby Wrinklies and only skipper Paul Hebden showed any resistance in the lower order.

In fact Paul was left 33 not out when the tail failed to wag. Milford bowled out in the 42nd over for just 140. We would have to bowl exceptionally well to defend that, something closer to 170 or 190 would have been about par.

Sicklinghall provided very nice teas with a good selection of sandwiches but the star of the show was the home made semosa. A huge thing packed full but not greasy, quite spicy which came out a minute or two after you started to tuck into them.

Last time we played Sicklinghall at he beginning of the season it was Martin Wood who starred with 86 to win the match for them, this time it was his brother Andy along with fellow opener Matt Heatherly who took the game away from us.

The Milford bowling didn’t look anywhere as dangerous as Sicklinghall. Neither Joy Raynor or Dan Ward could get the unpredictable bounce that caused so many problems for us. Our cause not helped when Dan had to be taken out of the attack after been called for his 2nd above waist full toss. Perhaps a little harsh as the batsmen had taken three strides down the wicket to the delivery.

The twin Bramley spin attack didn’t rip through the batting. Sicklinghall opening batsmen had enough experience to wait for the inevitable bad ball the two youngsters bowled. James did have a couple of caught & bowled opportunities but could not cling on to them, when he did finally hold on to one the game was virtually over. Matt Heatherly having to depart for 70 with the score on 130.

Fittingly it was Andy Wood who won the game with a six off James. Typically as the match ended the sun finally decided to come out and another lovely evening was in prospect.

A second heavy defeat in a row for Milford and with the prospect of weaker teams been put out as the summer holidays start may mean we will struggle to reach the top 5 place we achieved last year.