The One That Got Away

For the second week running Milford couldn’t complete their innings due to rain, but to be honest they had plenty of chances to finish this game off well before the bad weather arrived after tea.

This week’s match was the long anticipated return local derby against our closet neighbors Sherburn Eversley. We had beaten them in the first half of the season at Sherburn and were looking forward to doing the same when they visited the Swan Croft. Even better news for us was this week they were struggling for a team having only 3 or 4 first team players available. So bad was the situation that they had to forfeit their 2nd team match against our 2nd team up at Sherburn. A bonus 6 points for our promotion chasing team.

The weather forecast was poor for Saturday with heavy overnight rain clearing till mid afternoon when it would return once again for the rest of the day. Our only hope for a result would be to win the toss, bowl them out cheaply and knock them off before the rain came. Luck was with us as the ground was still playable despite the heavy rain in the night, the wicket surprisingly hard. A number of other Wetherby League matches had not been so lucky.

To prove how reliable the weather forecast was the match started in bright sunshine, the wicket markings freshly applied by Bryan Ransome shone brightly. Bryan had made sure they were perfect this week so the umpires would have nothing to pick up on.

The Milford bowling attack was back to almost full strength this week with the return of Loz White and ‘Elmer’ Gee from their summer break, the only regular missing was Steve Winspear because of work commitments. Steve must have been disappointed to miss a chance to beat his former club.

Milford skipper Paul Hebden got the day off well by winning the toss and asked Sherburn to bat, it looked the perfect wicket for seam bowling. It was a little green and the heavy muggy moist air gave the promise of the ball moving all over the place. Should be a bowlers paradise.

So much for theories as the Milford bowlers failed to take advantage of the favourable conditions, true Will Martin & Paul Bell opening the batting for Sherburn struggled early on but it wasn’t till the 9th over that Milford made the breakthrough.

Once the first wicket fell Milford went on the rampage, in a 7 over period Sherburn found themselves 6 down with only 33 on the score board. The chief tormentor was Loz who had collected his 3rd five wicket haul of the season. Two wickets in successive balls started the route, the second a wonderful delivery which cleaned bowled the Sherburn skipper, Danny Midgley, for a golden duck.

Loz’s fifth wicket was almost an action reply of number 4 when Stuart Morley repeated his catch at short mid on off wicket keeper Dave Gowlett. The game looked like ours for the taking the only question was would Sherburn get more than 50 runs.

Scott Hudson came in at no. 6 and changed the game completely, always an attacking batsmen he was soon making the Milford bowling seem very ordinary. To be frank it was, leading wicket taker spinner Sam Thomas came on to replace veteran John Cain at the football ground end but was soon been carted to the boundary fence. To be fair the conditions probably didn’t suit spin today but his length and line was all over the place and even the change of ends didn’t help. It was probably the worse spell of bowling Sam has produced all season and Scott took full advantage.

Loz should probably have finished with even better figures than the 5 for 47 he did, two catches were dropped off his bowling after his fifth wicket. The first by Adam Gee was a really hard chance at square leg one handed way above his head but the second was a dolly. Sam Thomas failing to hold on at mid on to a firm shot from Dave Butler which went straight in his chest. As his Dad Dewi said, leaning against the wall, if it had been a pork pie he wouldn’t have dropped it. Perhaps it was a little pay back for earlier in the season when Loz dropped an easy catch of Sam’s bowling when he was looking for his 7th wicket against Kirk Hammerton. The lengths some people would stoop to make sure they have some silverware to collect at the end of the season……….

It is still a mystery how Milford let Sherburn off the hook, from 33 for 6 in the 15th over looking set for an easy win by over number 30 Sherburn were 132 not having lost another wicket. Scott Hudson and number 8 Adrian Priestley put on 83 for the 7th wicket. Scott in particular peppering Bryan Ransome’s house with big sixes. Scott reached his 50 off just 46 balls and was finally out for a wonderful 62.

Priestley continued his fine innings and together with Dave Butler, batting no. 9, put on another 55 runs. It was only the introduction into the attack of the in form Rob Peregrine which stopped the wagging Sherburn tail scoring even more. He picked up the wickets of both Priestley and Butler in his second over and the innings was finally closed when Dan White clean bowled former Milford 2nd teamer Tom Brook for a golden duck with a marvelous Yorker. Shame this was 100 runs too late.

The lower order batting of Sherburn had pushed them to a fairly respectable 177 all out but more importantly eaten up plenty of time, the weather now looking really threatening with grey all around and the constant threat of drizzle. Teas this week were provided by Martin Bramley and family. The savory selection must have been good as by the time the scorer made his way down it had pretty much been cleaned out, tuna been the only option left. Fortunately the cakes hadn’t taken the same battering and I can report the flapjack and fruit slice were delicious.

During the tea interval the rain arrived, it was light drizzle and it was decided to start the second innings. The umpires warned if it got any harder we would be off. Almost from the first ball the rain intensified and it was obvious by the 2nd over that the game wouldn’t be completed. With the sky now uniform dark grey and the rain now properly set in both captains shook hands.

So for the second week running Milford had been denied the chance of batting and chasing a total we were confident of reaching. A strong batting line up and 55 overs to reach the 178 total had made us confident also the lack of recognized bowlers in the Sherburn 11 had perhaps tipped the balance in our favor. Anyway we will never know, hopefully next week the weather will be kind and we will be able to get to bowl and bat when we visit Hillam.

(If your wondering this weeks picture is Hardy Kruger in the 1957 war file 'The One That Got Away' about Franz Von Werra the only German POW to escape during WW2)