1st XI
Matches
Sat 31 May 2014  ·  Division 2
Scholes
89
91/7
South Milford Cricket Club
1st XI
Mature Heads on Young Shoulders

Mature Heads on Young Shoulders

John Richardson5 Jun 2014 - 17:53
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For the second game running it was the younger members of our batting line up who saw us through to victory.

I have never been to Scholes CC when it isn't raining and when the wicket was flooded on Thursday evening it looked like that fact wouldn't change. The weather vastly improved after that and thought the ground was very soft and the outfield cut in a very unusual style the match was on.

It was due to stay dry all day but staying overcast. Milford were without still injured skipper Paul Hebden and vice captain Elmer Gee. Also missing was Andy Clark & the working Steve Winspear, so we had Gareth Dodson & John Cain in from the 2nd team to bolster the bowling and Alex Ward behind the stumps. Veteran John Cain had toiled all morning to make the teas for the 2nd team home match only to be called up at the last minute. Hopefully the Scholes teas would make up for not getting to sample his own. Well I say his own Christine told me he had only done the tuna sandwiches.... Peter Batty was also unavailable this week so Greg Handley replaced him at the top of the order.

With both skipper & vice not playing it was up to Stuart Morley to go out and toss. He proved to be a much better tosser than either Paul or Adam and made the no-brain decision of putting Scholes in. It would be very difficult to predict how the wicket would play considering how wet it was.

We opened the bowling with Loz and then John from the lane end. Loz claimed the first wicket in his third over thanks to a fantastic one handed diving catch by Greg Handley at point. The catch of the season so far. The next over veteran John Cain took his only wicket of the day bowling the Scholes wicket keeper Dan Ranasinghe.

The Scholes batting were very much under the cosh and Loz signed off his opening 6 overs from the far end with another wicket. Rob Peregrine replacing him, in a cunning bit of captaincy from Stuart. His thinking that the prevailing wind over the wicket would help Rob's natural movement. Loz swapped ends which not only seemed to confuse Loz but royally messed up the score book as I had expected Loz to be taking a well earned break after 2-6 off 6 overs.

It was obviously Stuart's day for making the correct decisions as Rob collected a wicket in his first over. Another catch from Greg, this one diving (falling) forward, not quiet in the grade of his first one but a good catch none the less. Loz then also picked up a wicket from his new end by bowling Scholes skipper James Biscombe. James was probably surprised Loz had managed to get one on the wickets after his first two were wides and the 4th ball had been smacked for his first conceded boundary.

Scholes were now deep in trouble and when Rob picked up his 2nd of the day the next over they were just 45 for 6. The wicket could not really be blamed for any of the dismissals, yes it was slow and a touch low but it was coming through pretty consistently.

As I mentioned earlier every decision Stuart was making seemed to be spot on today and replacing Loz with spinner Sam Thomas was yet another one. Sam getting a wicket with his 6th ball which broke the Scholes biggest partnership of the day. It was then Rob Peregrine who cleared up the Scholes tail. His nasty habit of bowling at the wickets saw him claim his 2nd five wicket haul of this league campaign. His 5 for 27 not quiet eclipsing his Ledsham performance but it was enough to see Scholes collapse to 89 all out inside 33 overs. Loz also coming away with a very creditable 3 for 26. Greg's acrobatic fielding saw him been awarded the fielding point.

Scholes teas were excellent and the old favourite of the strawberry & cream scone made an appearance. Veteran John Cain didn't let on if they were better than the ones our 2nd team would be enjoying.

So with just 90 runs needed for the win we went out to bat. Sometimes it can be easier to chase a real big score than some easy looking targets. Plus we had an additional 13 overs on top of the usual 45 in which to get them. Stuart opened the batting along with Greg.

Scholes quicky Mark Ford was determined not to make this easy for Milford and bowled a real beauty to send Greg back to the pavilion. Ford is certainly the fastest we have faced so far this year. He is very compact and comes off a very nice tidy run up. When the wickets get hard and fast he will certainly be a handful.

All of a sudden Milford were deep in trouble, Ford had picked up his 4th wicket getting Dan White to edge one to the keeper. The score was 28 for 5 and our in form batsmen, Stuart & Rob Peregrine were back in the shed watching the situation becoming more and more serious.

Robs batting seems either to be famine or drought, his second duck of the season today a lovely gold colour. A Ford delivery was helped into the gloves of the keeper.

On the previous Tuesday in the Senior Evening Cup it was Alex Ward and Ben White who saw us home to a rather unexpected win against Garforth PC, who thought their 162 had been more than sufficient. Another similar partnership was needed if we were going to have any chance of getting the win, which seemed a formality at tea time.

Ben's batting has been a revelation this year. He had bit of a reputation as been nothing but a slogger but this year it seems the brain of a batsmen has been implanted alongside the slogger. Playing some lovely shots he batted Mark Sirrell out of the attack and frustrated Michael Ford so much that he collected his 2nd umpire's warning for bowling full tosses.

Alex also deserves a lot of credit, though only scoring 13 no he made sure Ben could try to push the score on. His defence was rock solid and a drop in the field by Scholes only helped. Alex & Ben's partnership of 33 was the match winner as it caused the Scholes fielders heads to drop as we inched closer and closer to the 90 runs needed.

Having praised Ben's batting he really needs to learn to run his bat in. Going for a third run he was given out for the best score of the day 28. If he was in or out is debatable but the fact he had his bat waving around rather than gouging a furrow down the wicket must have raised doubt in the umpires mind.

Next in was Sam Thomas and he continued in the same vein as Ben. He really should have had the been there at the end but missed a straight one with just three runs needed. So it was Gareth Dodson who got the applause as he smashed a real pie for 4 to claim us the win.

A fantastic win for Milford and another example of the younger members of the team really pulling their weight and making significant contributions to the successes. We will see if next week we can finally get a home league match as the weather gods at the moment seem to only want us to play away.

Match details

Match date

Sat 31 May 2014

Kickoff

13:30

Competition

Division 2
Team overview
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