Waverley nudge to victory

Summer seemed to have well and truly arrived in the picturesque village of Lynchmere, with a beautiful day greeting the Waverley eleven. Marcus Carmichael ("MC"), Dan Nicholls ("The Handy Batsman"), Simon Brewer ("KV"), Peter Brewer ("Mr B"), Jason Trimmer ("JT"), Simon Knox ("Chewy"), Adrian Day ("Mog"), Adam Carmichael ("AC"), Laura Brewer ("Loz") and Will Knox ("Will, son of Knox") had to dig out the sunscreen for the first time this season. Also making her Waverley début was Stacey Knox ("Stacey, daughter of Knox"), becoming only the third lady to represent the club on the pitch.

After winning the toss and electing to field in this timed game, Mog opened the bowling along with AC. In what became a theme of the home side's innings, the boundary proved largely unreachable thanks to a combination of accurate bowling and excellent fielding from Waverley (the opposition singling out The Handy Batsman, MC and Stacey, daughter of Knox, for particular praise after the game). AC in particular was enjoying bowling with the slope and picked up the first wicket with a loose shot chipped into the covers, duly pouched by The Handy Batsman. With boundaries still at a premium and the run rate proceeding at barely a crawl, AC struck again a few overs later - a good catch from Mog, who was for some reason standing next to the umpire at the bowler's end. When MC pouched a skied chance at square leg (again off AC's bowling), the visitors were firmly in command. Mog had bowled a tidy spell without reward and had introduced Chewy, who maintained Waverley's iron-grip on the run rate. This forced the batsmen to take risks but they were made to pay when attempting a run to MC in the covers, who threw down the stumps at the bowler's end with a direct hit. Chewy soon got his name in the book with a wicket of his own and the home side were reeling when they lost another wicket to AC's bowling, this one a well-taken catch by Will, son of Knox. AC then completed his five wicket haul with an away-swinging delivery that crashed into the top of off-stump. Mr B, replacing AC, soon got himself in amongst the wickets by first making a mess of the stumps, then trapping another man LBW. Will, son of Knox was given a do with the ball and after a couple of cracking deliveries, he was rewarded with a wicket thanks to a sharp catch by AC at short fine leg. With that wicket, Lynchmere were dismissed with a score of 132.

The tea was excellent (including a selection of cakes that Jim Jam would surely have died for) and a fed and watered Waverley looked to commence the chase with MC and The Handy Batsman. MC's four ball knock was an innings-worth of entertainment in itself: a text-book leave, a glorious back foot cover drive, a streaky edge through gully and finally a thin edge behind to the keeper. KV joined The Handy Batsman and a platform was built, The Handy Batsman in particular farming the bowling to maximum effect. KV chipped in with some useful runs but found himself back in the pavilion after holing out to deep extra cover. Mr B was the next man to play a valuable supporting role to The Handy Batsman (who was continuing to accumulate runs), but he too was eventually well-caught in the covers. The Handy Batsman was more than living up to his moniker and soon brought up his half-century. Although Waverley had their share of luck (the home side managing to clean bowl The Handy Batsman and, later, Chewy off of no-balls), the victory target was creeping ever closer. However, there was a mini-collapse as The Handy Batsman, JT and Chewy all trooped back to the pavilion in reasonably short order. By this stage only 22 runs were needed for victory, with Mog and AC duly chipping away at the total. They succeeded in levelling the scores before Mog holed out in the covers. With one run needed for victory, Loz strode to the crease and with her second delivery she executed the perfect slip-drive to score the winning run and leave Waverley victorious by three wickets.

The Man of the Match Hat was jointly awarded this week to both AC and The Handy Batsman, for their efforts with ball and bat respectively. The *Anchor Hat was presented to Loz for a swallow dive in the field that Smithy would have been proud of. There was no award of the Supporters' Egyptian Hieroglyph Pink T-shirt as a testament to Waverley's prowess in the field, although Mr B did win the Pink T-shirt for saying something along the lines of "look at that nice butterfly". Proof that appreciating the beauty of nature cuts no ice at Waverley...