Team Mitcham - Saturday 26 July 2014
Result: Roe Bats won by 7 runs
Mark lost the toss and after a 40 minute snooze whilst we waited for the opponents to get a full compliment of players, we eventually got the game under way. It turns out the reason we'd never beaten them is in part because they have some really good players, two of which were opening the bowling. After 4 consecutive maidens got the innings off to a 'flying' start, Joe and Mark decided that they might have to start blindly swinging. Unfortunately Joe was swiftly bowled, and it was the start of a somewhat troublesome day for the soon groom-to-be. Little did the opening bat know that he would only make contact with the ball once all day, and when he did it would be with his collarbone.
Mark and Nelson, (who is sneakily and successfully trying to steal the top run scorer accolade from the skipper this season), spent the next five overs trying to locate bat on ball, with limited success. However, we eventually got going and built a useful partnership. Mark perished trying to charge the bowler whereupon Sho continued with Nelson and built a big partnership.
The rest of the innings continued at a reasonable run rate as Thewsberry and Bryn 'the Aussie' argued and scrambled their way through the later overs, adding some important runs. In a last roll of the dice debutant Fraser came to the crease and smashed a more than useful 25 from 11 deliveries.
Now, there was an incident in the final over of the day. And this was to set the precedent for the rest of the day's play. Skipper Evans decided to get on his high horse and call a bowler for 'chucking'. Little did he know at the time that said bowler had played a high level of club cricket, and did not take kindly to the 'No Ball' from the Ego. Skip also didn't realise that the bowler was also their stand-out batter, and perhaps, upon reflection, he should have ignored the chucking and just got on with a nice friendly game of cricket.
To a backdrop of some tension, the Bats finished on 193.
The Bats started strongly in the field with Harris taking an early wicket. Soon after skip decided to 'take the pace off the ball', and not surprisingly this involved bowling himself for a long and uninterrupted spell. They say bowling is about building pressure through partnerships (as well and wanging the ball down on a good length). And so Shoaban and Skip proceeded to try and metaphorically strangle the opposition, with Sho limiting the runs at one end whilst Evans did the tough part and actually took some wickets.
As fate would have it, the bowler who was called for chucking arrived at the crease whilst Evans was bowling, and promptly smashed him over a nearby tree for a first ball six. That'll teach Evans to open his big gob. Nevertheless he proceeded with his dibbly dobbly bowling, despite the raging batter at the other end. Fraser 'politely' asked the batter if he would like to hit the bowler back over the tree again, as if to check that it wasn't a fluke. Evans tossed up a slightly slower ball, **his stock delivery**, and the wide eyed batter leant back and took an almighty heave ho. The sound of wood on ball sounds so pleasing, as proved to be the case as the leg stump bail was gently rocked from its perch. It was our very own 'mind them windows Tino' moment.
As various Newquay hotel staff will attest, however, (#
With 5 overs to go Mitcham needed 50 runs to win with only two wickets remaining. One ball was hoisted high in the air and Matthews confidently belted out his name and ran round to catch it. Unfortunately he then tried to catch it with his collarbone and discovered that it really hurts when you try to do that. He was swiftly moved to a safer fielding spot to protect his throbbing neck/shoulder but the Mitcham guys spotted his weakness and sought him out. On Joe's next attempt to stop the ball he was seen scrambling around on the floor on his hands and knees like an asphyxiated fish as the ball slowly trickled its way over the boundary, his mind clearly already in Philadelphia, and his body by now wishing it was as well.
Thankfully the Bats had a full compliment of brilliant bowlers on their A game. Harris completed a superb closing spell and Tom held up his end excellently on his Bats debut.
Two overs to go and 26 needed, you'd think the victory was ours, but it wasn't until 4 balls to go that their no.10 hoisted up a high ball that Shoaban 'chicken fingers' Nair took with ease that the Bats finally had their victory. He doesn't hold many, just the ones that matter.
A hard fought and competitive game eventually went our way. A big mention needs to go to the few new players who have been playing recently since they've really improved our ability to compete against the stronger sides we play; thanks to Ben Harris, Lawrence DS, Tom B, Tom W, Fraser and Oli, as well as to Team Mitcham for providing a competitive game as always.
We've come a long way since the Ben Brown days... thank The Lord he's gone.
Roehampton Bats: 193 for 8 (35 overs)
Team Mitcham: 186 all out (34.2 overs)
Result: Roehampton Bats win by 7 runs
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| O | M | R | W | |
| Harris | 7 | 0 | 29 | 3 |
| James | 5 | 1 | 28 | 0 |
| Cox | 5 | 0 | 32 | 0 |
| Evans | 7 | 0 | 27 | 4 |
| Nair | 6 | 0 | 23 | 0 |
| Willis | 3 | 0 | 16 | 1 |
| Nelson | 2.2 | 0 | 16 | 2 |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Southbank CC - Saturday 5 July 2014
Result: Roe Bats won by 76 runs
Last Saturday saw another dubious attempt at summer from the English skies. The Bats’ weather talisman (Thewsy), however, was on site to defy the rain once more. We opened the batting in slightly chilly conditions, but the rain, for the moment anyway, held off.
Joe ‘The Red Fireball’ Matthews took the strike with Sparky at the other end. The lads opened confidently and were looking like digging in for the rest of the slightly dark afternoon, when Joe played off the back foot (apparently following his captain’s advice) and unluckily got caught on 12.
Mark welcomed Bryn to the crease, who casually ignored a couple of poor balls as they skidded past off stump. The crowd suggested he was looking comfortable. Then, out of nowhere, tragedy struck. The last ball of the over looked to be following suit, when, according to umpire Duncan, it turned a miraculous 45 degrees back towards the stumps, clipped the inside edge of Bryn’s bat and danced onto the stumps.
The crowd was getting nervous. Chris definitely looked up from reading The Mirror at one point.
The rest of the innings followed a similar pattern. With the skies darkening and Ed Davison muttering something about pathetic fallacy, Sparky stood his ground as the rest came and went. Other than Sparky, only Nelson, Thewsy and Hayden scored above ten runs.
With the rain beginning and steadily getting heavier, The Mighty Bats stood firm. Rain could never quench the fire that dwelt zealously in the hearts of these gallant men. Whether it was the rain or whether he just didn’t want to miss out the cake he’d heard they were serving at tea, Sparky decided he’d done enough. Looking on track to hit a ton, a tidy piece of footwork saw him caught and bowled on 81. Still, not a bad knock for the old fella – he did manage a strike rate of 91.0 getting his 81 off 89 balls. And he did get his extra piece of cake.
The rest of the wickets fell quickly before the rain sent everyone inside with only 38 overs completed.
Lunch was lovely. Great pavilion too. A cup of tea during a rainy English summer’s day was just the ticket and the game continued as the rain abated.
Controversially, the Bat’s bowling had to be completed on the artificial wicket due to rain softening the original wicket. Thewsy said this was ‘just not cricket’ and Davison looked appalled at such a ‘non-crickety’ version of the gentlemen’s sport.
Harris opened very well and after a slip or too, so did Davison. 3 wickets each at least by the end of the game. They controlled the game well and the Bats looked good. Bryn was banned from suggesting ‘it was in the bag’… apparently the last time he said this, ‘it’ somehow managed to crawl back out of the bag and score a lot of runs.
Jimmy D followed the openers with Mark ‘The Ego’ Evans deciding he’d not had enough cricket for the day and wanted to bowl as well as bat the entire innings. Jimmy looked sublime, tricking all the batsmen into thinking the ball was spinning and The Ego helped a bit too.
Valiant were the men of the Mighty Bats this far-from-fine-Saturday afternoon, and victory was achieved by 76 runs just in time to see if there was any of that lovely cake still left in the pavilion. There wasn’t. There was Fosters though. This made young Jimmy D happy.
Words: Bryn Murphy
Roehampton Bats: 183 for 9 (38 overs)
Southbank: 107 all out (29 overs)
Result: Roehampton Bats win by 76 runs
Batting:
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| O | M | R | W | |
| Harris | 8 | 2 | 32 | 4 |
| Davison | 6 | 2 | 22 | 3 |
| Evans | 4 | 0 | 14 | 1 |
| Duncan | 8 | 3 | 22 | 1 |
| Nelson | 3 | 1 | 14 | 1 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Old Wimbledonians - Saturday 14 June 2014
Result: Roe Bats won by 4 wickets
The Bats went into the game at Old Wimbledonians looking to get back on track after back-to-back reverses to Down Under Dragons and Team Mitcham. Most of us made it there in decent time with the exception of Junior who unfortunately had the wicket keeping gear (large fine noted for the end of the season). By the time that he casually strolled in at around 1.30 we had already won the toss and were waiting impatiently to field.
The Wimbledonians’ openers made a solid if unspectacular start, and it took the arrival of the Bats’ supremo Aussie spinner James Duncan to make the breakthrough in the 15th over. A second wicket soon followed off the bowling of Sam Nelson and the opposition were 70-2 off 16 overs. The introduction of Tom Brunner brought two more wickets and with 10 overs left RBCC were looking in a good position with the opposition 152-4.
The last 10 overs of the innings, however, saw some big hitting from the Wimbledonians’ middle order, and with the primary bowlers used up and intended opening bowling Lawrence D’Silva unable to bowl due to a mysterious case of “shoulder knack” (very large fine also noted), the captain was forced to do the unthinkable and bowl himself. It was agreed by all present (at least I think it was) that the poor consequences were squarely the fault of club captain Mark Evans for having given the previously reliable medium pacer no bowling time whatsoever over the past two seasons. Sam Nelson also received some rough treatment from the batsmen and the Wimbledonians piled on the runs late on to finish on a sizeable 263-4 from their 40 overs. The Bats had bowled quite well until the final 10 overs of the innings with Ben Harris and Andrew Dixon unlucky not to pick up any wickets. This left the Bats with the sizeable task of chasing down a club record 264 to win, but a favourable pitch and decent batting line-up meant this was far from an impossibility.
This labour, however, appeared somewhat more Herculean with the early loss of first Watson (4) and then D’Silva (1) to the Wimbledonians’ attack. Matthews was bowled by Gardner for 27 and when Dixon followed three overs later for 18 the Bats were in deep trouble at 71-4 off 15 overs.
This left skipper Thew and his deputy Sam Nelson with the task of building a Bats’ innings to put them in with a shout of the match. Having seen each other in the very worst of situations outside fried chicken establishments in Leeds during university years, however, and more than once having looked into the abyss of one another’s souls during the course of many a boozy European weekender, the pair had mutual faith that they had ability to do just that.
And so it proved, with a dogged partnership of 123 following over the course of the next 20 overs. When Thew was bowled for 52 looking to up the run rate with 7 overs left, the Bats were indeed in with a shout but still looking at a required run rate of just under 10 an over. At this point, Nelson channelled all the brute strength and focused fury of his hero Duncan Ferguson to smash the Wimbledonians bowlers to all corners of the ground (i.e. cow corner and square leg). After the fall of Bob Tinsley (2), Nelson was supported ably by Ben Harris (making his first club appearance with the bat) and after a tense last 5 overs the Bats knocked off the runs with 5 balls to spare.
Nelson’s superb 98 not out left him just short of joining the long list of RBCC centurions engraved into the immortal honours board at Mark’s house (i.e. Mark and the American bloke on our crest), but with performances like this, it surely won’t be long until the young Tintin lookalike finds himself up there as well.
Old Wimbledonians: 263 for 4 (40 overs)
Roehampton Bats: 264 for 6 (39.1 overs)
Result: Roehampton Bats win by 4 wickets
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Team Mitcham - Saturday 7 June 2014
Result: Roe Bats lost by 3 wickets
I doubt any of us seriously thought waking up on Saturday morning that we would be playing cricket that day. As thunder and lightning flashed and boomed overhead, and the rain came pouring down, we sat anxiously refreshing our email, waiting for confirmation of what we already knew to be true... Then we remembered Adam was captain. Adam's a glass half-full sort of chap (even if that glass is half-full of muddy rainwater), and it was pronounced that we should assume the game was on. So brave Bats players all over London donned their Wellington boots and macintoshes for a journey we were all sure would end with the game being cancelled and us being in the pub by half 1...
Oh what fools we were. The pitch was damp and a little muddy, but surprisingly playable, and by the time we had arrived the cloud had cleared, and the sun was shining. I believe we lost the toss and were put into bat, Matthews and Williamson the first men to brave the quagmire. The openers were lively enough, but despite the early triggering of Williamson by Dixon, the Bats made a solid start. The runs were coming (albeit rather slowly), and having received a few let-offs already, Matthews holed out to long-off for 23. That bought Thew to the crease, who considerably upped the run rate with a fine knock of 31 off just 24 deliveries. His dismissal (thanks to a frustratingly excellent catch at point - ed.,) was swiftly followed by that of Bryn, with Tinsley following suit a couple of overs later. The Bats were in trouble. Next man in: Andrew Dixon, resplendent in clean whites after last week's skins and jumper combo (thanks go to Dixon's mum for washing his kit for him). There was a palpable sense of anticipation among the Bat's players and supporters as he made his way to the middle; could he translate his fine form with the ball into a big innings? No, Dixon making that fatal mistake of placing one's leg before one's wicket. Karma? Some may say so (Nick...). In came Davison to support Nelson, who's languid, almost lazy batting style was paying dividends (if you think he's lazy playing cricket then you should see him on the football field - ed.,), as he set about taking apart Team Mitcham's bowling attack, ably supported by Ed, who has helping himself to some big boundaries of his own. Scoring at a comfortable 6 an-over, they had propelled the Bats to a handsome-enough 162 off their 35 overs, Nelson's 41 off 41 the pick of the batting.
There is something unsettling about a game of cricket without a proper tea, but as we sat down to tuck into our Tesco meal deals (tea of the day goes to Nick for his takeaway curry) we were feeling optimistic.
And with seemingly good reason, as Dixon and Ben Harris tore into the top order, with some fine catches from behind from Ed and Nick reducing the oppo to 23 - 4. "Catches win matches!" some idiot shouted, "we've got this in the bag" chimed Bryn, somewhat prematurely. For the following 10 overs saw some devastating big hitting, with every bowler brought into the attack treated to the same bludgeoning treatment, and before we could blink, Mitcham had gone past 100 without further loss. We knew the chances would come... And come they did, Bob spilling three tricky ones in the deep (that's a very generous description - ed.,) before redeeming himself to remove danger man no. 1 off the bowling of Watson, whose flighted left arm spin was looking like it could make the breakthrough... And moments later it looked like it had, danger man no. 2 sending one straight to Matthews at long-off. He could hear the congratulatory cries of his team mates in his ears, could feel the patting of hands on his back... Only to see the ball fall inexplicably to the grass, and with it his team's hopes of victory, for the following two balls were heaved mercilessly over the rope for 6. As he trudged forlornly across the pitch, this was a time for some comforting words, some words of encouragement. Dixon, spotting a team-mate in trouble was quick to oblige. "That's the game right there mate" he said. Cheers pal!
It didn't take long for Mitcham to finish the job, the pick of their batsmen hitting a massive 88 not out runs off a mere 41 balls to devastate the Bats' total in just 20 overs. We didn't even get drinks...
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| O | M | R | W | |
| Dixon | 7 | 0 | 43 |
3 |
| Harris | 5 | 0 | 39 | 1 |
| Davison | 4 | 0 | 32 | 0 |
| Watson | 3 | 0 | 38 | 1 |
| Nelson | 2.5 | 0 | 10 | 2 |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Down Under Dragons - Saturday 31 May 2014
Result: Roe Bats lost by 35 runs
The Bats arrived at their new adopted home of Fishponds, in sunny Tooting, looking for a third successive victory. The pitch could have done with a roll (and some weedkiller…), the changing rooms were hot enough to make milk curdle, and the lack of a scoreboard led to a rather sophisticated method of relaying score information, i.e. shouting it out as load as you could every few overs. Team enthusiast Adam Thew had this to say “It’s all Marks fault for not booking Regents Park.”
Anyway, the side that stood between The Bats and the almost legendary status that 3 wins in a row would bring, was Down Under Dragons. You’ll never guess where they were from…
I don’t actually know who won the toss, but we ended up bowling first, with Dixon steaming in from one end, looking to build on his impressive start to the season, and Davison coming in from the other, looking to recover from the trauma of many dropped catches the week before. The bowling was good, but Dragons got off to a fast start, until Dixon made the breakthrough with the score on 35. Dragons kept the scoreboard moving well until the introduction of the mercurial Sho, who showed all the guile and cunning one can only accrue from many, many, many years experience (as well as his patented ‘early release’ delivery), to take 4 for 32 off his 8 overs and despite a fast start, the Bats had put a strangle hold on the innings. Useful spells from Duncan, De Silva and Evans completed the job and after a dangerous start, the Dragons had collapsed to 167 all out.
The mood over tea was one of cautious optimism, as well as relief that we had contained them to a very chaseable target. Matthews and Williamson took to the crease knowing they would need to improve on their somewhat pedestrian run rate from the previous game. For the first few overs at least, it seemed to be going to plan, with quick running between the wickets and some early boundaries from Matthews giving the Bats a fast start, until somewhat predictably he started to get carried away and decided to try and hit a straight one over cow corner. Bye bye off stump. That brought Captain Evans to the crease and he and Williamson kept the score moving nicely until Williamson fell to Rup for 20.
Sho came and went, but then, for 18 glorious minutes all of South London was treated to the booming voice of Thew. “YES, NO, WAIIIITTINNG!” he shouted; never has a call been so clear and thundering. Until it wasn’t. Tooting once more fell silent, Thew caught for 10. The Bats run rate was no cause for concern, the wickets down however was. This was a time for diligence, a time for calm, a time to bat out the overs; as epitomised by Nelson, who showed great staying power to bat for an hour in difficult circumstances. And so it was that Davison came to the stumps, with caution in his mind. He should be commended for showing the restraint to leave a ball he saw as no threat... except a ball that is hitting your off stump is usually a ball worth offering a shot too. Too many Bats’ men got in, then got out. Or just got out (Sho, Bryn and Davison all failing to trouble the non-existent score board) and even a fine innings of 30 from De Silva was not enough to see the Bats home, as they were bowled out for 132.
Words: Joe Matthews
Down Under Dragons: 167 all out (36.5 overs)
Roehampton Bats: 132 all out (33.1 overs)
Result: Down Under Dragons win by 35 runs
Bowling:
|
|
O |
M |
R |
W |
|
Dixon |
6 |
2 |
22 |
3 |
|
Davison |
5 |
0 |
27 |
0 |
|
Nair |
8 |
1 |
32 |
3 |
|
Duncan |
8 |
1 |
36 |
2 |
|
Evans |
2.5 |
1 |
4 |
2 |
|
Nelson |
2 |
0 |
15 |
0 |
|
D'Silva |
4 |
0 |
28 |
0 |
Batting:
| ROEHAMPTON BATS (33.1 overs) | ||||||
| BATSMAN | STATUS | RUNS | BALLS | 4s | 6s | S/R |
| Joe Matthews | b arjun | 11 | 11 | 2 | 100.00 | |
| Nick Williamson (wk) | lbw b rup | 20 | 34 | 2 | 58.82 | |
| Mark Evans (c) | c makin b chris | 20 | 29 | 3 | 68.97 | |
| Shoaban Nair | b rup | 0 | 7 | 0.00 | ||
| Adam Thew | c makin b chris | 10 | 13 | 1 | 76.92 | |
| Bryn | c chris b rup | 0 | 2 | 0.00 | ||
| Sam Nelson | b arjun | 16 | 56 | 2 | 28.57 | |
| Ed Davison | b rup | 0 | 3 | 0.00 | ||
| Lawrence da silva | b arjun | 30 | 38 | 4 | 78.95 | |
| Andrew Dixon | c dave b rup | 7 | 9 | 77.78 | ||
| James Duncan | not out | 0 | 0 | |||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Whalers - Sunday 25 May 2014
Result: Roe Bats won by 2 wickets
Sunday 25th May saw the Bats add a new fixture to their schedule. The opposition were The Whalers CC, based in Chiswick. We never quite found out why they had chosen that particular name (perhaps because we failed to ask) but one thing was for sure – they were men of finesse and sophistication, unlikely to be taking a weekend away from the oceans. That and they never mentioned Moby Dick.
So, on a glorious day at King’s House Sports Ground, the ten-man Bats offered a debut to Lawrence Da Silva, a lithe new recruit, who was quickly called on with the ball in hand after a tight(ish) opening spell from Davison and Harris (also making his first competitive Bats appearance). Da Silva immediately found his rhythm and alongside notable spells from Dashwood, imparting some lofty flight and real purchase on the ball, and the ever-reliable skipper, Evans, the Bats were soon amongst the wickets. In fact, by the return of Harris after 30 overs, there was only one more wicket required and he soon accounted for that with a hostile return to the attack, steaming in from the West with the wind in his sails (whaling analogy now provided). Following a slick performance in the field (notwithstanding two drops from Davison) the Whalers had been reduced to 127 all out. Da Silva impressed with four wickets and was ably supported by the remainder of the attack with Dashwood claiming 2 scalps, Harris 2 and Evans one. Suffice to say tea was enjoyed both for its excellent variety and flavour but also for preceding what we assumed would become a comfortable victory…
Little did we know. With excellent spirit and no shortage of skill, the Whalers took to the field with Khalil and Lucas spearheading an economical opening spell. Williamson and Matthews showed fortitude in negotiating the first ten overs and the slowness of the outfield was emphasised by the free-scoring Matthews finding his runs coming in the unusual form of ones and twos. After the wicket of Williamson, Watson strode in confidently proclaiming to his comrades ‘don’t worry lads I’ll sort out the run rate’! Well, fortune favours the brave and surely Watson’s day in the sun will come but this was not to be it. Five overs later Thew was called upon and, to our concern, the required run rate was creeping up. The Thew / Matthews axis began to address our concerns with energetic running between the wickets. Matthews was finally caught, having been granted one reprieve a few overs earlier, heralding Tinsley’s charge to the crease. Tinsley provided a physical presence although this author is not sure he offers much more than that. Nevertheless, he did manage to squirt four runs from four balls before falling foul of a direct hit when anything else would have seen him safe. The heat of the sun, which we had been basking in happily over tea, suddenly seemed to take on a barbarous ferocity sapping the energy out of our lithe young players. Davison was next to enter the foray and the required rate had now crept up to 6 an over. Thew was bowled by Kamal early into the partnership after accumulating 15 and now Dashwood was called upon to step on the gas. Between them the two ‘Ds’ managed to keep the Bats in touch until, with 5 overs remaining, both fell in quick succession. It was now left to Evans and Da Silva to score at 5.5 an over every over. This was certainly a time to be grateful for the composure of our skipper and debutante. With minimal fuss both players accrued runs at a steady lick and when Da Silva struck a lusty blow to the last ball of the penultimate over it was left to ‘Sparky’ to find a single in the final throes. The field was brought in and the tension was palpable. A lesser man may have faltered but our captain and muse penetrated the field with gusto and brought the Bats a deserved win in the nick of time.
So, another fixture navigated and our unbeaten start to the season continues but we are not without our faults and we continue to reflect both individually and collectively as we search for that rarest of birds, cricketing perfection.
Words: Ed Davison
The Whalers: 127 all out (30.4 overs)
Roehampton Bats: 128 for 7 (34.1 overs)
Result: Roehampton Bats win by 2 wickets
Bowling:
O | M | R | W | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Davison | 4 | 0 | 17 | 0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Harris | 5.4 | 1 | 28 | 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
D'Silva | 7 | 1 | 29 | 4 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Evans | 7 | 2 | 26 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Matthews | 3 | 0 | 19 | 0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dashwood | 4 | 1 | 8 | 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Batting:
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sheen Park - Saturday 17 May 2014
Result: Roe Bats won by 58 runs
The bats took on Sheen Park in a belated first game. The Bats lost the toss and were put in to bat. Now, the last time we played Sheen Park, they had us at 24-5 off 10 overs, so we were a little worried about the potential battering that might have been on the cards. However the few Arsenal fans we have in the team saw the positives of a potential hammering with the FA Cup kicking off at 5pm.
Joe and Mark opened the batting, and Joe carved his 2nd ball beautifully through the covers for a couple of runs. Unfortunately his 4th ball kept low and came off the toe of the bat and onto the stumps. This was our first indication that the pitch was going to be on the inconsistent side.
No worries though because Sho arrived at the crease and thus ensued a partnership between the all time Bats leading run scorers. Sho hogged the strike but it did not matter because he played an array of attacking shots amidst the occasional LBW shout. The partnership was brought to an end in the 17th over as Sho was eventually given LBW for 30. Sam Nelson carried on Sho's good work and another healthy partnership ensued. After 20 overs we had 85 runs, useful in the circumstances. They had 4 medium pacers who were accurate and moving the ball off the pitch (or the pitch was moving the ball, either way the ball was moving).
Mark perished on 45 and Sam went a couple of overs later as the Bats tried to push the rate. Dixon arrived and mashed a huge 6 into the trees, impressive considering the big boundaries. At the other end Justyn made contact with the ball on a regular basis but never seemed to fancy taking the run. Then the wickets started to tumble as Pak, the Sheen bowler took 4-13 with some accurate bowling. The last batsman to go was debutant Brunner, smashing a ball back at the bowler who deflected it to the mid off for an impressive tag team catch.
Bats finished on 168, a competitive total.
Well ..A competitive total unless the Dixon express is in town.
And that it was.
Dixon, fresh from an off season training camp in one (or all) of the Bedfordshire night clubs, steamed (and occasionally rolled) in from the tree end, destroying one batter after another. Once Dixon's 8 overs were over the game was all but up. He finished his allocation to shouts from the growing hoards of supporters of 'can you bowl like this every week?!' ... Hopefully he can.
At the other end we witnessed some early season rustiness from a number of Bats players. At one point we worried that we might lose on wides alone. But the Bats bowlers got their heads together and with help from Justyn, Nelson and Joe holding some good catches, we pulled through to win by 58 runs. A great start to the season.
Words: Mark Evans
Roehampton Bats: 168 all out (39 overs)
Sheen Park: 110 all out (26 overs)
Result: Roehampton Bats win by 58 runs
Batting:
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
O |
M |
R |
W |
|
Dixon |
8 |
3 |
13 |
4 |
|
Nelson |
2 |
0 |
16 |
0 |
|
Brunner |
3 |
0 |
25 |
1 |
|
Evans |
2 |
0 |
4 |
1 |
|
Shaw |
4 |
1 |
12 |
1 |
|
Murphy |
1 |
0 |
12 |
1 |
|
Matthews |
2 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
|
Nair |
2 |
0 |
8 |
1 |
|
Tinsley |
2 |
0 |
17 |
1 |