Cerne Valley 01/08/21

With the rain steadily falling the start was delayed.  Simon won the toss and elected to bat in a 40 overs game.  Bob and Tommy got the innings underway in a cautious way until Bob (6) was bowled in the seventh over with the score 21-1.  Mike M was made to run by Tommy and looked to be pleased when the rain came back in the 11th over (43-1) causing the covers to come back on and the game reduced to 35 overs.  Play then resumed and Tommy kept the running pressure on Mike by not managing to get the ball to the boundary.  After a partnership of 68 in 11 overs, Mike (8 from 26 balls) was bowled while attempting a helicopter shot.  It was clear Skipper wasn’t going to plod, only 9 dot balls in his entire innings.  Meanwhile, Tommy had passed his 50 and began closing in on a century.  Remarkably, he managed to hit 2 balls into the next field.  Both shots appeared to go for six, but surely not, given that they were hit by Tommy?  The partnership was worth 51 in 4 overs when Tommy passed the century and retired.  Tom started to build gradually while Simon continued to fly, retiring on 58 (scorers were struggling to keep up) after a 62 run partnership in 5 overs.  Pete Fos looked out of sorts and was stumped after an almighty dance down the wicket.  Stuart was bowled and, despite a great pull for 2, PW was also bowled.  Tom had a reprieve when bowled by a bowler who had finished his ration (team was notified previous over) but holed out soon after to long-on for 36.  Mark seemed to have lead weights in his shoes when he was run out, which left enough time for Luke to find the boundary in the last over.  235-7 (2 retired) in 35 overs.

Tea was provided by Simon as the home club are still operating in Covid rules.

It was a confident start from the hosts as they plundered 11 from Pete’s opening over, with any sort of width heavily punished.  Mark was doing ok, but still too many off-length deliveries giving simple runs.  It was the change of bowling that brought about the opening wicket, with the batsman attempting to drive Stuart over mid-off, only to see Tom reaching high to take a good catch.  Meanwhile, at the other end, Luke was bowling with great accuracy and causing some problems.  The ‘inner-circle’ moved Tom to a very straight long-on and the dangerous opening bat tried to clear him to reach his 50 – only for Tom to take the catch above his head and then check he was still within the boundary.  By this time Tommy had gone off to pick up some Arabs from the station and Stuart had had to leave the field after aggravating a side strain.  PW was operating from the woods end with Fos now coming from the Church end.  PW was exacting turn off the pitch – aided by the slope – and the flight was often perfect, causing all sorts of difficulties.  Fos was finding a much better rhythm with the slope attacking the right handed-bat, but again it was PW that got the crucial breakthrough.  With the left-hander trying to play back to pull to leg, he got tangled up and the ball hit him in front of the stumps.  There was a question over height, but not much from PW went over stump height all day.  PW then took a smart return catch for his second wicket.  With Mark bowling with great variation of pace and movement in his second spell, he can consider himself unlucky to only get 1 wicket – a yorker length delivery.  When cheque-book Tommy arrived back at the ground, he was required to take over from Mark and straight away the buffet was served.  When attempting a run out, Tommy managed to miss the stumps by some distance, with the ball travelling all the way over the boundary.  He claimed a wicket with a loopy full-toss that landed on the base of middle stump.  A 61 run victory for the Wanderers in a game that was closer than the score suggests.

MOM: Tommy for his century

Catch of the day: Tom at long-on

Quote of the day: Mike M with reference to Tommy “well that’s all your inbreeding’