Hazelbury Bryan 20/09/20

On a splendidly warm and sunny September afternoon, the Wanderers left the beer garden (where Simon won the toss and elected to bat) of the Antelope with additional players, with Tommy’s friend brought ashore from sailing near Weymouth.  With Stuart switching sides and playing for Hazelbury, the Wanderers were soon facing his left arm swing.  Mike M (5) was caught early on after 1 great helicopter shot that brought Simon to join Tommy.  Simon was soon into his stride with a straight 6 off Stuart to get off the mark.  The Wanderers profited from some additional runs when return throws were inaccurate which pilled on the pressure.  Simon (31) was caught in the same way as on this ground last week – a straight full toss hit to long-on, but the impetus for the innings was set.  Nick (61) struggled early on in his innings but once he found the measure of the pitch, there was no stopping him.  Six after six was hit out of the ground and when he was superbly caught on the long-off boundary one-handed, the partnership had raced to 90.  Tommy (44) was out soon afterwards caught behind but Theo (16) and Alex (13) hit some useful runs before they were both bowled.  Pete Foz (16) was off the mark with a mid-wicket six before he was out hit wicket, clipping the leg stump bail as he attempted a back-foot cut.  Bob was bowled leaving Luke and Mike W to finish the innings on a massive 224-8 from 30 overs.

Having waited so long to see a “hit-wicket” dismissal, another came in the hosts’ reply.  Nick took this wicket having opened the bowling with Luke and this brought another crucial wicket with an LBW a few balls later – one that was disputed but clearly on its way to middle stump.  Simon took a blow to the already dodgy knee at mid-off but in general the fielding was sharp, restricting the flow of singles that was not there in the Wanderers’ innings.  PW found his radar eventually and took the other openers’ wicket when he tried to play PW on the back foot.  Pete Foz was into a great spell of bowling (3 overs for 4 runs) and Tommy came on down the hill.  By this stage fielding at long-on and long-off had become a nightmare with the setting sun causing havoc (as well as for the batsmen when facing PW).  Tommy was using flight, some turn but most importantly the slope to great effect, with the batsmen unable to cope.  His figures (5-0-19-5) do not include the return catch from Stuart that was denied due to a suspicion of bump ball.  Bob came on for an over, but only needed 5 balls to take batsmen 10 and 11 coming from out of the sun!

A great performance and a good win for the Wanderers by 111 runs.  Some great beer in the Antelope beer garden (socially distanced now) finished off the evening.

MOM: Nick for his explosive innings and some valuable wickets

Catch of the day: There was 1 hit wicket, 1 LBW, 7 bowled and just one catch but it was not recorded by the scorer (Mike M)