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May 2nd 2009
Radway vs Evenley
Evenley 276 for 4 Radway 212 for 6
Radway's 2009
opening gambit was one that fits with the club ethos - we gave it a bloody good
go, everyone did their best and we could have pulled off a shock upset had
things gone our way - but we didn't. In short we were in it right up to the
point when we weren't, and the emphasis had shifted onto when we were going to
get to the pub as time was pushing on.
Rather than recount the whole episode,
this year I thought I'd focus on a couple of key points in the match and salute
a few moments of greatness or calamity.
Evenley's batsmen are good clean hitters
of the ball. On a batsman friendly pitch all of them rode their luck hitting in
the air but the more powerful of their line up need not have worried as they
regularly breached the boundary on the full. How deep they batted is an unknown
quantity so it is arguable that we would have been chasing even more if we had
taken all of our catches and brought the big guns to the wicket earlier.
The moment that our skipper Craig was almost decapitated by a venomous late cut that
flew straight at him was one which probably brought mixed feelings to the team.
I for one thought "Yes....I am not the first person to drop a catch this year"
(although Walsh would try and argue that I was the second to do so - and he
would fail!). It was also apparent that the standard is higher in the
premiereship and we would have to rise to the occasion. And it is with great
pride that I can report that we did exactly that.
In the field we remained
focused and chased everything - Ben Pick should be mentioned for covering the
equivalent distance of the London marathon round the rather weirdly shaped
Evenley field, expertly dodging trees benches and other obstacles in his way.
Barney pouched an excellent catch late on running back to catch one coming over
his shoulder - everyone was as amazed as he was that it stuck but that was
justice for hard work in the field all day.
Our bowling was pretty good for an
opening game. We must learn from the exercise though - you cannot give quality
batsmen width or they will hurt you. Walsh tried to adapt and overcome this
issue by bowling so wide that fourth slip feared for his life. That combined
with the occasional shooter down the legside had the keeper calling for his arm
extensions and a pair of glad hands.
Likewise length is an issue when you are
bowling to a good batsman. They will drive anything too full and cut or pull
anything too short. I suppose it's why we are all told to bowl line and length
really isn't it? Ahhhh it all becomes clear!
But the bowlers and fielders all
stuck at the task and kept Evenley to a respectable run a ball total. An eleven
man effort (13 if Matt and I count double). Heads didn't drop when we were
getting a bit of tap and there were a few supportive comments to the bowlers
when the ball had rocketed over the boundary for a four, "Well done son, you
saved two there!".
Good tea - great cake - very important. More so than the
result.
Batting wise, Phil got a somewhat controversial LBW shout given that he
was closer to the umpire that gave him out than he was to his stumps. Ed Millard
was striking the ball encouragingly well until he played on. Barney looked
really steady and ready for his promotion to open the batting next week. Sam
Douthwaite was the pick of the batsmen, batting all the way through the innings
for 87*. He looked very confident all around the wicket and should now build on
this to look to score big hundreds this year.
A few others had a chance to get a
bit of middle practice with Hayden looking sharp at the end.
At around the 150
mark, Evenley were worried as we were going at the required 9 and 10 and over
for a period. The loss of a couple of wickets effectively ended our challenge
but we did very well to secure maximum batting points.
The game was a great
chance to welcome David Bussey and David Randall to Radway cricket, both fully
contributing to the challenge and to the enjoyment of the whole day. I hope that
they enjoyed themselves too. The proceedings were carried out in excellent
spirit and long may that last.
If there was to be a man of the match it would go
to Sam whose performance was as potent and venomous all round as was his body
odour at the completion of proceedings. Great effort!
It was Phil's birthday as
well. When Phil started playing for Radway match reports would have been typed
on a type writer and sent by telegram or carrier pigeon, dropped catches cost
you a shilling, underarm was considered 'good sportsmanship' and you had to set
off the day before an away match by horse. Back then he said he would retire
when he got a ball to spin so I think we shall be seeing plenty more of him for
some time to come! Many happy returns Phil and also many thanks from us all for
the hard work that you put in to make the club what it is.
And that thanks
extends to many others too - we have secured some sponsorship for the website
and new shirts through Ray Randerson Carpets, we are fully supported by The Avon
(and we give them plenty too!) and they are exploring ways that they may be able
to help the club. We hope to finalise the pavilion and therefore obtain the
final grant monies owing very shortly and we are well underway with the site
screen construction (albeit that I hear that there may be a short delay). We now
have a second league side which opened its campaign successfully as did the
Sunday troops. Things are going from strength to strength - let's keep it that
way. Dedication, commitment? Plenty of beer!
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