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Great Waltham Cricket Club

Scorecard

Great Totham I v Great Waltham Cricket Club 1st XI on Sat 25 Jun 2011 at 1.30pm
Great Waltham Cricket Club Lost by 102 runs.

Match report In the end, we were well beaten by the better team on the day. Just a shame we didn't fire with the bat after a solid bowling performance had dragged us back into the game. Plenty of positives to be taken though.

Some defeats stay in the system a lot longer than others... Close defeats, controversial defeats, one-sided defeats, defeats to your bitter rivals. And as comprehensive as the final result was - by 102 runs - we need to put this one behind us, look ahead to next Saturday and get back to winning ways. I already have...

With the toss won, Great Totham were asked to bat first on a 'sticky' looking wicket. The late withdrawl of wicketkeeper/batsman Gary Bloom on Saturday morning saw local hero Paul Allen take his place as Swanny donned the gloves. Hector Bevitt-Smith made his 1st XI bow to bolster both the batting and bowling.

Totham started positively and Barry May (37) began peppering the boundary with worrying ease. The score had moved on swiftly to 63 in the 13th over before DC chalked up another left-handed victim as May looked to find the fence again. Josh bowled with good control and discipline from the other end but it was brother Ollie whose introduction brought about an immediate wicket as Dicker (23) cut an ugly long hop to Clouty in the covers. Understandably, Josh struggled to join in the celebrations... 72-2. Barwick and Powell then set about patiently re-building the innings after 2 quick wickets. Despite the odd chance and a good LBW shout early on, their partnership threatened to really take the game away from us. This was by far the strongest top-order we'd come up against this season.

The score had rattled along to 163 in the 32nd over and a score of 280+ seemed on the cards but as both batsmen started to 'open their shoulders' the breakthrough came. Hector (12-3-45-3) had bowled beautifully in a great spell of line and length bowling and just as the conditions started to offer a little bit of swing, Barwick (48), Powell (45) and K. Mays (6) were all back in the pavilion having had their respective furniture re-arranged in identical fashion. 174-5. Back in the game just as heads were starting to drop...

Hardy-King (7) departed soon after when he offered a return catch to Chronicle Pin-Up Boy Matt Duggan before a bizarre chain of events saw the first of two run outs. Phillips (1) heaved the ball to the midwicket boundary where Josh set himself to take a routine catch under the trees. He somehow spilled it and in his anger and frustration sent in a rocket of a throw to the non-strikers end that evaded Duggers and DC backing up. Hawkridge at the non-strikers end called Phillips for the single just as Hector scrambled round from point to collect the errant throw. Phillips was sent back, a swift throw from H, Swanny whipped off the bails and Totham were now 211-7. No.5 Hawkridge (26) had survived a previous run out scare before he drove hard to PA at Extra-Cover on the short-side of the ground with a shot that you'd normally expect to pick up a boundary for. A casual approach to strolling the single and running his bat in cost Hawkridge dearly as quick thinking from PA saw the stumps thrown down and an irate batsman depart. In truth, I think he was more annoyed with himself for such a schoolboy error... We were well and truly back in this game. It looked like we'd be keeping Totham to beneath 225 but some big hits from Chalk (14) & Powell pushed the score up to 244 before the former holed out to the last ball of the 45th over as DC closed with 2-50. Great Totham - 244/9.

Competitive but gettable.

After the best tea of the season - fruit skewers, pasta salad - we set about our reply. The track was taking on a whole new identity in the 2nd innings of the game and the Totham bowling attack were intent on exploiting the conditions to their full extent. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but if I'd known the sun would change the pitch in the way that it did... maybe I'd have taken the unusual step of batting first on a damp track. But at 84-1 at the 1/2 way mark we seemed well set.

Swanny and Sam (3) had given us a solid start before Sam departed to a beauty from Chalk. Andy came in at No.3 looking refreshed despite spending the afternoon moving his backside up and down (the ground) from Long-off to Long-off. Swanny continued to dominate the Totham bowlers, despatching them to all parts in a fluent knock of 60 that sadly ended in rather tame fashion as he threatened to win the game by himself. 84-2. Just when Totham were starting to get a bit twitchy...

Swanny really has been a breath of fresh air since 'returning' to the 1st XI fold. Not just for what he brings as a batsman, a bowler and a back-up keeper but what he adds to the changing room and the practice nets. He's a far more intelligent and perceptive cricketer than people give him credit for and our resurgence in recent weeks has had a lot to do with his presence. It's certainly an 'education' for some of the younger lads too...

Cue the collapse. Andy (12) - looking to dominate and up the run rate - departed to an ill-judged and poorly timed stroke down the ground and the game pretty much ended as a contest in the space of 2 balls as H.B.S.(6) ran himself out going for a suicidal second (I should've sent him back...) before DC departed 1st ball as a leading edge off the toe-end looped up to mid-on for a simple catch. 97-5. PA (8) holed out in similar fashion to Andy looking to up the run-rate as the wicket became increasingly harder to bat on. 115-6.

Great Totham have got tremendous depth in both their bowling and their batting and the introduction of Barry May (4-14) brought about a flurry of quick wickets as we simply imploded as the ball turned and spat wickedly on the drying surface, tearing through the top layer as the bounce became unpredictable. I chopped on for a futile 21 before Duggers (0) gloved one through to the keeper and Rob Kearney (11) was clean bowled.

The game descended into a bonus point battle as the Fitzwater boys tried to push us up towards 150 whilst denying Totham the 10th wicket and the final bowling point. Sadly Josh dollied one up to midwicket as we were edging closer to give Totham a 25-point victory and leave us stranded on 142 all out.

Maybe our luck ran out... but on the day, we simply weren't good enough when it came to chasing down a gettable target. Losing Gary late on was a massive blow, losing Rob to illness for a ten over period of the Totham innings couldn't be helped... we were all just pleased to see him feeling better by the end of the game. We simply shot ourselves in the foot when it came to our batting and gifted our wickets away.

Totham made the most of a track that became far more bowler-friendly as the game went on and home advantage is a massive factor when playing at some of the smaller grounds in Division 1 but all of these sound like feeble excuses.

Hopefully in 9 weeks time, we'll still be in the mix at the top of the table and we can give a better account of ourselves. On this evidence, Totham - who were a great bunch of lads - are the team to beat.

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Great Totham I Batting

Player name		Runs
extras TOTAL :	for 9 wickets	0 244 (0.0 overs)
B. May	b Clout	37
G. Dicker	ct Clout Bowled O. Fitzwater	23
P. Barwick	b Bevitt-Smith	48
C. Powell	b Bevitt-Smith	45
T. Hawkridge	run out (P.Allen)	26
K. Mays	b Bevitt-Smith	6
H. Hardy-King	ct & Bowled Duggan	7
N. Phillips	run out (J.Fitz/H. Bevitt-Smith/Swan)	1
S. Powell	Not Out	16
D. Chalk	ct Bevitt-Smith Bowled Clout	14
O. Cheeseman