Venturers vs Canal Taverners, Wednesday June 25th

Venturers 133-3 Canal Taverners 138-5 (17 overs)

The Canal Taverners are a really good side to play. They are sportsmanlike, very capable cricketers, and have a couple of really good hitters up the order. Anything short is risky, and for some reason we could not get the length right to their most dangerous left-hander. He decided the match, as he often does, but before we could bowl at him we had to bat.

Roger and Simon S opened the batting and Simon went early to a quick one down the hill. Ahmad then produced a really good knock and scored 50 before being dismissed in what has become his trademark manner – run out. Roger was bowled sometime before this for a run-a-ball 21, and Alex supplied his usual rapid cameo before Kevin produced another great innings, ending not out with 35. Matt only saw a couple of deliveries right at the end and was similarly not out. 137 should have been a really competitive total, and it was a credit to the batting that they did so against bowling that is typically tight and consistent.

In their reply, Rob B opened down the hill with a really smart spell, but Ian G at the other end was spectacularly expensive in the first over. The first couple didn't come out right and were half-track wides. Some that did come out right were still short and on leg stump to the leftie. These were dispatched to the boundary, but then one of these pulls didn't come out of the middle and was hit high and straight to a fielder on the boundary rope. Agonisingly, the catch went down and thereafter the leftie hit absolutely everything and everyone. Ian's second over was to the right hander and was much, much better, beating the edge a couple of times, but two drives connected for 4, and Roger decided not to gamble whether the improvement from the first over was a trend or a coincidence. Matt came on and was more expensive without threatening a wicket, inducing another change of bowling, while Simon S replaced Rob at the other end, following the conclusion of his really excellent spell, having dismissed the right-hander. His first over was also expensive, but his second over was superb and really hard to get away.

Adam P replaced Matt, and may remember his over for some time. It was a difficult task to bowl to the leftie in full swing, but despite strong encouragement to bowl as full as humanly possible every ball was short of a length. Every ball was expensive and Gregory and Fluffy were brought on.

Fluffy ran out the left-hander during this period, finishing his innings on 64, and then removed the set number 3 via a very tidy catch by Simon S at cover. He went on to induce the number 4 to trample his stumps taking an enormous heave across the line and overbalancing, before bowling the number 6, to finish with 3 for 9. Gregory chipped in with an expensive spell that claimed the number 5, and in the end we lost with nearly 4 overs to spare. The match ended when the newcomer to the crease planted the first ball of Fluffy's 3 rd over into the bowling green where a match was in progress. No-one was hurt, except maybe Fluffy, whose figures were otherwise 3 for 3 off 2 overs!

Fixtures & Results 2008