South Wraxall vs Venturers Sunday August 3rd

Venturers 160-9 South Wraxall 136-9

They won the toss on a wet afternoon and chose to bowl. It was pretty dry during the first innings and then started raining during tea, but it only once threatened to stop play and everyone sportingly agreed to play on with the game in the balance.

Fluffy and Roger opened the batting and Fluffy continued his fine form from the previous match with some lovely shots in his 19 before being caught behind. The opening bowling was good and Roger couldn't get a run away to a tight field. Alex replaced Fluffy and also played a really good-looking innings of 20. Ahmad replaced Roger and set about scoring some runs, batting steadily to score 62 and swatting consecutive sixes off one bowler. Kevin got 17 while Emmad had what can only be described as a ‘memorably forgettable' innings. His first ball appeared to strike him on the pad (right in front) playing a big shot and he was given out. He started for the boundary but was called back by the fielders who agreed with his assertion that he had got an edge on it. Thus reprieved he then played back to the next ball (defensively) and was struck high on the pad. The height was marginal but the umpire's finger pointed skywards immediately and brought an immediate conclusion to an extremely eventful duck.

The rest of the innings flopped a little in the rain. Matt hit a lovely boundary and then got caught at mid-on looking for another. Ian survived the return of the opening bowler but then fiddled around and got out LBW for a couple. Magic Ball Middup was unlucky to be run out for 0 as the non-striker and Paul S did not face. The only spark in this period was Salman's spectacular innings of 14 that included a massive six.

The South Wraxall tea was very tasty and we waited a little while for the rain to ease before going out to try and win the match defending 160-odd.

Matt opened with Paul Snow and both bowled really excellent spells, particularly considering the wet ball and the cutting up of the pitch under the bowlers feet. A couple of chances came and went before the number 2 was removed by Paul S via Kevin's catch. Matt then bowled the newcomer almost straight away and this brought in the number 4 with not too many on the board. Magic Ball Middup and Ian bowled, the latter off one pace, and after a couple of overs Chris made the breakthrough removing the dangerous number 4 with a classic piece of cricket as he edged behind. Ian was denied two really good LBW shouts which were perhaps factored more on the state of the game than on how close they were. A couple of catches also went down and the game remained in the balance.

Kevin struggled a bit with the wet ball but was still economical as always. Ahmad and Salman bowled really decent spells, with Ahmad turning the match conclusively with a couple of wickets after Salman broke the key partnership via a superb return catch. Ahmad also ran out another batsman and Paul S removed the opener in his second spell. The opener had it all to do and had started charging Ahmad (with little effect), but with wickets falling regularly at the other end and the run rate mounting it was only a matter of time before he missed one.

Despite a 6 from the number 10 batsman near the end the asking rate was too high and in the end the game was not as close as it had felt throughout. By chance the rain stopped just after the match, as though the weather was booked with the pitch, and it had ebbed and flowed with the changing fortunes of the second innings. We bowled well in difficult conditions after posting a competitive total, and felt we deserved the chips and a drink in the pub after where we reflected on another win to add to the others in this record-breaking season.

Fixtures & Results 2008