Priston vs Venturers, Sunday May 2nd

Priston 154-7 Venturers 155-7

Having lost the first two matches of the year to rain, we went to the stunning village of Priston with cloud lurking in the sky, but no actual rain.

Alex W, in his first match as captain, won the toss and elected to field. Paul and Rashid opened the bowling against the familiar sight of a small left-hander and their older wicketkeeper. Both bowled well on a soft wicket, the recent rain having taken its toll. Trouble was caused when the ball was pitched up, runs were leaked when it was dropped short. Rashid got the breakthrough with his first wicket on English soil, the home umpire upholding an LBW shout. The young left-hander had a reasonable eye and a strong bottom hand. If we knew how to catch he wouldn't have gotten past 20, but half the team (of only ten players) dropped him on his way to 55. Fluffy eventually held on at mid-off to remove him. Alex W, Nazar and Tom R were variously used to generally good effect, Tom bowling a particularly good long spell. We slowly took wickets and kept the run rate to a managable level. Steve Dent had a go towards the end and initially struggled to pitch the ball. Alex toyed with taking him off, but two wickets from the last two balls of his second over meant the hat-trick opportunity couldn't be denied. The field stayed relatively spread for the hat-trick ball, which unfortunately got the batsman in the chest on the full - fortunately Steve is not a fast bowler. The rest of the over was far better and Priston finished on 154-7 (ish). We had bowled 36 overs, but tea is the cut-off at Priston who prefer timed cricket.

A stunning tea was duly laid out, much to the dismay of the openers Roger and Fluffy who didn't want to weigh themselves down before batting.

Priston opened with one medium pacer (who slowly accelerated as he got loose) and one more aerial bowler. Neither were particularly threatening, but kept their line and length good. When the slower bowler lost his line a little, Fluffy tried to score 10 off a single ball and was caught at slip. Kevin then missed one that didn't bounce and we were looking at our 10-strong batting line-up and getting a little worried. Roger and Alex W got stuck in and settled the nerves quite well. The required run-rate was never high, so a steady head was good. Alex W eventually got out and was replaced in turn by Alex C, Tom R and Paul who all helped Roger for a while before getting out. Roger himself fell for 48, trying to see off their second non-aerial bowler. Everyone was struggling with Priston's orbital approach to bowling, assured foot movement was needed and no-one was feeling confident at doing this. At 6:30pm the umpires declared we had 20 overs to go (totalling 45 as we had started promptly after tea). This gave Rashid and Nazar, our penultimate pair, plenty of time, with only four an over needed. The running was initially shaky and, with the sky darkening, the wind picking up and the bowling getting more and more eccentric, Steve (last man in) was getting nervous. Rashid and Nazar then began to get to grips with the bowling and in a flurry started hitting fours and running well and took us over the line leaving a now more relaxed Steve not having to bat and a few overs spare.

Fixtures & Results 2010