Venturers Vs Railway Taverners, Saturday June 11th

Railway Taverners 142-8, Venturers 114

Only two of their batsmen got past 8 and there were seven ducks in the match, but the two who did make runs did so in some style. They shouldn’t have done: at one point one of them was sitting in the middle of the pitch, waiting for Gregory to collect Ian’s throw and run him out. But Gregory dropped it and lost it, and the batsman somehow escaped to make another forty before being dramatically caught by Charles at long-on, trying to hit Matt to Trowbridge. By then Bruce had broken the partnership, but at some cost. Earlier, Ian and Matt had made rapid inroads so after that we were among the tail, who mostly ran themselves out. We thought 142 in 35 overs was gettable.

It isn’t completely clear why it wasn’t. Ian, Charlie, Matt and some loaned players all got starts, but nobody really got going. Just before Matt was out we were 84 for 4, but by then we were starting to run out of overs. They used six bowlers, none of whom conceded more than the just over four an over we needed; we used five, and three of them conceded almost five (Gregory conceded three and Ian’s figures were 7-2-7-2). So we were consistently slightly too slow. The innings ended in a clatter, with ducks by Duncan, James, Bruce and finally Gregory, bowled by the seventh ball of the 34th over. Marco had made a fifth duck up the order.