After last week’s monumental loss to Cudham Wyse, the Shoreham 2nd team were eager to get back to their winning ways at Halstead. Lucky tosser Brown got us off to a good start, and made the simple decision to have a bowl on this overcast day.

Ed, in his inaugural match for the 2nds, had the privilege of choosing which end he wanted to bowl from for once, and reasoned that Jasplin would prefer bowling uphill anyway. After bowling a couple of shocking wides, Ed then bowled a beauty to get Halstead’s opener caught behind by Will Stanyard. Tight bowling by James at the other end was rewarded by the wicket of Halstead’s other opener. Shoreham had made an imposing start, and at one stage had Halstead on 41-4.

JD took over from Ed at the top end, and bowled well off his reduced run-up. He eventually got the important wicket of Halstead’s no.4, who was on 60 at the time, thanks to a nimble stumping by Will. Nick Walker kept up the pressure, after replacing James, and picked up a wicket towards the end of his spell. Ray also chipped in with 4 tidy overs, and earned himself a wicket too. It was the returning Ed who got the wicket of Halstead’s other dangerous batsmen, who was on 70, and he ended up with what could well be his career best figures of 9-19-4. I might retire now.

Halstead reached 190, 28 of which were extras. Shoreham fielded very professionally throughout the game – of the 9 wickets we got, 5 were catches, 1 a stumping, and 1 even a full-blooded run-out. Other points to note are: apart from a tired final over, Jasplin bowled extremely well; and our only other bowler was Jackson (although the scorecard has mistaken him for his brother – not that I think he’ll mind) who threw in the odd pie across his 3 over spell. Juicy.

Confident that our batsmen could knock off the runs, most of the Shoreham team huddled around the radio inside the pavilion to listen to the Ashes. Meanwhile, out in the middle, our trusty opening pair of Ray and John launched into the Halstead bowling. 32 overs later the same pair were still at the crease (although one looked like he was about to keel over) and hit the winning runs to complete a whopping partnership of 194! Ray was 67no and John 80no (yes their were a lot of extras).

This historic feat was celebrated at the pub long into the night. And the Boakes Meadow Massive continued the drinking back at their HQ until Rupert fell over one too many times, and Jasplin fell asleep on a black marker. Yay.

- Ed

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Posted on Tuesday, 21st July, 2009 in 2nds Match Reports.