This is just a little like writing Goldilocks. Last week was too wet and too cold, this week was to dry and too hot… perhaps next week will be just right?

The Shoreham XI that took the field on Saturday was notable for a few combinations. At the top of the order when we came to bat were Simon Wells and Chris Brown. A look at the crumbling Shoreham archives tells me that this was at one time the established Sunday opening pair. The explanatory note saying that this was to give time for everyone else to get there from church seems frankly implausible. Simon was also one half of one of the father and son combinations on the pitch. David Melville-Jones was also making an appearance alongside his dad.

Fielding first, we kept Cudham Wyse’s run rate down with some excellent fast bowling from Alex Masson and some good line and length stuff from the captain. Alex was well suited by the dry, hard pitch but he must wish that it didn’t drop about six inches from the batting crease to the stumps: several balls missing the bails by a very small margin. Though Alex was virtually unplayable, the breakthrough came with a run-out when the batsmen chanced a second run against Jack Rivett’s arm. They payed the price as Jack speared in a huge throw from the boundary for Martin to whip off the bails.

The second wicket had to wait for Jack to take up the bowling duties and trap Cudham Wyse’s number three lbw. This proved to be a mistake as it brought Sam Merron in and from then on the tempo of the scoring increased as he plundered 94 runs, mainly from the second and third string bowlers. Without Merron’s contribution Cudham Wyse’s total would have been modest, but in the event they set us 203 to chase.

The record shows that Alex, Nick Walker, Jack and Russell (must be a dog joke there somewhere) all bowled economically and took a wicket apiece. The record however also shows that Martin bowled one over for 15 runs – no doubt because of all the byes he conceded by not being able to get behind the stumps fast enough. It also shows that Nick Pearce bowled an expensive over, but he must have been in stealth mode as no one but the scorer knew he was there. And ‘Unsure’ apparently also conceded 31 from 3 overs, but Unsure is pretty sure that he knows who he is and is also sure that he wasn’t that expensive. Anyway…

Having fielded in the heat for two and a half hours, IPL import Simon Wells then opened and spent a further two hours in the middle accumulating the 84 runs that were the backbone of our innings. Shoreham were never very far from the required rate. Simon and Chris pushed the score along steadily, but when Chris departed for 18 – with the score around 60 – there was a little wobble as first Nick and then Martin went cheaply (in fact Nick couldn’t have gone more cheaply).

Througout our innings the game remained evenly poised. Simon continued to strike the ball well, while at the other end there was a succession of cameo innings from some of Shoreham’s rising stars.: perhaps we were slight favourites, but as the final overs were played out we couldn’t accelerate to finish off the game and wickets fell steadily.

First IPA import Jack accumulated 19. Well, I say accumulated. First he slumbered like a volcano, then he struck three boundaries and then he was out. Russell followed Jack ( – still working on that dog joke, but I haven’t quite got it yet) and became the anchor for the final overs.

When Simon was finally out, and staggered from the field, Alex took his place. Alex’s innings mirrored Jack’s and he was out for 12.

With tension mounting all the time, James Anderson was eighth man in. There were around five overs still to go and around 30 runs required. James’s innings was like Jack’s and Alex’s, only less restrained. Windmilling at everything that was bowled at him he failed to trouble the scorers much, until – with the remainder of the innings being measured in balls – he finally managed to make a couple of significant contacts that each sailed to the boundary, leaving us tied, with one over remaining. The field was brought in but Russell drove the first ball to the boundary, and we had our first victory of the season.

(Can anyone help with that dog joke?)

- Wyn

Posted on Sunday, 6th June, 2010 in 2nds Match Reports.