Whetstone v Burton on the Wolds - Second XI

Sat 13th May 2006 - Warwick Road, Whetstone

Week two of the campaign and buoyed by the 'one win from one' buzz whispering gently through the camp, Burton arrived at Warwick Road full of confidence and muted expectations of a notching up a second victory in as many weeks. Weather conditions were cold and miserable after another week of blistering sunshine, thanks once again to the latest involvement of Sod's Law. As for the square, hmmm. There was a square cut out in the middle of the 'field' but the track was a mess and the outfield so long even the local heffers had had enough an moved on to less grassier pastures in a bid to spare themselves the all-too-tempting chance of over indulgence. (Cows, in case you're wondering).

However, not put off by conditions and having been put in the field by the opposing skipper, BOTWCC rallied professionally and set about the task of ripping through the 11 placed in front of them.

And so they did too.

It wasn't quite the roll-over of the week before and even though this Whetstone outfit had only 9 more runs than last week's Braunstone side come the end of their spell, they did at least drag it out to the full 45 overs and only lost 9 wickets.

As has already been stated, the pitch was poor and conditions were not ideal for neither bat nor bowler, but despite this most bowlers took the challenge and committed themselves with seasoned aplomb. The two picks of the bowlers this week were Rob Morely (again) with his 3 wickets for 14 from his 12 overs having tied the Whetstone batters down well, but even this was just pipped to the post by the senior statesman (he'll love that) John Shipman who took 4 for 14 from his spell. Other bowlers were Penton who appears to have retired from wicket taking and taken up long hopping as his favoured pass-time (4-0-16-0), Sam Shipman with a respectable 3 overs, 2 maidens 0 for 1 and Alex Kimber who, barring the very first ball of his spell that pitched 8 inches in front of his feet and barely made it to the opposing crease, on his first outing of the season bowled very respectably with 9 overs, 2 maidens, 2 for 27.

Pauline Merryweather (Ian to his Mum) did his bit in the proceedings after a rough start and a couple of drops, recovered well and sprayed his weedy little physique to all parts, saving byes aplenty and even took 2 catches for his troubles.

A first champagne moment of the season was a quite spectacular catch from Kelvin Creasey who while fielding at point took an extremely quick square cut at ground level and to his left side (apparently the weaker side, but we'll need convincing). Stunning it was too, and it does go to show that age really doesn't necessarily have to get in the way of playing this game. Back to reality for a moment though, some old habits do appear to die hard and even though the Whetstone team offered little in opposition, things could and should have been over much sooner had at least 5 catches not been dropped. We think it was 5, we lost count somewhere along the way.

Anyway a job was well done and Whetstone left the field having posted a score of just 88 for 9 of their 45 overs.

Tea was taken (no parsons involved here) and as we watched the Scum beat West Ham on penalties in the FA Cup final the Burton opening bats took to the field to chase the total down and go home.

Now you might be right in thinking that a target of just 89 runs to win with a full 45 overs to get them was a simple task. But experience tells us that this should never be taken for granted, especially on this bowler friendly mud track. Wickets could have fallen easily to tempting loopers or drivable full balls moving uncharacteristically on the dodgy surface.

But, as it happened, they didn't.

Last weeks opening pairing of Skipper Steve Neal and Mark Russell took to the crease and enjoyed a volley of average deliveries and casually took runs as they wanted to. Steve used up several of his nine lives mistiming the eye-widening tempters into the air, albeit fortunately to safe zones, and eventually Russell (26) fell to a high catch at mid wicket after a swipe at tempting looper from the pie-chucking Whetstone skipper.

Enter Alex Kimber who, full of youthful exuberance and still smiling from having taken 2 wickets and also a catch in the field, batted well adapting to the poor conditions from the start.

Skipper Steve Neal and Kimber (clearly Man of the Match if we had such a thing) held the fort and casually knocked off the target in just 22.2 overs closing the match with a classy on-drive for 4 from Kimber with Burton on 91 for 1.

Job done. Another 9 wicket victory was notched up and thus 2 wins out of 2 for the Burton Seconds. Amazingly, only minutes after the match had finished the professionals that we are were immediately focused on next weeks challenge, the first home game of the season to a little club called Hathern Old CC.

I wonder what the attraction was there.....

Full match stats will be available via the ECB Web site HERE

Grant Penton 14-5-06

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