Appleby Magna v BOTWCC XI

Sunday 19th April 2008

(Report Below)

The 2009 season started for BotWCC on a very sunny and warm day at Appleby Magna when an eleven made up of both First and Second XI players from Burton met a similar mixed bunch from Appleby.

Appleby won the toss and chose to bat first. But the perfect start they were looking for lasted just four balls before Geoff Aylett produced a wicked ball that clipped the bat on its way through to the very safe pair of hands of keeper Ali Love. The second breakthrough came in Grunter’s third tidy over when the batsmen attempted a risky second run against the accurate arm of Goose Simmons. No contest when a direct hit smashed the stumps with Baggott clearly out of his crease with the score on 10.

Duggins and Kirkland came together to steady the ship and see off Aylett and Grunter.  Replaced by Malc Hood and Treacle Headley, it was Malc who broke the deadlock in the 23rd over by bowling Duggins, who was getting increasingly frustrated at finding a fielder every time he played the ball. Here we must mention Chairman Neal, who was scuttling around the field until he pulled up with a recurring back problem. Unable to run, he was posted in the slips for the remainder of the innings and sought refuge after tea on the point boundary. The score had progressed to 44. Three overs later the old campaigner Kirkland perished attempting to heave Treacle to the long on boundary but found another set of safe hands on the arms of Flash.

The run rate now increased dramatically with the arrival of Matt Richardson, the Appleby skipper and the equally hard hitting Driver. But while Richardson played many fine, but safe, shots, Driver’s attempts were more aerial. Trying to hit young Dan Headley out of the ground he fell short right into the hands of Sid.

No more wickets fell and Appleby amassed a total of 153 in their 40 overs with Matt Richardson unbeaten on 65.

Goose and Ali Love took the game to the Appleby opening attack. Mike got the innings off with a spectacular maximum over the square leg boundary in the first over. Ali Love must have thought it was Christmas when he was gifted four boundaries in the second over by some very wayward deliveries from Lees. But it was Lees who bowled Goose in the tenth over when Mike swung the bat indefensively to a ball that stayed low.

Flash and Sid both helped Ali to move the score along such that when Sid was out in the 22nd over with 102 runs on the board it seemed as if the game was almost over. But then some tight and accurate bowling, particularly from Hughes slowed the scoring rate and with a few more wickets in the bag the game was suddenly swinging back into Appleby’s favour.

And so it came to pass that with one over to go Burton had two wickets remaining, with Chairman Neal not able to bat, and requiring a further five runs to win. With Malc and Treacle taking three from the first two balls the pendulum was swinging back towards Burton, but then disaster. Treacle tried to hoist the next ball and was comprehensively bowled. With three balls remaining and two runs required for victory, Warhorse Grunter marched confidently to the wicket. Also sensing the win the fielding side closed in. Grunter survived two dot balls then he connected with the last and scrambled a single to mid wicket. Game tied. A perfect ending to a very and friendly game. Lots of handshakes and applause all round and a commitment from both teams to repeat the exercise next April.

Match report by P Child

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