AWCC v WCC

At Wansford 13/05/12




So, at the fifth attempt this year, Ashton Wold manage to get a game of cricket. The ground at Wansford was somewhat soft underfoot as expected given the month of light monsoon weather that has helped to blight many a cricketing aspiration so far this summer. However, with an artificial wicket for the playing surface at least we weren't going to be digging squelchy trenches with our bats later in the day.

A team big on enthusiasm, hangovers and spurious banter took to the field to bowl after stand in captain Richard "butterfingers" Awdry failed his first on-field task of the year and lost the toss (twice!). Fortunately, a team is more than one man so Ashton still had plenty of time to cover for their captain's shortcomings.

In the absence of a recognised wicketkeeper, Awdry took responsibility of the gloves and gave the task of opening the bowling to Jack Wood and Matt Gunnell, a right/left arm combination that must have given the opposition misgivings much in the way that Waqar and Wasim would have done for Pakistan in the 90's.

Steaming in from the A1 end, Wood was the first to strike, getting consistently good shape through the humid air and breaching the defences of the Wansford opening bat. However, not to be outdone it was not long for Gunnell (on his comeback game after breaking every bone in his body last time out for Ashton and after having been hampered by a groinal incident when the skipper deemed it necessary to test his reactions during warm up) picked up one for himself with an in-drifting yorker.

Not long later and Gunnell picked up another after a miscued pull was in the end well judged by Gerald Palmer at square leg. His expression suggested that initially he thought the ball maybe going some twenty feet over his head, but he adjusted well and that was 3 down for the home side.

As the game continued on, John 'Supersugar' Ray bowled a good spell but without breakthrough as Wansford looked to consolidate and Doug 'chaser of the squealing pig' Heath bowled a generally tight spell of swing bowling to claim another wicket for Ashton.

However, just as Wansford might have been thinking they could get a pretty good score, Jack 'moonpie' Allen tossed his first delivery up over the batsman's eyeline (the snow on the ball spoke wonders...) and somehow hit the base of the stumps despite the batsman attempting some kind of pull shot. To make up for this, later in the over he also got a wicket with a good ball that turned (yep, this one was pitched) enough to beat the batsman's defences and leave the home side 6 down with plenty of overs to go.

From here a bit of a fightback ensued and some good shots along with some questionable fielding/wicket keeping helped the left/right partnership at the crease to give the home side a total to defend and Inghram eventually proceeded to fifty.

In an effort to get a breakthrough, Dan 'golden arm but moves in slow motion' Blatch was brought into the attack and lulled the batsmen into a false sense of security by letting his second ball sit-up juicily to be swatted over deep square for a large six which almost reached the river. Fortunately, Dan improved after that and even induced a couple of edges that narrowly evaded the valiantly diving wicketkeeper. Bully that Dan is though, somehow he managed to hit the erstwhile lefty batsman in the box. As he lay prone on the floor it was left for everyone to wonder whether he was in pain or just embarrassed. This subdued the poor lad but by this time Wansford had at least got a total to bowl at, but some more tight bowling from Messr's Gunnell, Wood and Blatch (aside from the apparently obligatory half tracker he has to send down in every spell apparently) kept the total to a respectable 172.

After tea it was given to Pete Lucas and Mark 'I only hit sixes before June' Buckley the task of setting a platform for the chase, a task which they set about steadily but without too much incident, Buckley hit Ashton's first six of the season, a delicate pull over deep square. Eventually Lucas fell, but having set a good platform of 60 off 17 overs, Sam Palmer came to the crease looking to ease his hangover and atone for his earlier under par fielding efforts. After some initial controlled aggression he took to the short leg side boundary like a camel to a spitting contest, either splitting the field with precision or powering the ball through or over them. A1 catastrophe was averted by an intervening tree as Sam tried his best to land one on the Asphalt. As he went on, all the boundarys got much the same treatment and when Sam was run out by Mark "easy single" Buckley for 79 the game was all but over, Doug Heath and Buckley proceeding to the target with ease, the latter finishing 48 not out to kick off the season in good style to give Ashton a win and make me much more relieved about the byes (12) conceded between my legs.

Thanks to Wansford for managing to get a game together as I know Darren the skipper was desperately trying to find players to replace a couple that had let him down as we arrived at the ground.



RA