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2nd XI v St. Mary's
Belhaven unable to withstand Border Reivers' attack
by our Far Eastern Reporter - Wai 'Ting No
Lost by 8 wickets
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Belhaven Hill
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127 for 7
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St. Mary's
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128 for 2
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This match, owing to illness and rotation duty, saw a slightly different team take the field. Archie Rettie became Cap and duly lost the toss! St. Mary’s put us in to bat. Typical! Especially as the unanimous decision was to have a change and field first. Oh, well!
Although the weather had been very unsummery in the morning the clouds dispersed so that the sun could get a view of the game and it turned out to be a wonderful afternoon - though not perhaps if you were on the receiving end of the St. Mary’s bowling!
They had four very good bowlers whose opening spells conceded only 40 runs from 12 overs and took 3 wickets! Batsmen 2, 3 and 4 managed to score 10 runs between them. Sadly no straight bats, but lots of swishing ones and ones hanging out to dry.
In future LC shall not give any more helpful hints to batsmen within earshot. Why? Telling Cap Archie to hit the ball hard with his leg side shot rather than just pat at it, Archie did just that and scored 4. Brilliant. But the next delivery he made the exact same shot to a well-pitched up straight ball - and took the long walk of shame!!
But there were two stalwart batsmen who had decided to get most of their shots sorted out this match. Andrew ‘Wristy’ Watson and Angus ‘Biker’ Harley. Without these two the score would have looked a sorry sight. They battled away against very accurate bowling, kept the good balls out and started to punish the bad balls. Runs accrued. (No they’re not! They’re perfectly gentlemanly! Ed)
Of course 2nd XI cricket wouldn’t be what it is without mishaps and close shaves. Twice, if not thrice, Biker and Wristy were dropped. Your reporter assumes their bats must have been saturated from the morning showers as both batsmen wafted carelessly outside off stump looking for all the world as if they were trying desperately to shake the water off. Thick and thin edges abounded and all but one they got away with. Poor Biker going for a lifting ball off just short of a length picked up a thick edge. The ball flew high to deep 3rd man and he had to go.
A partnership of 87 - best LC has seen in a long time. Sadly, as often happens, Wristy followed Biker to the pivvy as he mistimed a defensive stroke and was caught and bowled. But as he had made 53 runs he wasn’t too unhappy. A shame because he had survived until the penultimate over and was only 8 balls away from carrying his bat. (Don’t all batsmen carry their bats? Or am I missing something? Ed)
In those last 8 balls TAW came in, took one look at the spin bowler, decided it was not for him and gave a catch to mid on. Rupert Warre took his place, swished wildly with head in the air and was comprehensively bowled.
Wills Younger and Archie DM stuck around for 4 balls, saw a wide sail by, scrambled a run from an amazingly complicated shot from Archie and that was it - end of 25 overs. Unlikely that 127 would be enough looking at the talents of a few of the St. Mary’s team. But you never say no till the LC gives up - and that’s never!
The Beast and Ali opened the account well and bowled very tidily indeed. After their opening stint of 3 overs each the score stood at 19. Very respectable and the batsmen (obviously good players) were treating the bowling with respect. They knew what they were doing and were biding their time.
Angus and Andrew also bowled well Wristy’s leg breaks were working but he has decided that round the wicket is the ticket. Sadly there were three times when he had the batsman plumb in front but as he had pitched it leg side there was no way a LBW decision would be made. Perhaps he’ll think about that for next time!
There were so many near misses, nicks and one or two run-out chances but Belhaven's luck wasn’t on show today. Everyone fielded extremely well but a word of advice to all of you. Don’t change your fielding position because of one lucky shot from a batsman! Leave that decision to the captain or the bowler. A few times a fielder moved to a different position only to find that the batsman hit it straight to where he was originally.
Three or four chances of a catch were lost because of this and then who knows what might have happened? I don’t!
Tom Wright was put on to bowl his ‘flippers’ and they were successful at first. He bowled tightly and took their opener when a nick sailed through to Cap Archie. Cap was taken by surprise at how quickly the ball came into his gloves and bounced out again. But quick as a flash he adjusted his arms and caught the ball again. Much rejoicing!
The second wicket was a great effort. The ball was skied quite a height towards square leg where Wristy was starting to realise it was his to catch. Running with eyes pointing heavenward, he got into position beneath the ball and waited. It duly descended rapidly and seemed, at the last moment, to alter its angle. Thus Wristy had to bend backwards a little in order to get his hands underneath it. Had he not done so, he gleefully told me afterwards, he would probably have broken his neck!
The other three batsmen, one of whom retired hurt, managed to score the remaining runs fairly easily and it was all over. It was in fact a good match. A lot to learn and gain by having good bowlers against you and batsmen to whom you had to bowl decently. All in all a good, entertaining afternoon’s cricket. Here’s to the next time.
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David Peek, 27/05/2010 |
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