Waltham
started their bottom of the division clash against Checkendon
in the field on a sunny Saturday afternoon at Oak Meadow.
Jackson
and Harris took the new ball but could not get an early
breakthrough as Checkendon got off to a good solid start
with 60 runs and no wickets falling in the opening 10
overs. The track was beginning to look good with the
odd ball getting some extra bounce. Obviously this is
down to the amount of hard work the groundsman has put
in over the season. So he keeps telling me, over and over again
like a broken record!!
Scrumpy brought himself on
to replace Jackson, just as opener Manning was getting
going, and bowled some good medium pace off spin, beating
the bat numerous times and removing both openers, finishing
with 2 -27 of his 11 overs. Faisal in his last game for us this season,
then took over from Harris at the pavilion end and bowled
13 overs straight through conceding only 44 runs.
Then the man of the moment
came into the attack and showed how it should be done.
Keith
bowled a good line and length, with the occasional deceptive
killer delivery that was quick and directed at head
height straight at the Checkendon batsmen.
Zulu crashed
the ball into the sticks 5 times for only 24 runs making
it Jug Time for him. But for some reason he did not want to share
his jug with the team, and instead opted to give both
away to the opposition which looked almost like an on
the side payment for something that happened during
the match??
Checkendon could not seem to
get the runs on the board in the final 10 overs probably
due to some good fielding by Saints and tight bowling
at the death. Some sympathy must be felt for the Checkendon
batsman who was run out at the non-strikers end as Jacko
could not get his foot out of the way of the fiercely
struck shot and the ball cannoned off into the stumps.
Waltham started their reply
well with the newly christened “Paul” Farnon and Faisal
getting off to a great start with Fizzy hitting the
opener for six back over his head in the opening overs
and “Paul” looking very good at the other end. Unfortunately Fizzy fell soon
afterwards which brought Sharpy to the crease. He played
some well timed shots and together he and “Paul” put
on a good score to set the foundations of the innings.
“Paul”
fell for a very well constructed 34 which brought Jacko
out to the middle. He did not take long to get his eye in and
started about the Checkendon bowling hitting 43 in a
short time, nearly managing to kill his wife who did
not look up from her magazine as the ball smashed into
the pavilion about 2 ft above her head. By this time
the skipper had come to the middle and was also moving
the ball all around the boundary rope. Shiny joined
him and they both stayed until the end with Scrumpy
scoring a well timed 33 not out.
The new team management system
seemed to work well and at the end of the game we saw
a reluctant Faisal having to run round the ground as
fast as he could to pick up the flags to set the first
timed lap for the website. each other well, both sides
look forward to meeting again this season. |