The duck gallery opened its
doors to Waltham St Lawrence 2nd XI as their season
got underway in the gloom over at Holyport. In chilling
temperatures and light drizzle Captain Connor won the
toss and put the home team into bat.
A good opening
spell by both Nebbett and Thompson went unrewarded as
both beat the bat regularly. The Holyport openers took
advantage of the short boundary and some near misses
in the field to take the score to 66 until Nebbett rattled
Francis' off stump.
Steel at the other end
continued to find his form and began to punish anything
short scoring a series of 4's and 6's to the short side.
Bridgeman, back in the Waltham fold was beginning to
warm up and eventually had the impressive Steel well
caught by Thompson in the gulley.
Morgan followed
later to a caught and bowled and Waltham were in the
hunt at 108 for 3. Things got better for Waltham as
Smith turned in an impressive spell in the wet and had
P Morgan caught by Burge as he went for one shot too
many. Unfortunatley, Waltham couldn't make another breakthrough
in the middle period and Buckingham hit some heavy blows
to finish 44 not out.
Burge came on at the
end and bowled a tidy spell picking up the wicket of
youngster Gould and beat the bat regularly without luck.
So at the break Waltham were facing an uphill
task of scoring 191 in 35 overs and their innings got
off to a poor start as lack of calling resulted in a
mix up and Kiani was run out for one. Wilkinson hobbled
in and was the victim of a dubious LBW call and was
triggered for a duck. Bridgeman joined Connor and was
looking comfortable till he went back to a ball that
stayed a touch low and he too was adjudged LBW.
McGee started his innings well and with Connor
starting to score a few runs at the other end things
were looking up but the Connor tickled one through to
the keeper and walked.
As he was getting his
pads off Burge went for a first baller and Parker entered
the gallery too as WSL were blitzed and in pieces at
32 for 6. Worse was to come as McGee who was just getting
into his stride hit a sweetly timed pick up straight
into the arms of J Steel and the youngster took a good
catch.
So it was left to Nebbett and Thomspson
to give Waltham some respectability and they duly did,
especially Thompson who unleashed some fantastic straight
drives to the longest parts of the ground to score an
excellent 26. Nebbett hung around with him avoiding
the gallery and looking comfortable till he went for
one shot too many and was bowled. Smith replaced him
and carrying on from Thursday's net session played with
renewed confidence, flicking one round the corner to
get off the mark then driving well to make 7 runs.
Hill came in at the end but didn't face a
ball as Thompson, eager to rotate the strike got run
out going for a second run and Waltham's chase was over.
All in all this was a good work out despite the
result and we thank Holyport for making the game playable
in difficult conditions. |