After a fortnight without cricket Waltham
welcomed Shinfield to Oak Meadow on an afternoon where
the weather looked set to decide the result. Returning
from his honeymoon skipper Matt ‘Mr Webb’ Connor led
out a 2nd XI much changed due to the ever growing list
if injuries and carelessly planned holidays throughout
the club. Losing the toss was the worst possible start
to the day and the home side were asked to bat.
Waz ‘xxxx’ Javed and Savva
‘Came Out Around 40’ Christodoulou opened the innings
against some tight bowling with A. Javed
in particular
swinging the ball away dangerously. The first wicket
wasn’t long in coming as Javed mis-timed a drive and
lobbed a return catch to his name-sake, and Christodoulou
followed shortly after as the swinging ball found its
way through his defences.
At the other end Ed ‘Supert
(-Ed)’ McGee was beginning to look assured with some
sublime shots around the ground, all he needed was a
partner to stay with him. With Don ‘Gromit’ Rockell
coming and going quickly, McGee found the man in his
skipper. The pair built the score steadily taking the
Saints from 48 for 3 to a much healthier 119 before
McGee fell to a ball that kept low for excellent 66.
Mike ‘Teaboy’ Thompson joined
Connor in the middle but the partnership was short lived,
Connor adjudged LBW trying to work the ball down the
leg-side. Thompson joined his captain back in the hutch
all too soon as he left a ball which cannoned off his
pads and onto his stumps. When Chris ‘Filthy Woodbine’
Burge followed shortly after the collapse had begun!
Matt ‘Batting Hero’ Nebbett
stuck around stubbornly without scoring until he was
bowled by a sublime delivery from Javed. When the bowler
yorked Raza the following delivery he had a nervous
6 ball wait to see if he was to have the chance of his
hat-trick. His chance came and went but it was not long
until he bowled Andy ‘Last Man Standing’ Smith to finish
with figures of 6 for 38. The Saints had lost their
last 6 wickets for only 16 runs.
Emerging after a hearty tea
Waltham knew they needed early
wickets to regain the momentum and Waz Javed duly obliged,
bowling Fitzdesorgher with the score on 2. When Dear
drove a buffet ball from Thompson straight down McGee’s
throat shortly after the Saints were in the game once
more.
Despite wickets falling the
Shinfield batsmen seemed keen to move the score along
apace, but were finding it difficult to get the Waltham
openers off the square, swinging and missing with regularity
and mis-timed shots falling in the gaps. With the partnership
starting to build Thompson took the third wicket as
Ali tied himself in a knot chasing a ball that cut into
him and promptly collapsed on his stumps.
Connor juggled his bowlers
looking for the elusive fourth wicket but to no avail.
Aerial balls continued to find gaps between fielders
or drop just short and not even the acrobatics of the
cricket Smurf Christodoulou on the boundary’s edge could
break the partnership as Ahmed and the bowling hero
Javed combined for a match winning partnership of 105*.
It was a solid performance
for a Waltham team missing key
players but they fell short on the day. Congratulations
to Shinfield for a good performance and match played
in excellent spirits. |