Gazette

TWCC make hay in the... hay field
TWCC v Moulsecoomb Wanderers May 20th 2012
Match Report by Richard Brock

Welcome to a new season: and at last we’re under way after 3 weeks of disastrous weather. The outfield bore witness to the torrential downpours: it was cut but cut long and piles of grass were everywhere. But it was dry and that’s the main thing. Those of sound memory will recall that last year’s home match with Moulsecoomb turned in almost 500 runs. No chance of that this year with the silage piled up on the outfield. Richard won the season’s first toss and elected to bowl: a canny combination of hoping the outfield would continue to dry, hoping to use the cloud cover for the bowlers and forgetting what he usually did after winning the toss last season. So Matt led the way from the Downs end and Jim at the Pavilion end. But wickets were not easy to come by, any more than were runs. The openers batted well, thwarted by the long outfield and thus restricted to below 60 in the first hour. In that time Jim made the only breakthrough; a catch taken by Matt at short square leg. Matt himself missed a hard caught and bowled, and it took Paul to show him how to do it as he came on and snapped up the other opener. Still Moulsecoomb batted well, with great solidity, but suffering a dearth of boundaries because the ball simply didn’t reach as it ploughed through the long grass. Richard took the only other wicket to fall and Moulsecoomb’s total of 142 actually represented something close to 200 in normal conditions. So a good score on which to ponder as we enjoyed the tea Moulsecoomb themselves provided, left over from their Saturday team’s abandoned match.
Paul and James opened up for us: briefly. James’s innings lasted 4 balls when he was given LBW to the pacey Ganesh, coming in from the Downs End. But Paul and Tony then put together a useful stand of 53 before Paul was bowled. Edward didn’t hang around, he scored 3, when Richard went in to witness Tony’s gay abandon, knocking sixes over into the cow field. He can’t say he wasn’t warned: another big shot was dropped on the boundary, but he proceeded to hoik yet another in the same direction and this time the fielder held onto it. So 56 for 4, and a few concerned looks crossed Twineham faces. But Andrew, Jim’s brother-in-law who flew 30 hours from Australia just to make this match, was pushed up the order to help him stay awake, and he dug in with Richard to push the score along. Between them they had at least 6 catches dropped but they continued to prod and push and added 51 for the 5th wicket, before Andrew departed on 137, with TWCC just 6 runs short of victory. And six wickets in hand. So no worries there then…..Erm. Well actually…… Moulsecoomb brought back Ganesh and, including Andrew’s wicket, he took 3 wickets in 3 overs for just 1 run – and even that was a wide. Those to fall were Sam Trench, a friend of Sam Simon’s who had earlier showed remarkable prowess in the field, and Matthew who had earlier bowled well. But neither could stand up to Mr Ganesh and In the midst of the carnage Richard also was finally caught and Jim followed him as Sherwin at the other end posted two wicket maidens. We were down to our last pair: and one of those was Matt who had strained his back bowling. But having wisely been refused permission to go home, and instead being introduced to the healing properties of Deep Heat, he was shoved out to do his best. Moulsecoomb were now alive with self-belief: four runs to get, and the previous five wickets had gone for just 2 runs. TWCC were on 139 for 9 with Matt and Honse needing to save the day. It was a collapse worthy of `the good old days` but thankfully Honse added a single and Matt had enough movement restored to divert the ball to leg for a single and then the precious final two runs. The whoops that went up from the pavilion told the story: the great escape from an immensely large self-dug hole.

SCORECARD
TWCC won the toss and bowled
Moulsecoomb Innings: M Hunton C&B P Hunter 37; C Pullen Ct M Steinke Bld J Simon 20; K Radnall not out 34; D Sherwin Bld R Brock 20; P Longman not out 16.
TOTAL 142-3 41 overs
TWCC Bowling: M Steinke 8-1-20-0; J Simon 9-1-31-1; P Hunter 6-0-20-1; M Brock 7-0-24-0; H Karvay 4-1-12-0; R Brock 4-1-13-1; A Smerdon 3-0-21-0.
TWCC Innings: P Hunter Bld Radmore 20; J Trollope LBW B Ganesh 0; T Pearce Ct, Bld Bowen 53; E Bunn Ct, Bld Bowen 3; R Brock Ct Longman Bld Sherwin 22; A Smerdon Ct Gibson, Bld Ganesh 20; S Trench Ct Hunton Bld Ganesh 0; J Simon Bld Sherwin 0; H Karvay not out 1; M Brock Bld Ganesh 0; M Steinke not out 3.
Total 143-9 35.3 overs.
Fall: 1-1, 54-2, 86-3, 86-3, 137-6, 137-5, 138-8, 138-10
TWCC won by 1 wkt.

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