Match Report vs Caerleon 21 June 2009

With the late withdrawal of Skipper and ‘recognised’ batsmen Jonny F due to another reoccurrence of gout, JR was drafted in and Dan made stand in skipper. Everyone was on time, Foxy working hard on his tea – and suggested to Captain Dan that it would be prudent to field first – using all of his wily cunning tea tactics….as it happened that played into Dan’s hands, with the potentially shakey batting line up – he was only too happy to bowl first. Things went to plan with the toss won and oppo inserted.

Lewis opened the bowling attack and immediately extracted some bounce off the Wenvoe wicket. Andy F opened from the other end and varied his line, length and speed to keep the batsman on their toes. The tactic worked – encouraging a drive, the batsman hit it straight to Dan at mid-on who took a less than easy catch head high on the left side (after a little juggle). 6-1-2overs. The pair continued to keep a lid on the Caerleon batsmen, Dan regularly getting bounce, got his reward in the 11over – the batman nicking an edge to keeper Ash, the umpire took his time as the batsman wasn’t walking, but eventually the finger went up. 39-2-12overs.

At this stage all was rosie, however a change of bowling was required and Dewbs was given the ball (to his surprise as it turned out). The surprise was then radiated out to the rest of the team as Dewbs proceeded to bowl light full tosses down the legside which the batsman happily slapped to the boundary. However, persistence paid off and in his 3rd and final over, Dewbs got one to bounce and spin taking effect and with a deflection off both pads hit middle and leg. 81-3-17overs. DB had replaced Porno and he too struggled to find his line and length. The batsman tending to hit through the ‘v’ but however many fielders were put there, the ball always seemed to find a gap and race away through the vast but fast outfield.

At drinks Caerleon had rattled along to 106-3-20overs. Mojo had replaced Dewbs and began to stem the flow of runs. DB continued and with only DB, the keeper and JR not on the boundary – the batsman pushed 2’s. After 28 overs both batsmen reached their half centuries and the bowling attack was changed once more. Steveo from the pavilion end and Foxy from the footy end. Steveo started with 3 down leg that got punished, however he manged to get the break through by throwing in an unexpected straight one – bowling his man! 160-4-29overs. Foxy from the other end, not to be out done, was having more success on the line and encouraged the batsman to charge him at the end of the over, only to miss it, spin, fall on his arse and got stumped by Ash. 163-5-30overs. With the two new batsman at the crease, the cazh had the opportunity to stem the runs and pick up wickets.

Steveo unbelievably picked another in his next over getting his man for nothing also bowled rattling off both pads before finding it’s way through. 164-6. The batsmen consolidated over the next few, punishing Foxy a little – at least he was defending the larger boundary. Some good fielding stopped some boundaries, though Ash could have taken a run out from the throw of Shag in the deep, but not moving close enough to the returning ball, managed to get struck square in the box rendering him ‘in-shock’ and unable to reclaim the ball or move closer to the stumps. 181-6-34overs. In the 35th over guess who struck again (with a wicket maiden) – this time with a catch taken by Tesh as short third man…..yeap it was Steveo….181-7-35overs.

With the best chance of his life to claim a 5for Steveo (and Foxy at the other end) was kept on for the remaining overs. Foxy unlucky with a couple of difficult catches off his bowling (mainly fielders running desperately in the deep), but Steveo got one wicket closer in the 37th picking up another bowled. The penultimate over Steveo needing one more….second ball, the batsman looped one up to mid-on, Richie standing underneath it, hands out (or should it be thumbs out), fumble, spilt dropped….was that the chance…? No, two balls later the milestone (that’ll never be seen again) was reached Steveo bowling the number 9.!!!! After the celebrations he finished off the innings last ball of his spell getting the last wicket bowled once again!! Shocking scenes.

Lewis – 6(overs) 1(maiden) 16(runs) 1(wicket)
Furnham – 6–1–19-1
Dewberry – 3–0–35-1
Thomas – 8–0–53-0
Jamal – 5–0–22-0
O’Reilly – 6–1–29-6
Prior – 5–0–30-1

The Foxy tea machine stirred into action, providing the oppo with more that they could manage – though as it turns out they have a similar constitution as the Cazh….would it backfire…? Tea was lovely and plentiful once more.

Chasing a large total 213 (to win), Captain Dan wasn’t looking to go after that target straight away, but started with an opening gambit of 40 for no loss off 10 – it was pointed out that this target might have also been a bit optimistic… Tesh and Ash opened and started as requested – slow. The bowling attack was steady from the pavilion end, and erratic from the other, but as always (and as with Steveo’s first over) there was a good straight ball out there, which was to get the first victim Tesh – for 0 off 13 balls. 6-1-4overs. JR joined Ash and the pair continued to play each ball on merit usually resulting from dead batting from JR and a swish fro Ash. Ash was next to fall (4 ) in the 8th over after facing 17 balls. 14-2-8 – admittedly not quite the start captain Dan had been expecting, but their wickets hadn’t been thrown away trying to chase the large total from the start. Rich joined JR and both battled through the next 16 overs.

At drinks the pair were told to look for singles and turning 1s into 2s, which they did where possible. Richie displaced the much talked about ‘batting by numbers’ style from the sidelines (4 or swish, block, 4 or swish, block) by blocking 3 deliveries in a row! The partnership of 60 ended in the 24th over with JR being bowled (26 ) off 67 balls faced in 77 minutes – not quite Twenty/20 but just what the Cazh needed. 74-3-28.

MoJo was next in, still with the instructions of staying there, but pushing the score where poss. This worked for a while until Richie was caught and bowled by a cracker supposedly for 24 off 51 balls. 85-4-28overs. Dewbs joined Mojo and after waiting on the side lines for years, asked for the wrong guard and was bowled second ball (0 ). 85-5-28overs. Foxy who was due to be in next found his game cut short after being summoned to attend an annual picnic in LLandaff, and so he’d already left by the time he was meant to be batting. In a bit of a rush Shagger made his way out to the middle. After a confident start, or to be more honest, after he believed was a confident start, he went too soon for all out attack and top-edged one to third man (6 ). 92-6-29.

Pushing for man-of the-match, Steveo made his way to the middle, first ball crunched for 4, second dot, third, smacked for 4, fourth caught similar to Dan. 100-7-31overs. DB joined MoJo and the bets were taken. All bases from 1st ball to 4th ball were snapped up immediately, with Richie confidently saying he would bat out an over….we were all wrong. He lasted a lot longer than that. However, MoJo seeing Dave’s batting style, wisely realised that unless he was going to keep scoring no more runs would be added to the total. And so, making runs come from no where he began to display his array of shots. He was undone trying to manufacture a cover drive from leg stick and being stumped giving himself some room (25). 126-9- 37overs. Andy F was last man in and now facing the first team bowlers found the line and length very difficult to get away. Dave scored a run, but Andy F didn’t as he was stumped at the end of the 38th over(0 ). Dave finishing 1 not out off 19 balls faced! The Cazh 126ao.

A valiant effort by the Cazh, who’s main target was to try and bat for the full 40overs. We nearly made it. An enjoyable game, and excellent tea also, with everyone contributing with either ball, with the bat or fielding – Dave even chased down a 3 to stop a boundary….and a game which I’m sure SOR will remember for a long time to come. To continue with the formula – whenever SOR reaches a momentous occasion we always lose – and today was no exception...

Tesh – bowled - 0
Ash – bowled - 4
JR – bowled - 26
Rich – c+bowled - 24
MoJo – Stumped -25
Dewbs – bowled - 0
Foxy DNB - 0
Dan – caught - 6
Steveo – caught - 8
Dave – not out - 1
Andy F – stumped - 0

[Milestones]
The following Milestones were reached in this game. Congratulations to:
Tesh Hirani - 50 appearances
Paul Stephens - 3500 runs (a great achievement - well done BA)

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