Match Report vs Chartered Trust 12 June 2012

As we arrived at St Fagans the clouds were already gathering. After a chat with the groundsman who wanted to protect his clubhouse wicket for an important game (surely this game was important!) we took the covers off and let Dan and Gazz loose on the Trust batting order.

To be fair they both bowled well. But the Trust openers also batted very well and hit 31 off the first 4 overs. Winkie saw his first over go for 8 but Paul then got an lbw shout and then Winkie bowled the number 3 in his next over. The cazh were sneaking back in the game.

But some big hitting from the aggressive Craig Mohring and Nicholls moved Trust to 84-2 off 9 overs and we were in a real spot of bother with 160+ a real possibility. But slowly and in some ways inexplicably the cazh got themselves back into the match.

First Paul claimede Nicholls with a steepling caught and bowled - nobody else wanted it and he did. A good snaffle. Then winkie got an lbw against Steve Mohring, and after his first ball was hit for six, shakes got the crucial wicket brushing Craig's off stump with a quicker delivery (prompted by getting creamed off his first ball). Dan and Gazz came back to get a wicket a piece while Shakes picked up 2 more and somehow, we really didn't know how, we had bowled Trust out for 142 in the last over. A real result when 160 seemed the minimum they would get.

Shakes 3-17, Paul 2-36, winkie 2-40

We turned round quickly as the drizzle had already appeared at the end of their innings and we wanted to at least try to get a full game in.

Trust had seen that slow bowlers had exploited the total lack of bounce (shakey claimed an embarassed lbw with one that pitched and never left the wicket) and opened with the slowest they could find. The first over went well. So did the second when we found ourselves at 18-0. Five balls later we were three wickets down . Tesh was a little confusedly given out caught, a few balls later Darren missed the ball and then Pete also misread the flight and spin to be lbw.

The gentle spin bowler was on a hat-trick!!

Now then readers let's be honest. After Dave, who is the last man you want to send in against a flighty little spinner to stop a hat-trick? Captain Shakes surely had more sense. But no. Earlier he had said to the number 5 batsman "I'm putting you up the order 'cos you don't bat enough and you can run and get busy in chasing the total down".

So Dan put his obligatory fag out and strode purposefully to the wicket, much as a brave French nobleman would ascend to the guillotine.

It was then that the rain came and with the words of the groundsman ringing in our nears we knew that that, thankfully, was that.

So match abandoned and Dan notched up another did not bat.

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