Match Report vs Eclipse 4 June 2015 @ Wenvoe (Skipper Dan, report Rob)

Team:
Ash †
Dan L *
Darren
Goff
Paul A
Pete O
Peter T
Rob
Will
Cheese
Luke

"It is war's prize to take all vantage."
Henry VI Pt III

On a sunny evening in Wenvoe, an unforgettable toss was won by one of the sides, and Eclipse were batting. The openers looked confident and were pootling along at a steady, but not spectacular pace, for the opening overs. With the bright pink Dukes ball swinging a bit - and getting more bounce than Lords or Cardiff i.e. a small amount, straight deliveries were hard to score off. Anything else was being swished at like a blindfolded baseball player. A sign to come? Well, yes.

Dan was bowling some tight overs from the Ely Rangers End (?) which resulted in the openers having a swing at the other end. K.(iwi) Tandy aka Pete aka The Beard To Be Feared was the unlucky recipient, with a few shots just landing short, or over fielders. At this point, the openers were 41/0 from 7 overs, ably assisted by E. Xtras. Change of bowlers with Owens taking over from Dan. With a combination of the pink ball moving round and a significant drop in pace, the batsmen fancied his chances and missed a slow straight one which swung a bit (42/1).

From here Eclipse never really recovered. With the scorers further dispensing with bowlers initials, Obee came on from the Pavillion End. A few tight overs followed, with Pete getting the ball just above the eye-line and making it difficult to score. Pressure told, with a run-out in the 10th over at the non-strikers end with some confusion (the dropped catch has been blanked from my memory, but I was bowling).

In his 3rd over, Pete gave one an extra (extra) bit of flight - the batsmen's eyes lit up, and he gave it everything, except contact. Bowled! A pattern was beginning to form, and in Pete’s next over he got another bowled - lulled into an ambitious shot (59/4). Pete was unlucky with some interesting Cazh fielding. He had one delivery which the batsman spooned up, landing just out of reach of a slightly static fielder in the covers (Owens) and had another dropped at long-on by Darren, who decided to control the ball on his chest before trying to grasp it. An unusual technique, which produced a noise that sounded like a one-gun salute. Ouch. There was some discussion about the Sun being directly in his eyes, but only from Darren.

With Stewart and Day taking over, the plunder continued. Ed, playing along with the theme, bowling their number 5 in his second over (69/5), as part of 3 good overs for 9 runs, with the pink ball doing too much for the opposition. Goff did manage to drop a catch off Ed’s bowling, which surprised everyone as we’d earlier been reminded, several times, about his 100% successful record (do we not learn?) At least he made up for it by taking a wicket - with his first ball. Bowled.

Which leads us to THE over. To be honest, nobody knew what was happening at the time - certainly the scorers who gave up and only recorded 5 balls, which wouldn’t be so bad, but there was at least one wide in there (well played again E. Xtras). I sat down just after that over was bowled and collected several witness statements. Let’s hope none of us ever needs to rely on the testimony of a fellow Cazh player. If you do, I’d get Johnny Cochran or a copy of Shawshank on DVD. So, to the over, AKA the virtual hat-trick over:

1: Edge. Dropped by Ash.
2: Wide (saw him coming?)
3: Dot
4: Edge. Dropped Will (slip). Was going very quickly. More of an impact to the chest than a drop.
5: Bowled (if you want something done properly…)
6: Dropped (Ash). But only Goff heard the nick.
7: Dot ball
8. Bowled
9: Single

So two extra balls? If you compare the scorecard it seems to make less sense as they have 3 singles off the over. Anyway the FoW, over summary and scorecard make no sense throughout the card, so why dwell? (80/9)

Dan came on for the last over. Good to see the Cazh spirit alive and well, with the opposition on 80-9 - foot on the throat, make ‘em grovel and all that. Dan bowled their last on his 4th delivery to leave Eclipse all out for 83 from 19.4 overs. 8 bowled. 2 run out. With 50 runs off the bat and more extras than Ben Hur, with 24 in wides and 9 sundries. Chapeaux.

O M R W Av
K. Tangy 4 0 33 0 8.25
D. Lewis 3.4 0 9 1 2.45
Owens 3 0 9 1 3.00
Obee 4 0 14 2 3.50
Stewart 3 0 9 1 3.00
Day 2 0 5 3 2.50

The first half of the match was as interesting as the second half was quick. Will and Ed must have had their eyes on a pint and some crisps, or been given a curfew because as soon as they saw off the openers they rattled off the runs in 15 overs without really looking troubled, including a couple of nice looking 6’s from Ed.

Eclipse tried a bit of everything to get into the wickets, and rotated everyone round, often bowling one or two over spells. This seemed to put the bowlers off more than the batsmen. Will was LBW right at the end for 32 runs, whilst Ed was 42 not out, which will do the average some good. Darren popped up for one over at the end, and was 3 not out.

Goad 32 LBW
Stewart 42 NO
Britton 3 NO
15.1 Overs
7 Extras

I can also remember lots of talk about snacks appearing at some point, but they never did materialise? Perhaps such talk should be banned as it gets people's hopes up and can only lead to an unhappy environment.

"As a man sow, shall he reap. and I know that talk is cheap. But the heat of the battle is as sweet as the victory."
Bob Marley

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