Match Report vs Eclipse 29 April 2021 @ Wenvoe (Skipper Rob, report Paul)

The 2021 season commenced at Wenvoe on Thursday the 29th of April, this was the team selected to pay this pre-season friendly

Paul Stephens
Richard Holiday
Will Mason-Wilkes (wkt)
George Phillips
Jared Morgan (debut)
Steve O’Reilly
Rob Owens (capt)
Dan Lewis
Goff Day
Mark Stephens
David Thomas

The Wenvoe microclimate saw us home again and the rain kept away and Captain Rob won the toss and chose to bat opening with Paul and Ritchie.

Stunningly, since neither of us had picked up a bat since last September we survived the first six overs. The ball moved around a bit, it swung and nipped from the pavilion end but the quicker youngster at the other end had radar and run up issues and gave us a few extras along the way.26-0 after 6 overs.

I went first ball of the 7th over for 6, bowled by a straight ball off my pads that didn’t move much (crap shot to be fair) and Will joined the fun. Will was next to go top edging a full toss to mid wicket on the boundary for 11, one 4 and a 3! 46-2 off 10.

George quickly followed bowled ushering the debutant Jared who hadn’t played since school. I think Rich went next for a well made 21which included three 4’s, it was a very good knock and a good start and he was bowled by a grubber to be fair, 56-3.

Captain Rob joined Jared who went caught at cover for a duck 57-3, leaving Steve to join Captain Rob; the bets were in on the sideline I am sure. Steve and Rob increased the run rate and had a good partnership of 35 before Steve ran himself out on a kamikaze mission that emperor Hirohito would have been proud of. Steve played well with two 4’s, run out for 16.

Captain Rob played our best innings of the day I think; he looked fluent and played excellently for 22 not out with two 4’s and the Casuals first 6 of the season towards the football ground. Dan was not out 0 and we managed 100 for 6 off our 18 overs.
They bowled 24 extras and I think we were perhaps 10 to 15 runs short of a good total but 101 to win made it a game.

Innings number two, had I mentioned that it was really cold and Covid had definitely had an impact on the Casuals fitness. Dan is a little rounder, as is Steve, Ritchie and Goffy (good luck with the half marathon mate). Dave looks less mobile (I know), and the running between the wickets really took a toll on quite a few of us.

Dan and Goff opened up for us both going for 6 an over even though the book says they were on 33 after the 6th over. Goff managed to strangle one of the openers out caught by Rob on the mid wicker boundary in the 4th over.

The other opener and an old adversary Niluka played very well and both retired on 30 each after the first wicket. Mark replaced Dan at the pavilion end and after 3 deliveries pulled a hamstring and was relegated to short cover for the rest of the game and I had to replace him. At the other end an increasingly immobile Dave was having problems finding a good length and went for 27 off his 3 overs, poor old Goff doing much of the fetching carrying chasing and throwing, running from long off to cover on the boundary.

I bowled ok to be fair, I haven’t bowled for two years because of shoulder problems and I still am not 100% but I landed everything and the scorebook says I bowled my three overs for 10 runs.

With Mark only bowling one over for 6 runs this left Steve and Rob to bowl the last 5 overs of our innings. They were 76-1 at this point and Niluka and Tim the other opener had either retired or were about to retire. Rob got the next wicket, caught by me at shortish mid wicket much to my surprise as it barely touched my hands and nestled in the midriff area.

Rob bowled well going for 6 off his two overs and Steve also bowled well enough until the 18th over where a filthy full toss was dispatched to the tennis court side for 4.

Will kept very well and had a stumping not given off Rob that the umpire later apologised for. We looked a little toothless with bat and ball and I don’t think during the second innings that the result was in doubt but we did make them go to the last over.

We played ok considering the circumstances I think, it was nice to get out there and do something and see people again and we stayed to have a beer or two at the ground after the game provided by Chris Stork.

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