Match Report vs Westbury-on-Severn
19th July 2026 @ Hayes Point (Skipper Steveo, report
Rhys)
A sunny day in Hayes Point was the setting for the annual
Westbury-on-Severn ‘tour’ match. A fixture that
would have been played by Barry Wanderers, but they only had
one player, so up stepped the Casuals (plus Dave from the
Wanderers). We had tried our best to move the game to an earlier
start because of some football going on - but we were destined
for a 14:30 start, albeit for a reduced 35 over game.
No shenanigans with the toss this week, Steve lost and we
were fielding in the heat. Luckily for us, the clouds would
come to our rescue for large parts of the innings.
After clarifying the rules about hitting the tree, I took
up my usual fielding position of Deep Backwards Oak. Pabs
opened the bowling with the brand new Dukes ball - and the
first delivery was dispatched way over my head, way over the
tree and crashed onto the rocks of Sully Bay. Hopefully not
a sign of things to come?!
Dan – who was side-lined due to injury – fancied
a walk so was tasked with retrieving the ball. Being very
careful to not lock himself outside the 4 digit-coded gate…
In stark contrast at the other end, Andy “Shane”
Munn made an immediate impact. Bowling from an unfamiliar
end he dismissed their young opener first ball with one that
pitched on leg and moved to take out off stump. Another six
from their #1 in the same over landed in the tennis courts,
which were of course locked. This meant we were on Ball number
3 and we hadn’t even started over number 3 yet. Andy
picked up his 2nd wicket in similar fashion, and rued his
decision to bowl from the other end “for the last 20
years”.
The opener, it seemed, had got his eye in - dispatching Pabs
for 30 runs in his first three overs. But a breakthrough occurred
when the ball beat the outside edge and medium-rare Jim behind
made a nifty stumping.
Andy took his third wicket in as many overs as their younger
batters had no answer to the Warne-esque leg cutters. With
Pabs taking another wicket – this time an edge to trusty
Will in first slip – Westbury found themselves on 47-5
after ”seeing off the opening bowlers”.
It became apparent that our opposition had a ‘bottom
heavy’ attack and there were a few tasty batters yet
to come. Their overseas player, an Aussie who had approximately
8 nicknames I heard when umpiring (Bluey, Sharky, Sheila,
Skippy, etc) dispatched Steve-O for a six first ball. The
irony being that Dan had just found that ball from the first
over – it clearly liked getting hit over the trees.
A couple of miserly overs from Pat at the other end slowed
down the scoring while Steve took the brunt of the antipodean.
Dave from the Wanderers came on to bowl alongside our skipper,
and bowled well, conceding only a few boundaries – again
scored by the Aussie. Pat was able to break this dangerous
partnership by bowling their number 7 who had scored a decent
17. Pat finishing with an impressive 8-1 from the four overs.
Ed and Will now had a turn at dismissing our overseas friend,
and after a few 6s and 4s, Will got the important dismissal
– in the same fashion as the opener – a good stumping
by Jim, leaving the batter short of his fifty by 2 runs. 127-7
I was the last of the team to bowl, with Hasnat being ‘rested’
for the run chase – and managed to keep it tight, conceding
6 from 3 overs.
At the other end, the return of the Pabs produced another
breakthrough. A decent batsman who looked to be getting his
eye in, but edged it behind for a well taken catch by James.
At 8 wickets down, Westbury put up some resistance, and it
wasn’t until Steve brought himself back that the 9th
wicket fell, in similar fashion to the 8th with another caught
behind. 166-9
All that was left to do was bring back our opener Andy, who
dismissed their young female batter who had played well, caught
and bowled.
Casuals had been set a target of 173.
P Stephens 7-0-42-3
A Munn 5.4-0-24-4
S O’Reilly 4-0-29-1
P Dean 4-0-8-1
D Dranfield 3-0-16-1
E Stagg 2-0-22-0
W Mason-Wilkes 3-0-15-1
JR Davies 3-0-6-0
EX Tras 15
---------------------------------------------------
On to the chase, and with Will needing to leave asap he opened
the batting with Hasnat. A quick fire 13 followed, before
holing out to their captain at long on. This brought Liam
to the crease, and he and Hasnat started to pick off the bad
balls, and score at above the required run rate of ~5. With
the partnership exceeding 50, Hasnat was given not out LBW
which sparked the opposition to life. Not sure exactly what
happened, but it made for an intense period where Hasnat was
on the receiving end of some 'sledging', including the beaut,
"Oh look he wants to whack the 15 year old". Hasnat
hit a few hurried boundaries before mis-timing one and getting
caught out in the covers for 38.
I joined Liam at the crease and lasted a whole two balls
before misjudging the pitch and slope exactly as I did the
last time I played in Hayes Point. A quick return to the pavilion
and The Duck Chair™ (see WhatsApp).
Thankfully Ed was able to stick around a lot longer than
yours truly, and was able to rotate the strike with some ones
and a rare 2 for Liam (only two doubles were scored in the
whole game). Liam finally dismissed, bowled for an important
31. 87-4 at the ‘hydration break’.
James joined Ed at the crease and after a slow start, began
to pick up the pace, knocking an excellent six back over the
bowler’s head and causing some spectators to trip over
themselves whilst performing evasive manoeuvres. Ed also contributing
a couple of fours, on way to an important 34 partnership,
broken when James mistimed a drive, and his best attempts
to put off the opposition fielder by loudly shouting “Ah
Sh*t” were in vain. Casuals 121-5 and still a fair few
runs to get.
We have definitely seen collapses from here in previous games,
and it was up to Captain O’Reilly to steady the ship
and guide his team home. He’d have to do so with Pat,
following an LBW that unluckily for Ed stayed low and would
have hit about a foot up middle stump. 136-6
Pat was able to score a few singles and keep the board ticking
along with Steve, who usually gets a lot of stick in my match
reports. I am please to announce that Steve handled his ‘stick’
very well at the crease and smashed a few boundaries before
calming Casual nerves with a thunderous six which would have
made Jos Buttler (41* from 13 in the most recent England game!)
nod with approval.
In the end Steve decided he would give me something funny
to write about, and his dismissal was canonically comical.
Stumped after losing balance and ‘falling’ out
of the crease feels very on brand. Still, a captain’s
innings was delivered and at 163-7 it very much felt like
the game had been taken away from Westbury with that partnership
of 27. In came ‘ringer’ Dave and saw out the remaining
ten runs with Pat, who punished a leg side ball with a well
timed leg glance.
Very rare you see a maiden as the last over in a successful
run chase, but that’s what happened - as 2 byes was
enough to seal the Casual win with three overs to spare.
A quick can or two was had before the World Cup final. A
double delight for most of the Casuals who were cheering on
the Spaniards. An important question was also answered post-match:
‘What beer do Wasps prefer?’ The resounding answer
is Cruzcampo, and definitely not Madri or Hobgoblin. After
decanting a can into a cup to remove the wasps which had flown
into his beer – James sat down with the rest of the
team to enjoy a Full English Breakfast – in the form
of questionably flavoured crisps – and also some Cheesy
Balls. Lovely.
W Mason-Wilkes caught 13
H Ahmed caught 38
L Forster bowled 31
JR Davies bowled 0
E Stagg LBW 15
J Barbour caught 25
S O’Reilly stumped 22
P Dean NOT OUT 8
D Dranfield NOT OUT 2
A Munn DNB
P Stephens DNB
E.X.Tras 13
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