Match Report

1st XI vs Chard, 6th May 2006

Loughlin's debut bowling hatrick efforts not quite enough!
Cheddar 47 All out lost to Chard 144 All out.

On the First weekend of the WEPL Somerset Division matches Cheddar's first eleven were ready for a tough game at Chard after a poor result from pre-season friendly at Bridgwater. With Cheddar being there in plenty of time before the start there was ampful time for a sensible warm up and for the new captain 'Terry Clark' to have some 'team building' words with the new look first eleven, welcoming back some old and new players alike. With Chard winning the toss and electing bat on what was weather wise a 'dull' day to the start of the cricketing summer Cheddar were quietly happy with the choice on what was a green and moist.

The opening attack was Terry Clarke who set about the job of line and length on a pitch that suited his accuracy and weather conditions that aptly helped his style of bowling. The attack was opened at the other end with the pace of John Tullett who once settled into his rhythm made the early breakthrough that Cheddar wanted in the fourth over, Johnson caught at mid off by Clark. Chard tried to steady the ship but with Clark and Tullett bowling tight it was only a matter of time before the next wicket would come about and that was again Tullett trapping the dangerous Jones LBW. With the score now on 42 off of 9 overs for two wickets the games was poised and this brought Horner to the middle to join Glentworth and these two set about to build on the start that Chard had. Both Horner and Glentworth were confident at putting the bad ball away with Glentworth ridinig his luck on more than one occasion. Clark then broke what was looking like a dangerous partnership with Glentworth chancing his luck once to often and the thinking mind of Clark out witting Glentworth who chipped a catch to Waite at midwicket. This brought the Tilley to the crease who Cheddar knew he was able to score at an alarming rate but some simple straight bowling and a confident appeal for LBW by Clark set him back to the pavillon two balls later. With Chard now 50 for 4 off 10 overs Cheddars tails were up and with the fielders really supporting the bowlers the run rate slowed with only 25 runs coming from the next 8 overs when you would have expected Chard to push on. The introduction of Che Moore and Matthew Loughlin (First Team bowling debut) saw a change in Chards batting mind and they new they had to push on and with Horner using his feet well he quickly upped the run rate. With Cheddar still confident and Loughlin now on line and length in his third over he produced a timely 'Yorker' to dismiss the dangerous Horner (42) who looked set for a big score. Moore and Loughlin continued to bowl well with Moore putting in 110% in the outfield. Cheddar were confident at restricting Chards total score on a wicket that they new runs were not going to come easy on if Chards bowling attack were tight. With Chard 117 for 5 off of 28 overs Loughlin produced an over of debut magic. His 6th over of his spell read dot, wicket, wicket, wicket, dot, wicket. Loughlin reduced Chard to 9 wickets down in one over having two catches held behind the stumps by Norris and one given out LBW with the batsmen just shuffling across his stumps. With it being only a matter of time Moore finished the innings off in the 35 over bowling Scott for 24. Loughlin returning debut bowling figures of 5 for 33 off 8 overs. Chard managed a total of 141 off of 35 overs which Cheddar were happy but knew they would have to knuckle down.

Cheddar started confidently with bat with both James Callow and new opener Ollie Norris both looking comfortable against the pace of Findlay and the accuracy of Cleal. Callow doing well to keep out a few 'skiddy' ones early on from Findlay. It was Findlay though who won the battle as in the 9th over with the score on 20 Callow played down the wrong line of a quick straight one to be bowled for 6. Chard had already removed Cleal from the bowling attack at this point and had introduced the tidy bowling of Tilley. The fall of Callows wicket had bought Andy Veal to the crease who looked at ease at the middle until he drove an easy catch to extra cover off the bowling of Tilley, Veal out for 0, which meant Cheddar were 25 for 2 of off 12 overs. This bought Buttler to the middle who after stroking a delightful 4 to the cover boundry was comprehensively bowled by a quick in-swinging yorker from Findlay. This bought Gavin Waite to the crease, yet another batsmen who did not look in trouble at the wicket against Tilley and Findlay but poor shot selection against Findlay saw him returning to the pavilion without troubling the scorers, caught 2nd Slip chasing a wide one for 0. Findlay and Tilley now turned the screw and with tight bowling Cheddar's batsmen gave little resistance with the innings coming to a close in the 28th over and Cheddar all out for 47. Findlay returned figures of 5 wickets for 20 runs off of 13 overs and Tilly 5 wickets for 11 runs off of 11 overs, a marvellous performance by them. With only Norris (25, LBW Tilley) showing little resistance, the young opener showed the other top order batsmen how to be selective and how to concentrate when things were not going how Cheddar would have liked.

With Cheddar's strong bowling and fielding efforts it is now down to the batsmen to find the application that will now doubt soon see them rattling up the runs as they did last year

Next week Cheddar are at Sharpham Road against the newly relegated Westlands were I am sure Cheddars batsmen will be out to prove what they can do.