Cheddar 4ths beat Huntspill & District 2nd XI by 4 wickets
Looking for their second win in a row Cheddar welcomed Huntspill to the spartan surroundings of Churchill Leisure Centre. Both sides reflected the usual late summer manning problems though Huntspill were probably slighter worse off having to press gang a member of the dad's taxi service into active duty.
Huntspill won the toss and took the obvious decision to bat on what looked like a good wicket with a dry, fast outfield. Openers Cox and Hocking put on a good 40 runs before the latter was caught top edging a Liam Young delivery for a steepling catch loudly claimed by Hartley running into the square from behind the stumps. Jack Tinton (1 for 47) returning for Cheddar dismissed his replacement with an excellent caught and bowled snatching the ball off his toes. The evergreen Steve Bamber (3 for 25) joined the attack and soon accounted for Cox (43) and skipper Maxwell (11) both LBW. Once these two had left the Huntspill batting descended into prodding and blocking and there was only one boundary hit from the last 20 overs. Cheddar's ecumenical approach to bowling paid off with wickets for Moreno (2 for 9), Alexander (1 for 16), Griffiths (1 for 12), Josling (1 for 2) as well as an excellent spell by Jim Bamber who only conceded 1 run from each of his 3 overs. Fielding once again was excellent and the bowlers were aided by quality catches from Glynn Young fielding in the deep and Ritchie Alexander close in on the drive. If Cheddar could only control their generosity with wide balls they would seriously start to keep their opposition's scores under 3 figures.
Cheddar began the run chase well as both openers set about Huntspill's attack and built an excellent partnership. Moreno (25) and Young (top scorer 31) laid the foundations for the arrival of Tinton (29) and Amos (20) whose partnership revealed two very different batting styles. Tinton set about the bowling whilst Amos preferred to concentrate on building a steady innings to the occasional frustration of his partner. Jim Bamber's (1) innings came to a premature end as he was caught in close with Huntspill's bowlers responding to the attacking field set. Hartley (13 no) and Griffiths (10) took the score close to the required total. Steve Bamber (8 no) scored the winning runs with two hefty fours. Maxwell (3 for 16) and Cox (2 for 46) were the pick of the Hunspill attack but with Cheddar only neding 28.3 overs to win there was little opportunity for the other bowlers to get a start.
This was another cracking game of cricket played in the true spirit of the game, it's a shame that we have to wait from September to May to play again...
|
