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'Graveney In a Pathetic Fielding Display'
By Jez Skidmore
Graveney 198 all out
Leigh 200 - 0
Leigh Win by 10 wickets
A pathetic fielding display
by Graveney led to a humiliating ten-wicket defeat at the hands of
Leigh. The Green Caps dropped no less than eight catches – several of
them straightforward and most of them off Jez Skidmore’s bowling – in a
laughable demonstration of fielding which understandably had the
opposition smirking long before play ended.
Leigh’s opening batsman
Cambra, who had a good eye, would have been difficult enough to remove
had he been given one chance rather than the five he enjoyed on the way
to an unbeaten century. 'How ironic that we’ve introduced a fielding
award this season', mused Nick Goodburn, who had a fair amount of butter
on his own fingers.
The only positive aspects of
our fielding were Paul Jeffels’ lightning reactions on the boundary and
Dave Moody’s impressive performance behind the stumps. Graveney’s
bowlers all put in a decent shift but could only look on aghast as
events unfolded in front of their eyes.
All this came after Graveney
posted a very respectable 198 and, at tea, felt they had a good chance
of winning the game.
The afternoon had started
with a frank exchange in the pub between Paul Fanning and Jez over the
captain’s controversial decisions of the previous week. It did at least
clear the air, although the two were never likely to agree. "The problem
is," said Jez on the way to the game, "Paul is an arrogant xyz who
always thinks he’s right. And so am I."
At the ground, events
followed a familiar pattern. Paul won the toss, the recognised batsmen
did their jobs, there was the usual middle-order collapse and the tail
wagged. Nick continued his good form with a rapid 40, opening this week
in the absence of Rob Davies. The returning Paul Jeffels hit 36 before
being stumped, and debutant Martin Nieri had an impressive first knock
of 23 for the club, including a towering six which impressed Howard.
Barry Gray moaned loudly
about going in at number 9 and promptly made his point with his knock of
21. Jez moaned loudly about continually being put at 9, was pushed up to
8 and promptly did not make his point with his knock.
Dave Moody and Kev McGill
then put on a defiant show with a last wicket stand of 19 to push
Graveney close to 200 and give us false hope of putting up a decent
fight against Leigh.
Man of the match:
Martin
Nieri
-
impressive all round debut (and he did not drop a catch!)
Champagne moment:
Howard
Hamilton -
touching gloves in
celebration with Pradeep when he thought Pradeep had hit a boundary. In
fact, he’d hit the ball to a fielder in the deep for a single.. |
