|
'Graveney Start Season With Deserved Draw'
By Tim Bunn
Newdigate 201 all out
Graveney 127 - 9
Match Drawn
The season’s first Moment
of Disgrace was sealed on Friday when Jez Skidmore – Graveney’s
specialist Point fielder – opted to watch a game of soccer from a
luxury, prawn sandwich-filled corporate box, leaving his team-mates
struggling to present a full XI for our trip to Newdigate. Up to the
mark stepped Don Jones, father of erstwhile Graveneyite Craig, and we
were thankfully at full strength once again.
With this fixture having been a victim of April showers last season and,
after some fairly heavy rain the night before, were pleased to hear that
our opposition were as keen as us to honour the fixture.
Nick Goodburn, our skipper
again for this season (subject to mutiny at the forthcoming AGM) won the
toss and, much to the disbelief of the Chairman, decided to take to the
field. With KC stuck off the coast of Ireland and Jez, Barry & Jay all
unavailable, Graveney were left with only three regular ‘bowlers’,
Messrs. Jain, Bunn & Eveleigh. It was clear that Nick would be calling
on some of our occasional bowlers throughout the Newdigate innings.
Pradeep Jain (8-1-18-2)
and Tim Bunn (10-0-27-1) opened the bowling, restricting the opposition
to little over 2 runs per over for the first hour. Tim could not find a
dismissal in his first spell but Pradeep managed to get the breakthrough
when Capel (12) hit a steepling shot to the square leg boundary and
Howard Hamilton took a catch which most of us assumed he would drop in
an amusing fashion.
Throughout the early
exchanges of the Newdigate innings, Howard had been enthusiastic in his
appealing. However, he did quieten down after shouting ‘catch it’ after
a lofted shot, only to be advised by his team-mates that the ball passed
about two feet from him on its way to the boundary. Those new, designer
specs not yet functioning properly, Howard….
Soon afterwards, Pradeep
trapped Bettersworth in front for 19, a much-deserved second wicket
after some very tight bowling.
After 16 overs, Nick
brought on Tim Eveleigh and Paul Jeffels, who had been demonstrating a
tidy line and length in the pre-season nets with his all-new quicker
ball. Tim (6-0-39-0) struggled to find a consistent rhythm but was
unlucky to see Howard, running round from square leg, fail to take a
tricky second catch off his bowling. Meanwhile, Paul (8-0-44-1) did
manage to take the wicket of D Jones (Don’s other son – a real family
affair, this) who had been scoring fairly freely and departed for 23
runs.
Don was then called upon
to have a bowl and with figures of 5-0-23-3 justified the Skipper’s
decision. Besides taking the scalps of Patel (bowled, 27) and the
dangerous Calcutt (stumped Moody, 49), Don amusingly managed to see off
his own son, Craig, for a golden duck, caught by Pradeep in the covers.
Rob Davies (5-0-21-0)
bowled a mixed ‘bag of nuts’ (his words) and, although wickets were not
forthcoming, he kept Newdigate from seriously upping the scoring rate
the mid-innings stage.
Incredibly, Nick lost all
sense of reason at this point and tossed the ball to O’D. The Chairman
(2-0-11-0) did not disgrace himself, though, and after only two overs
seemed to take himself off, to be replaced by Paul Fanning. Paul had
previously only bagged a solitary wicket for the Greencaps, so we didn’t
expect too much to happen.
But Paul (3-0-13-3)
managed to quadruple his wickets tally in his short spell, aided by some
excellent work by Dave Moody behind the stumps. Quilley (stumped, 44),
McDonald (stumped, 9) and de Lasho (caught Moody, 2) all fell victim to
this lethal bowler/’keeper partnership.
Towards the end of the
Newdigate innings, the incoming batsmen got shorter and shorter and Tim
Bunn gained reward for some early tight bowling by bowling Miller for 0.
Admittedly, Miller was definitely a junior player, but he was wearing a
Surrey CCC shirt at the crease, so everyone agreed that this was a prize
scalp.
Judd (1 not out) was left
at the crease, with the opposition having posted a total of 201 all out.
Tea was taken in warm sunshine and Messrs. Fanning and Davies, full of
early season optimism, were soon padded up and ready to take to the
crease.
Paul looked to play his
usual, classical repertoire of shots but, realising that the long grass
in the outfield meant that he would have to run rather than rely on
boundaries, was not overly devastated when he was caught behind for 6
off the bowling of opener McDonald. Upon his dismissal, Paul trooped to
his executive Skoda to fetch a radio on which to keep tabs on the score
in the FA Cup semi-final between Arsenal and Chelsea, a game that would
ultimately only add to his disappointment with the bat.
Howard had bizarrely been
given the No. 3 berth and, after a brief partnership of 1 run with Rob,
was caught and bowled by McDonald for a duck. Skipper (16) was in next
and proceeded to build a solid partnership of 48 with Rob before being
caught by McDonald off Calcutt’s opening over, the first of two
consecutive wicket maidens. The second of Calcutt’s wickets removed Rob
for 25 valuable runs and suddenly Graveney looked vulnerable.
This feeling was
exacerbated by the rapid arrival and departure of Pradeep from the
middle, having faced only four balls for his duck (c Miller, b Calcutt).
To secure a Graveney victory, we needed Paul Jeffels to see out the
innings and hope that he could be supported by the tail. Paul (21)
batted well but was dismissed by an excellent, one-handed catch by Patel
(b D Jones) and a stinky draw now seemed like our best option.
Big Tim Eveleigh (6) was
given plumb LBW by Howard after a low delivery from D Jones and the
Chairman (5) followed soon afterwards, having also been caught in front,
this time by Capel. Don Jones could not build on the success of his
bowling and was also dismissed by Capel for 2 runs.
Tim Bunn was the last man
in, entering the fray with 6 overs remaining. Umpire Goodburn advised
that a draw was achievable and Tim (10 not out) and Dave Moody (6 not
out) proceeded to block the good ball and play the looser delivery.
There were a few hairy moments, mainly when Tim ‘got a bit bored’ and
tried to throw his wicket away. But the final two batsmen saw out the
final 30 balls for a well-deserved draw. Graveney had only mustered 127
runs but it was a well-fought stalemate and we look forward to our next
trip to Newdigate for the Kenny Doyle Memorial Shield game in May.
Moment of Utter
Disgrace: Jez Skidmore
and Wolves (they’re coming
straight back down anyway).
Man of the match:
Rob
Davies / Pradeep Jain.
Champagne moment:
Don
Jones taking son Craig's wicket first ball. |
