|
Weymouth B
118-4 (2 points) beat Portland A 116-2 (0 points) by 5
balls
Hostilities were resumed after the festive break with
John Ryan's new model army lining up against the youthful
exuberance of the Weymouth second string and their aged
wicket keeping mentor. There existed some doubt as to what
the make up of Ryan's regiment would be with this finally
decided only minutes before the games commencement.
"Gary and Jason have gone too far this time and
things will be said, these things will remain private but
let me say that I'll be telling them that their services
will no longer be required." declared team manager
Richard Stewkesbury. Ryan agreed with this action when he
found difficulty in fitting six players into five places,
but parity was restored when Weymouth were found to be
one player short and the good Reverend Bill Gates (who
had already started the post-match celebrations and had 2
pints in his person), and according to Neven was
unavailable at the present time as he was picking the
little guy up, duly offered his services to the young
lads of the opposition.
Ryan won the toss and elected
to make first use of a pitch that was undoubtedly going
to turn later in the hour, opening with Jones and Davey.
Jones immediately set about the bowlers, looking to
dominate with a series of flamboyant drives and audacious
cuts, unfortunately connecting with only one delivery in
his ten ball innings and this was an edge to the
wicketkeeper that he was too embarrassed to catch. The
innings was ended when the great philosopher was run out
and Davey soon followed driving a ball not into the
ceiling this time but straight into the hands of mid-off.
A captain's innings was what was required from the
captain and a vice-captain's innings from his number two
and Ryan and Blackman delivered the goods both men making
their twenty five runs, leaving it to Trevett and Morris
to face out the final two overs. Both men contributing a
few singles despite the interruption of Johnny
'Jobsworth' Redlands who demanded that the net be pulled
across the gallery before the final ball of the innings
could be bowled, after Trevett had sent successive
deliveries into the balcony area.
Drained by his efforts with the bat, Ryan chose
Trevett and Morris to open the bowling. During an
eventful first four overs Trevett had a perfectly good
appeal turned down when Weymouth's opener was caught
behind down the legside by Blackman; Jones and Davey
collided going for the ball and then proceeded to stare
at the stationary orb while both the batsmen were
stranded in the middle of the wicket; and the crowning
moment was a very dubious run out decision which was not
given when the batsmen was a good yard short of the
crease as the bails were removed (scorer Richard
Stewkesbury declared that from his vantage point the
batsman had made his ground with ease). The first wicket
finally came off the last delivery of Morris' second over
as a push to mid-on was thrown to Blackman by Trevett and
Weymouth were 33-1.
Jones then replaced Trevett after his second over,
allowing the opposition to accelerate their scoring rate
and he was then replaced after just one over, after the
captain was unimpressed with 21 runs being surrendered
off 6 balls. Jan Davey was brought into the attack an
over later as Ryan looked to turn the screw on the young
Weymouth side, but sloppy fielding by Jones and the Skip
on the side walls eased the pressure. Davey and Jones
finally combined to good effect as "Aristotle"
Jones held an easy chance off the netting to grab the
second wicket of the innings. Weymouth looked rattled,
but this didn't last long as Ryan once again flattered to
deceive supplying a seemingly endless stream of short-pitched
deliveries to Gates, who relished the opportunity to
display his array of overhead, tennis-style, shots as he
scored freely, but was eventually dispatched to the
balcony courtesy of Trevett and Blackman combining again
to run him out just short of his retirement.
With Weymouth needing over 30 runs off the last 3
overs to win, the captain replaced himself with Trevett
whose last over went for 12 including yet another failed
run out appeal, this time the batsman had his bat in the
air as the bails fell (Stewkesbury verdict: in by a
country mile), with Davey's final over also yielding 12.
Six balls were left, and Ryan knew this meant he had to
keep it tight, though one shot could win it for Weymouth
B. Moving his field in to save the single, "Poindexter"
had laid his trap, then bowled just the delivery to snare
his victim. As the ball pitched just past the no-ball
line, there was a glint in the captain's eye, which soon
turned to a look of horror as a blur of orange sped
towards him off the bat at a rate of knots. His
despairing dive was not enough to stop Weymouth B winning
with 5 balls to spare.
|