Flyford fall short again for lack of Biffers!
As a mild wet May relented enough to allow a Friday night game, once again a plucky Flyford effort fell agonisingly short.
Always a well supported fixture due, in no small part, to an excellent pavilion bar and a decent line in barbecue, indications were that a full strength (numbers wise) would be available. So much so that Steve 'Bev' Bevan offered to even up our numbers and play for Himbleton where he is well known and loved.
However the fates were not kind and due to an unknown gym injury to Benny, Flyford were down to 10 men! Still, no worries as ever, everyone was committed to give their best.
Having decided that midweek matches would be captained by anyone wishing to get more experience Joe Allsop stepped up to the plate and promptly lost the toss! Flyford were to field. Unfortunately Jordan Lewis was detained at work in a meeting so numbers were a little thin on the ground an Himbleton generously lent us a youngster to field.
Flyford welcomed back Matty Stewart for this game. Matty not having picked up a bat or ball since the last game of last season! Matty suffered a major disappointment even before a ball was bowled when he found out his pristine new cricket boots would have to stay in the bag due to the game being played on an Astroturf wicket.
Clearly Matty is made of stern stuff and put this setback behind him taking the first over. With Pete Holpin sharing the bowling duties Flyford got off to a good start restricting the Himbleton openers to singles and twos. First wicket success went to Pete Holpin who clean bowled T Pretty, one of the Himbleton openers. Unfortunately no one could winkle out the other Himbleton opener Sugden who retired on an unbeaten 25.
Amid some keen fielding and accurate bowling Flyford stuck to their task and saw a succession of Himbleton batsmen sent back to the hutch. While there were a couple of near refusals, on the whole Flyford made the most of chances when they came along, with catches held by Simon Tibke and Arron Monk and a stumping for your own correspondent.
Pick of the bowling figures was Matty Stewart with creditable figures of 4 overs, 1 maiden, 3 wickets for 17 runs. Matty was well supported By Joe Chapman with 3 over 3 for 17, Pete Holpin 4 over 1 for 17 and while Simon Tibke and Arron Monk were wicketless they payed a full part in restricting Himbleton to 123 for 7.
Though the light was fading a little that did feel like a getable store as the Flyford openers Tibke and Lewis strode to the crease. However even the compelling waft of barbecued meats was not going to tempt Simon Tibke to change his style! Whether it was the aforesaid barbecue or a rush of blood to the head that saw Jordan Lewis bowled to a straight one while going for a full on biff or just a desire to move the score we will never know, but Fly were one wicket down. Simon was to remain unbeaten and after a couple of excellent 'real' cricket shots retired on 27.
Flyford, despite losing wickets fairly regularly, saw Mark Davy go for 1 and Steve Nullis depart without troubling the scorers, due to our star batsman Mr Extras (32) Fly were keeping up with the score pretty well.
In the middle of the innings Captain Joe gave us all a 'Tit moment' to remember when attempting a sweep was hit bang in front of middle stump claiming he was not out as it had hit his chest!
Despite supporting knocks of 7 and 7 not out from your correspondent and Joe Chapman respectively, a brave and ultimately vainglorious biff of 24 from Matt Stewart which included 3 towering sixes, Flyford fell short at 112 for 7 from their 20 overs.
Speaking personally, win lose or draw and evening spent in glorious countryside among friendly committed people with a beer and a burger to look forward to is an absolutely splendid antidote to the crushing boredom of a six week General Election campaign and the madness of an orange criminal on the other side of the Atlantic. The ability of village cricket to take you out of the 'real' world and all its nonsense for a few hours renders the ultimate result pretty moot.
That said let's all play for the win on Sunday!!
Awards:
Champagne Moment: Matty Stewart's towering 6
Man of the Match Matty Stewart 3/17 and 24 with the bat
Tit: Joe Allsop, anyone have a spare copy of the Laws of Cricket?
Thanks for Coming: Benny's gym membership
