Flyford suffer heavy defeat in good spirits against strong opposition
Sometimes defeat hurts other times it is easier to take. Today was one of those days in village cricket. Flyford came up against a team drawn from the fairly large village of Birmingham. Consequently, the opposition proved to be an order of magnitude better in most departments, the key being batting and bowling. However even in the face of superior opposition and some fairly worrying statistics delivers by Walks of Sportsman CC's recent batting exploits the game started as ever with 11 souls filled with hope and expectation. Two overs latter that hope had ebbed more than a little.
Under grey skies with just the occasional drop of rain the two Flyford openers Scritty Rone-Clarke and Joe ‘Chappers’ Chapman set about a difficult task with admirable resolve. Up against two opening batsmen of clear experience and technique it was clear that anything straying from line or length was going to be punished and punished hard. On an outfield that is still losing some of the huge amount of water it has received this spring the Sportsman openers were not interested in running between wickets preferring to go straight for the boundary often for the maximum.
At the 20 over drinks break Sportsman had amassed a very decent 152 for the loss of only two wickets.
I’m not sure what Derek put in the squash at drinks but after the break wickets began to fall and the run rate dropped faster than Rishy leaving the D Day Celebrations! Could it be that the middle order was not to the standard of the openers, this certainly seemed to be the case.
A super spell of varied bowling from Simon Tibke after drinks meant that Sportsman having scored 152 in the first 20 overs were restricted to 38 from the next 15. Unfortunately for Flyford there was a sting in the batting tail for Sportsman as what looked like being a target of 200 was stretched out to 244 thanks to their number 8 Omar. Still a lot less than the 400 that your correspondent was pondering as he watched all too many balls sailing over the rope for 6 in the first 10 overs!
I cannot stress enough the resolve shown by all the Flyford bowlers and fielders despite a couple of difficult chances going down, the Flyford heads never did. Scritty bowled much better than his figures of 48/0 from 7 indicates. He and Chappers taking the brunt of a brutal assault by the Sportsman skipper Waqas, who was eventually clean bowled by skipper Joey Poole for 95. Joey ending on 1 wicket for 7 from 5 overs. Matty Stewart and Jordan Lewis both bowled with great heat on a difficult afternoon 1 for 53 and 1 for 57 respectively.
Simon ended with a very creditable 4 for 27 from 5 overs and special mention has to go to Chappers excellent caught and bowled taken with his wrong had, a catch that would have graced any ground at any level.
What Flyford needed was a good solid base from the top order batsmen to set the stage for a rousing and unlikely win. How I wish I were engaged in writing fiction, if I were, a stalwart opening pair of Poole and Tibke would have knocked off the target with overs to spare. Unfortunately, my commitment to reporting only fact means that I have to say the score of 2 runs for 3 wickets after 2 overs did not bode well. It must be acknowledged that they were facing a higher standard of bowling than is usual from a Sunday afternoon friendly team in the form of the now bowling Omar!
The fall of the third wicket did bring Mark ‘Walks’ Walker to the crease and with Simon Tibke showing an admirably straight bat at the other end Flyford gradually pushed the score on to a respectable 105 for 4 at the 20 over drinks break. Having been joined by Matty Stewart with the score on 43 for 4 this pair put on 83 for the 5th Wicket. Indeed at this point of the game with 17 overs to go and 111 to get an unlikely victory was beginning to take shape somewhere on the horizon. That was until the deadly Omar came back on and the rest as they say is history. The friendly smiling assassin Omar finished with 8 for 15, all of which (including your correspondent first ball) were clean bowled!
So after a sinew staring effort with both bat and ball Flyford were left licking wounds and learning lessons the most important of which may be to not play a Birmingham village team again. The Sportsman team did live up to their name, and the game was good natured and played in a competitive no quarter given manner but in a good spirit with LBWs and caught behinds being given where appropriate.
Awards:
Man of the match: Simon Tibke 4 for 27 and a solid batting performance
Champagne Moment: Chappers for a quite magnificent caught and bowled.
Tit: Joey, we know it was your birthday but this is Village Cricket!
Thanks for coming: Josh Nullis for turning up to watch and stepping in to bat for the injured Alex.
