SATURDAY XI v CHALLENGERS - 27th August 2016
Challenging match for Curdridge
The final match of the 2016 league season v Challengers(Gosport) took place at a hot and humid Ampfield Bowl on Saturday 27th August. The Skipper had decided there was no more to be done in the season so had departed for a much needed break leaving the Captaincy with allround allrounder Dave Janes with instruction to ensure 3rd place in the league.
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The match started as most do with the Curdridge skipper deliberately losing the toss allowing the opposing captain to do the thinking. In this case he chose to bat presumably based on the home team being unprepared physically for the unnatural atmospheric conditions.
The match commenced and so did the problems for Skip Janes as he realized he had so many bowlers to chose from he may not be able to let them all bowl their allotted overs. Whilst he pondered this problem he failed to notice first the opener and then the number 3 hit the ball directly to him. 2 chances down and even the youthful Candy could do little to stem the run rate as the total climbed rapidly to 80-1. Fortunately the skipper not concerned by Delboy leaking 58 runs in a spell allowed him to capture 2 wickets in his final over to get the Curdridge machine back on track.
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Now each new bowler was allowed an over before the question of a replacement was considered by the skip. After a tight but wicketless spell from Clodey, Dave couldn't hold himself back any longer and proceeded to use a crafty wide long hop to have the batsmen caught behind by Jack. A few balls later the same combo did for the next batsmen. Deadly Dimmick was called into service at the far end and quietly accumulated 4 wickets to rapidly complete the Challenger innings on 160 from 32 overs. Yet another team forcing Curdridge to bat before tea.
Nick Hillier and John Edwards were sent into soak up the overs before tea. At this stage it became clear that the opposition felt that pretty much every ball was worth an appeal for something or other. As they became more and more agitated, by the fact Ump Andy would not give an LBW for a wide ball striking the middle of the bat, the odd wicket tumbled with no Curdridge batsman managing to get established. After a few frantic calculations it was confirmed that with the 5 bowling points only 75 runs were needed to ensure 3rd place in the league. This was eventually reached and the assault on the win only ever looked on when Clodey despatch 3 consecutive balls to the boundary before perishing caught on the boundary trying the same shot again.
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In the end the innings closed at 130 runs in 41 overs. The final wicket being Del LBW. By this stage even the home crowd had decided to appeal for every ball and were quite surprised to see the final wicket fall in this way.
A shame to end a good season with such an acrimonious 30 run defeat.
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Champagne moment: tough one.....Nick Hillier deciding the game was over and starting to collect in the boundary markers despite the fact there were still 4 overs to go and 11 fielders and 2 batsmen still playing cricket. Had he not been stopped it looked likely he would have made off with stumps and ball before the last rites were delivered.
Man of match: Umpire Andy for having to tolerate a constant barrage from the Challengers who hopefully will spend the winter months reading up on the rules of the game. Well done Andy it was tough out there