Collingbourne v AVCC
In a match of high tension, AVCC were victorious tonight against a gritty Collingbourne side chasing down 131 with 2 balls to spare.
Stuart Logan (Larkhill) hit the winning runs, needing eight off the last over, one of which went through the keepers gloves. He calmly smacked the 4th ball to the midwicket boundary. Collingbourne saved their best bowlers for the second half, so despite being ahead the 6.5 per over rate after 10, nails were bitten and some of the team in the pavillion were tempted to yell "wide" at the umpire for any ball that looked marginally off line.
Bowling honours were generally shared. Jon Wolverson returned the best figures with 9 off 3, Tim Law 10 off 3 for 1 (clean bowled). Nigel Spink (Beechingstoke) produced some Swann-like off spin and James Hayward was a little expensive 25 off 2 but has the happy knack of picking up wickets (1). The fielding improved with a only couple going down - it was a sharp chance, Rory, but Angus Harley (Haxton) caught one in his shirt and produced a snappy run-out, which the skipper could learn from, with Stuart who kept well, whipping off the bails. Graham Newland (Upavon) also produced some tidy wobblers (oo-er) near the end, 17 off 3. Paddy Bond tripped over the last ball of the innings and diverted it on to the stumps to run the non-striker out, intentionally he claims.
Dan Thornburn fiddled around a bit initially to strike 34 (couple of lucky straight sixes) before the skipper felt everyone had seen enough. Angus struck a competent 22 with 3-9 all contributing, albeit Jon just for 1 ball, until Stuart masterminded victory and the crowd went wild.
Commiseration to Dudley Perrin (Fighledean)who failed to adhere to the teams rigorous warm up routine and tweaked a quad early on and to Collingbourne who were a pleasure to play against and rustled up some good pub grub afterwards. Needless to say we sorted a few things out over a pint.