AVCC v Aldbourne
We welcomed Aldbourne for the first time last Sunday. Brilliant hot sunny day. Ideal for cricket.
They were not all new! They had 3 players from our nemesis Farley, and one from Devizes, and so it was with trepidation that our captain, Graham Newland went out for the toss with Farley's /Aldbourne's captain!
Continuing our recent winning approach, we had them bat.
They started well, and we were greeted to the unusual sight of Jeremy Richards hit for 4 off his first ball (and 7th)... more runs than he usually gives away in his accurate miserly spells. Michael Rae bowled tight. And Jeremy made a key breakthrough with a neat caught and bowled in the 5th over. 17-1.
Their batsmen kept threatening; but every time it looked like they were going to overwhelm us we took crucial wickets. Bowling was tight. Fielding excellent, and inspired by a great running catch from Jon Wolverson and a fine catch from Ben Jones.
Wickets were shared out;,Graham Newland 1-7 off 4 overs; Jeremy Richards 1-14 (4); will Adams 2-18 (4); Greg Caswell 2-18 (4) and new boy Phil Jones bowled excellently and took top honours with 3-17 (4.3). Well done. Great debut Phil.
Aldbourne were all out for 139.
An excellent tea followed, and we had to be cajoled to pick up arms to chase just 4 an over.
Their 139 started to look a great score as our star batsmen didn't prosper. Angus Harley made 9 (14-1); Michael Rae 8 (27-2) courtesy of being stumped well out of his crease and losing his bat; Greg Caswell 0 (31-3).
Jon Wolverson and Jeremy Richards anchored the ship and put on 32 runs before Jon went for 11 (63-4). Then 63-5 as Phil Jones BA became their star bowlers 5th victim in a row. This was Stephen (who took 5-31). Then we were quickly 80-7 as Ben Jones went for 5 and Will Adams for 2.
This left Graham and Dudley Perrins - a combined age of 126 yrs experience left to support Jeremy to score the 60 runs we needed for victory. A big, big ask.
Graham joined Jeremy at the wicket and set about supporting his fluent innings. Jeremy was showing class batting, good defence and awesome attacking shots against loose balls. They grittedly put on 42 runs and put us in the sight of victory when Jeremy holed out on the boundary to a steepling catch for a great score of 73 (we need to find him for repeated century avoidance!).
18 runs to go and Dudley joined Graham at the crease, for our last wicket (as we were short of players as usual) with the opposition in a huddle motivating themselves that they could now win with us 2 veterans in at the crease. Tense moments! Dudley - not known for sprinting - was further hampered by an Achilles injury. It was a big ask for us to win.
But we hung in there and we scampered the winning run in the 29th over to win by 1 wicket. Very tight!
Graham finished unbeaten with 20, and Dudley made 5 n.o.
It was as close as it could get. The match could have gone either way until that last ball. Great game of cricket.
And well celebrated down the Antelope afterwards.
That's 7 consecutive Sunday victories; 6 at home. 2nd best winning streak in our history and our best homestand to date.
We have our mojo back and won all of our August fixtures for the first time.
Well done all.