Friday, 29th July 2016
White City: 162 for 9 } MATCH DRAWN
Halverstown: 143 for 9 }
“We didn't know the plot till the final scene”. So wrote President Richard Greene after this thrilling game which, with 2 or 3 overs to go, both teams believed they could win. The game see-sawed, but eventually Halverstown, with a draw good enough for them to retain the Cup, had TP- last man in-batting out for the 3rd draw in a row! The polite fiction of the toss concluded, captain for the day Peter Stevenson batted first- as always. Being a timed game, to conclude 20 overs after 6pm, if we did not get them all out Peter would have to time his declaration carefully. They were not out of the traps fast, with early bowling from Johns Brown and Threadgold tight, but some good middle order innings helped- notably the captain and young Oborne. But when all looked to be running well for the home team, the tail end wagged and a quick-fire 37 from Tim Ronaldson (yes, not just a surprise that was for White City but that it was quick-fire!) gave them the edge. As usual with Halverstown there is great self-belief (self delusion?) amongst the players that they can all bowl and again I used 9 bowlers for the 40 overs they took before declaring.
W. City Batting: P.Stevenson 43; G.Oborne 43; T.Ronaldson 37; T.Davenport 36
H'Town Bowling: J.Brown 5-0-16-2; M.Ronaldson 4-0-19-2; T.Plewman 4-0-11-1
D.Ruddock 7-1-27-1; D.Drumm 5-0-20-1; I Walker 2-0-18-1
But had the declaration come too late? Their score had perhaps not been high enough to declare earlier but waiting for Rapid -Fire Ronaldson's innings left just 31 overs to get Halverstown out. It looked easy enough at times, hard at others. The slow beginning had them wondering were we looking for the draw from the start, yet later we looked to be coasting. The outstanding innings was Ian Walker's -a fine, hard-run 72 (just 4 boundaries) which has probably put him out of cricket for a few weeks with exhaustion. Decent knocks from Mr President especially and Kevin Threadgold were followed by Cecil's cheeky 13. Wickets fell, though, and an attempt to win the game in the last few overs finally petered out. TP was then dispatched to the wicket as last man to bat out the final over from lightning-fast Alex Beard ,bowling his 11th over (indeed Peter, with his more hard-headed approach and less delusional batsmen only used 4 bowlers!). TP gamely survived not 6 but 7 speedy balls (the umpire giving a wide: what were you thinking Mark?!) and Halverstown yet again breathed a sigh of relief as we, by our finger-tips, just held onto the White City Perpetual Trophy, donated in memory of Alan Ruddock, for yet another year. Wonderful! Thanks to Karen for (under pressure!) supplying the fine tea and Jackie (who never feels pressure!) for dinner that night.
H'Town Batting: I.Walker 72; R.Greene 21; K.Threadgold 14; C.Johnston 13
W.City Bowling: B.Coales 6-0-33-2; T.Oakshott 7-0-41-2: A.Beard 11-0-31-1; T.Davenport 7-0-35-1
Some photos:
Some photos:
More photos on Facebook.
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