II's win to keep the pressure on Blundeston
Tuesday 14th August 2007
The first team continued their good run with a third straight win by beating Old Catton comfortably. Breamo was the star of the show scoring 113 out of 219 for 5 for maximum batting points. Stu Meikle then ripped apart the Caton top order to destroy any challenge to the score taking 4 for 23 from 12 overs. 3 wickets for Moots and 2 for Chris Sparkes removed most of the defiant lower order to leave catton with 122 for 9 from their 45 overs.
The seconds, sitting in fourth place in div 10, travelled for a crucial clash with Hethersett 3rds who were sitting in third. Hethesett won the toss and elected to bowl. Hardingham sent out a new opening partnership of Plunky and Krusty and the two started quickly but the Hetersett bowlers settled and the scoring slowed. However, once the openers were seen off the run rate began to climb nicely to beyond 4 an over. Desperate to break the partnership as the score passed 100 without loss Hethersett brough on occasional pie thrower G Lochhead. The high full tosses were too tempting and Krusty managed to top edge the third one straight up where it was safely caught for 48. The foundations of the innings were laid though and with further good contributions from Al, Big Phil and a healthy total for X Tra Hardingham finished with 214, Plunky top scoring with 57 to continue his great form with the bat. A spirited chase and some "home decisions" aided Hethersett's pursuit of the total but when J Smith was bowled by Big Phil the chase petered out and they fell 12 runs short.
Sunday saw the firsts without a league game so they played Chapelfield in a friendly at the UEA caravan park for the homeless. Taking to the field with 10 after a couple of late call offs there was good early bowling by Shendy and Stu Alden who removed Bewley cheaply to bring Muir to the wicket. He proved rather more resilient going on to make 101 before retiring. It could have been rather different had several catches not been dropped. This backbone to the innings meant Chapelfield were able to pile on the runs and set a mammoth score of 247 off 40 overs.
The daunting total did not deter Timmy Tubeygrip though who set off at a gallop in search of an unlikely victory. The score moved onto 86 off the first 14 overs when rain began to fall and with the teams about to leave the field for rain at the end of the over Tim sadly played round a straight one and was out for 44, his highest score for the club. Krusty then perished shortly after re-taking the field for 31 but the chase still continued!
Sparkley Sparkes smashed the ball to all parts of the ground for a personal highest score of 27 and was well supported by One-Hand Fowle and when OHF was forced to retire with a broken finger nail Ash Bowers and James Perfect both set personal highest scores of 13 and 15 to leave the final score a very respectable 216. Thank you to the Chapelfield lads for a game that was played with great humour and spirit.