Match Report
Thursday 16 July –v- Ashburnham Arms at Woolwich Barracks
With a bit of scrambling and coercion we managed to assemble eleven players at the home of Charlatans for our annual 20/20 with The Ash. Chand left his wife circling Luton Airport on an incoming flight to join us, Jagdesh produced Gurpinder - another player from the temple and Jabs persuaded Alex to make a return, joining Uncle Ali in the eleven.
The Ash won the toss and surprisingly asked us to bat, bearing in mind the evenings are starting to draw in and there was already a lot of cloud cover. Jagdesh continued a dismal run of form with the bat, falling lbw to the first ball he faced, but then three of the next four batsmen got themselves to the 25 run retirement point. Jabs Superstarwar played with graceful freedom, caressing the ball around the playing area, while Chand bludgeoned and Gary got there - eventually. Damon and Alex 'twatted around' for a while using up valuable time, before both finally found their range, as they added good runs in the final couple of overs. The Ash gave a mixed performance in the field, with the wicket-keeper sieving too many byes, whilst the ground fielding ranged from excellent down to Crusader level. At one stage we looked set to challenge the 150 mark, but as is often the case our latter overs failed to deliver and we had to settle for 134 from twenty overs.
Imtiaz took the opening over and produced a great opening delivery to remove The Ash skipper. Spud got some bounce and turn from the other end and quickly removed the new batsman and The Ash were reeling at 9-2. Ali and Spud continued to bowl tightly and with The Ash batsman keen to play shots, whilst runs were being scored there was always the chance of a wicket. Ali obliged completing a fine 3 overs with another wicket from his final ball. Upkar replaced him, bowling an impeccable line from over the wicket and he was rewarded with a wicket in his opening over. Mr Taylor joined the 'wicket fest' pegging back the leg stump with the first ball of his spell, but by this time Ceiwen had seen enough and departed with the remains of her Welsh Cakes. The tumbling of wickets had knocked the stuffing out of The Ash innings and despite the opener reaching 25, it was well into the latter stages of the game.
Spud introduced Jagdesh 'The Finisher' and he immediately lived up to his billing. A confident LBW appeal was upheld, followed quickly by one that nipped through the gate. To rub salt into the wounds of The Ash he added further wickets in his next two overs. Alex was deemed too fast for the darkening conditions and after a couple of experimental deliveries from Gurpinder (who had obviously modelled his action on Chand) Alex reverted to his little seen spin action. Let us hope it is never seen again. The Ash opener returned as last man and very nearly converted his 25 into a fifty from the choice assortment that was served up, as the score rose dramatically to 115 at the close of 20 overs.
Damon was self-proclaimed Man of the Match for a 'fluent' 17 and some quicksilver work behind the stumps.
