Match Report
Sunday 5 May -v- Bletchingley at Centymca
Gord was able to call upon the same eleven for the visit of a ‘Pollockless' Bletchingley to the YMCA. Again the toss was lost and for consecutive weeks we were asked to bat. The tried, tested and regularly failing duo of Schultz and Carr opened the Crusaders innings, with Danglers promoted to 3, after GT’S very slow hundred the previous week.
Bletchingley’s opening attack proved to be poles apart, one maintaining excellent line added to occasional swing and seam and the other bowling no two deliveries in the same spot. After the inevitable demise of the skip, playing all around a straight one, Richard and Daz shared (all be it unevenly) an unbroken stand of 167. Both were fairly circumspect in the early stages of their respective innings, with Moysey choosing to remain cautious for the whole of his occupation. The Aussie reached a measured fifty and then mercilessly set about a sorry looking attack, to race to a third career century. DB Moyse found himself five short of fifty at the declaration, with the skip obviously feeling that the hour or so Darren would have needed to complete his landmark, would be better spent weedling out the opposition. Bletchinglev made a positive response, with one opener happy to throw the bat at anything pitched up. His occupation of the crease ended after he had slapped the 'balding trundler’ back over his pate a couple of times, but was then guilty of changing his mind mid-shot and Timms pranced athletically to hold a return catch. Unfortunately for our visitors and perhaps the state of the game there was very little aggression shown from the remaining batsmen, who seemed content to pat most of the bowling back and play out a tedious draw. As luck would have it (there seems no other explanation) Gord turned to Jim and for once in his career he bowled something that was consistently on a line and length. In tandem with 'Brow' he swept out the middle order, clean bowling each of his three victims - yes three deliveries aimed at the stumps from Jim. A mind boggling variation from Wilsdon accounted for another three and all of a sudden the prospect of an unlikely victory was on the cards. The Cheating Bastard had held up an end, without the need for his chest high pads this year and to be fair looked comfortable against most of our bowling, so it was somewhat surprising when his off stump was pegged back by a straight bail from Moysey. Danglers then took care of GT's dinner date, setting up the last pair for a nervous final three overs. Victory was completed with four balls to spare, when Chuckles took a catch at forward short leg, which bizarrely ricocheted from bat to foot to hand; some revenge gained for last year’s poor showing and a first win for the new skip - a fairly satisfying display all round.
