Romany WIN by 71 runs

(A Bowes 107, R Reynolds 48, R Berkeley 26)

(T Anderson 3-23)

(A Brewster 77, P Atkinson 41)

(R Smith 2-15, A Maiden 2-17, S Murray 2-25)

With people’s work commitments, a match on a Friday is not straightforward to secure a team for, however assisted by Adam Bowen I was able to get 11 available players and a reasonably well-balanced side (perhaps a little heavy on the batting).

Having been invited by the host captain to choose whether to bat or bowl first, after some deliberation I elected to have a bat and see if we could post a competitive total to defend against a team we know have a couple of very capable fast bowlers (including Brewster, a Durham 2^nd XI player –  who despite bowling at reduced pace, certainly looked quick enough from the safety of the pavilion!).

Rob Berkeley and Andy Bowes got us off to a solid start, with an excellent foundation of an opening partnership of 74 before Rob was caught behind for 26.  We should acknowledge that Rob had very sportingly been called back earlier in his innings after being given out mistakenly caught behind off his pad, a real indication of the fantastic spirit the whole game was played in.

Harwood Williams came in next, but went again quickly, caught behind to a sharp rising delivery from Anderson, their other leading quick.  At this point Andy Bowes started to accelerate his innings with most of his scoring shots being boundaries.  He was later joined by Richard Reynolds, who proved a very capable bat, hitting 3 powerful sixes and making 48.

Andy Bowes effectively retired having made his fantastic century, coming down the track and allowing himself to be stumped.  Richard and Howard rounded out the innings with the former run out off the last ball, and we posted a very competitive total of 234-6 from our 35 overs.

As it was the start of Bolton Percy’s festival weekend, we were then treated to a superb tea of lasagne, garlic bread and salad, with meringue for dessert and even cheese and port to finish!  After all that I did wonder if our bowling may be somewhat hampered, but what followed was a great Romany performance in the field.

Ben Wilkinson opened the bowling from the pavilion end, bowling very quickly and with hostility to an attacking field and producing a wonderful opening spell of 1-3 from his 5 overs.  On my captaincy debut I decided to trundle up the hill from the other end and managed to also bowl a couple of tight overs, picking up 2 wickets in the process, including a stumping thanks to quick thinking from Rob Berkeley – my first ever!

Harwood replaced me at the bottom end bowling a tight, restrictive line and limiting scoring opportunities, while we were able to make regular changes at the other end including Alistair Maiden, who bowled 4 tight overs with 2 wickets and whose careful positioning of Howard Elgot in the field led to a sharp run out.

Stuart Murray replaced Harwood and bowled with good flight producing 2 catches at deep mid-on and deep mid-off (including the dangerous Brewster – who made 77). Harwood took the catch at mid-on very coolly, even finding time to incorporate a bit of jugging into the catch…

The final bowling change was to bring on Nick Hawkins at the bottom end, who again tossed the ball up and invited the batsmen to hit in the air, resulting in the fall of their final wicket caught by Andy at deep square leg.

Overall it was a closely-contested competitive match, played in the spirit of the game in wonderful surroundings and as captain I was very thankful to my fellow players who helped me a great deal with field placings

Man of the Match: Andy Bowes, for his superb 107

Shot of the Match: A hard hit, flat six by Richard Reynolds, which rattled the pavilion windows and almost took out scorers from both teams

Champagne Moment: The interchange between Alistair and Howard, who would just not stand exactly where he was told; “Stand There, Stand There, NO, RIGHT THERE” which was funny enough in itself, but then immediately led to a great run out effected by Howard, who it seems did need to stand ‘right there.’

Rob Smith

9^th July 2017