Petersfield Sunday XI v Sarisbury

Petersfield turned up to the Allotment ground on a beautiful Sunday afternoon with hopes of a good game on a good pitch, only to be told that they were going to be playing on an artificial surface. Lots of grumbling and fumbling for stud removers did not help the pre match preparations at all. Petersfield lost the toss and were asked to field in the baking sun much to half the teams annoyance as it had been a long and hard night the night before ! Anyway enough moaning and gripping from the old man of the team. Petersfield opened with Andy Barnes (0-42 off 8) and Shaun Blanks (1-35 off 4) and despite the pair combining to remove J Scott for 3 the other opener D Sampson was particularly brutal on anything short as he raced away to make a hard hitting 72. He was eventually bowled around his legs by Keith Gumbe (2-74 off 10). As I have been prompted to mention Andy Barnes again in this report he did actually bowl well with a mixture of high floating bouncing bombs and well pitched up faster balls (is that ok Andy?) Will Rice (1-24 off 5) bowled Anderson with a beauty and Cam Clarke (1-16 off 4) removed Freddy for 21. Andy Barnes and wicket keeper Bob Wemyss combined to run out P Mershant (7) and Keith Gumbe picked up a deserved 2nd wicket as Bob Wemyss waited for the batsmen C Olipahnt to wander out his crease for a Sunday stroll and a both of gardening before stumping him. With Sarisbury looking at a below par score Andre Mendes (48 not out) and his Son T Mendes came to the crease and started a late order onslaught similar to that of New Zealand’s a few miles down the road at the Rose Bowl. T Mendes (85 not out) was particularly brutal on anything short or too full knocking six after six and not just to the short side of the ground. Andy Barnes and Keith Gumbe who had bowled well in their first spells had their figures destroyed by the pair, along with Dave Squires, Harry Hannam and Ed Davenport who went for a combined 67 off their 9 overs ! Sarisbury made a fine total of 263. After a good but expensive tea (how much!) Petersfield started the chase in good order with Captain Jack Hannam (7) and Shaun Blanks (57) keeping up with the scoring rate before Jack was adjudged LBW to T Reicher. Rory Newman joined Shaun at the crease and after a slow start showed that all the work in the nets and with the bowling machine was working as he followed up his 28 not out for the 1s yesterday with a fluent 42 although he will be disappointed to get out with a fifty in sight again. After Blanks and Newman got out a series of good cameos from Harry Hannam (30), Will Rice (15) and Andy Barnes (13) left the Petersfield side running out of batsmen if not overs as the run rate started to climb towards 8 or 9 and over. With the Sixes competition between the batsmen proving to be a damp squib as only Andy Barnes managed one from batsmen 4 to 7 with a sweetly struck flat six over mid off. When Keith Gumbe (17) came out to complete a good personal all round performance there were 7 or so overs left and despite a late order rally from him, Dave Squires (18 Not out) and some lusty blows from Ed Davenport (8 not out) Petersfield ended up on 234-9, 30 runs short of victory. Moment of the match - Andy Barnes first delivery of the innings which had the batsmen totally bamboozled with its flight and turn (well thats how Andy saw it!) Man of the Match - Keith Gumbe for his bowling, batting and fielding (IMHO) http://petersfield.play-cricket.com/scoreboard/scorecard.asp?id=11719439