On the hottest day of the year promotion chasing Petersfield 3s took on
top of the table Holybourne 2s at Penn's Place. Confirming what
Petersfield suspected Holybourne won the toss and bowled!
Stand
in Captain John Windebank was going to do the same to make use of the
new ball but it was Holybourne who got use of the new cherry. Opening
bowlers Dave Bowers (1-29 off 10) and Charlie Walters (3-21 off 10) had
the ball swinging around like it was on a piece of string with Walters
bowling classic left arm over the wicket deliveries to a right handed
bat removing both Paddy May (3) and Paul Clarke (10) with late swinging
deliveries taking out the off stump. John Windebank (26) was holding up
Holybourne's progress with a steady and belligerent knock including some
powerful drives, one of them picking out Holybourne's Elliott Milner
(age 13) which the young lad did well to get a hand too and stop rather
than catch.
With the fall of John's wicket it was left to young
Ben Anscombe (28) to show the rest of the middle order that runs could
be made on the dry pitch at Penn's, playing his most fluent innings of
the season so far coping with the returning Walters, Mark Smith (1-19
off 9) and Robin James (3-33 off 10). Unfortunately for Petersfield the
same could not be said of the rest of the batsmen as they all came and
went over the next 25 overs or so with only Dan Parry (12) (did well
after a very late 11th hour call up) and keeper Joe Mayall (11) hitting
any real attacking shots. Ben unfortunately ran out Rob Straw (1) trying
to keep the strike when there really was never a run on as he hit it
straight back to the bowler. Despite this Anscombe batted well and got
Petersfield up to 108 off 39 their overs.
Despite the modest
total, Petersfield took to the field hoping they could repeat some of
their bowling performances from this season and put the Holybourne team
under pressure.
Ben Turk (2-9 off 5) opened the bowling and bowled
fantastically again proving what a talent the 13 year old is.
Unfortunately his strike partner Oscar Windebank (0-26 off 5) could not
repeat his pre holiday form as a rutted foot hole put him right off his
stride, even changing ends could not remedy this.
Because of
this Captain John turned to first Dave Squires (1-26 off 7) and then
Alex Squires (1-23 off 4) to break the partnership between Rob Milner
(11) and opener Mark Smith (46 not out) which young Alex managed to do
with a slower ball which was hit high to Paul Clarke at mid wicket who
took a good catch despite it being in the air for a long time. Dave
Squires removed Robin James (4) soon after caught by Dan Parry again at
midwicket to give Petersfield some hope of bowling Holyburne out. Alex
continued to bowl really well having 2 or 3 edges go wide of keeper and
slip. With his father also having no luck at the other end as balls
continued to come off edges in the air and not go to a fielder,
Holybourne edged towards their victory target. Ben Turk returned and had
Dave Bowers out LBW but with Mark Smith continuing to play very nicely
at the other end, Holybourne reached their target in 23 overs to
consolidate their position at the top of the table. Both teams will
hopefully meet next season in Division 3 North East as despite the loss
they remain in 3rd place as this was a very friendly (if competitive)
game of cricket and was a fine advert for the league.
Credit
should also go to stand in skipper John Windebank for the way he led the
side on a sweltering day and the way he did not let his young side's
heads drop. With just a bit more luck and a few more Petersfield runs on
the board it could have been a very different result!
Man of the Match - Ben Anscombe for batting so maturely for a 13 year old
Moment of the Match - the Petersfield team's surprise when we lost the toss and were asked to bat.
Scorecard
http://petersfield.play-cricket.com/scoreboard/scorecard.asp?id=11731570
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