Petersfield 2s have been on something of an odyssey these past few weeks, taking them from despair in deepest north-west Hampshire to triumph outside Basingstoke via a memorable afternoon at a flooded Heath.
Petersfield 2s - match reports vs Upper Clatford, Twyford and St Mary's................
Let’s get the Upper Clatford debacle out of the way first. Tucked away in a beautiful rural idyll near Andover is a rutted, long-grassed farmer’s field on a hill where, to most people’s disbelief, cricket matches actually take place. Having blundered through a posh society wedding on the way to the ground, ‘Field lost the toss and were asked to bat. It was downhill from there.
Skipper Rich Stephens hit a defiant 23, Rich Thomas, batting like Boycott on Mogadon, hung around for a while (Chris Russell, umpiring at the time, denied he fell asleep, but was “resting his eyes”), but it was a struggle as the side limped to 70 all out.
‘Field fought hard in the field (as it were), Ed Davenport taking 3 for 22, but Clatford overhauled an inadequate total for the loss of 4 wickets. The playing conditions were, shall we say, less than ideal, but it was the same for both sides and our opponents probably exploited them better. So a chastening defeat, but the Crook and Shears was a splendid village pub to hold the post-match debrief.
‘Field rain supreme at the Heath
The following week, back at home, the heavens opened on the morning of the match against Twyford. After a futile dash to Penned-in Place to grab the covers and with pools of water on the square at a sodden Heath, it seemed impossible that the match would be played.
Field Marshall Russell, C, however, thought differently. Refusing to look defeat in the eye, supported by the two Richards, Stephens and Thomas, plus Dave Squires and Merlin, mopping up operations commenced. He drove his men hard: over a hundred buckets of surface water were chucked away, plus plenty of brushing and forking (don’t tell Andy). With the sun by now shining, the match incredibly started only half-an-hour late. It was an heroic effort. Now we just had to win the game.
The playing surface behaved pretty well despite the dampness and ‘Field bowled impressively to skittle Twyford out for 105. Russell (4 for 8) and Turk (3 for 33) were the pick of the bowlers. However wickets were lost early in the reply (at one point Petersfield were 3 for 3) and at regular intervals thereafter, and it took the cool heads of Russell (20), Chris Wood (27) and a very mature performance from young Ben Turk, who held his nerve brilliantly in scoring 22*, to guide the team home by 2 wickets. A brave, gutsy win.
The chase is on
On Saturday, the team travelled to Basingstoke to play St Mary’s, a side who, as its website states, “aims to play cricket competitively but fairly and in good humour reflecting the Christian faith that underpins the club”. In which case, God must have been a sledger because the first slip didn’t stop yapping away all match…
Anyway, on another damp, glacially slow service, the opposition (who were actually a good bunch) got of to a flyer, taking advantage of some loose bowling. It took another great spell by the impressive Turk (3 for 32) to put the breaks on, removing the dangerous opener Lee, caught and bowled for 61, when a score of 240+ looked on the cards. But with Blanks (4 for 27), on loan from the first team, coming back to mop up the tail and skipper Stephens also picking up a couple, St Mary’s finished on a still healthy-looking 194.
In reply Thomas A. and Allerston (10) started steadily and Blanks injected some momentum with a quick-fire 17. Weymss went first-ball bringing Christie Salmon to the crease in his first appearance of the season. After surviving a few wobbles early on, he rode his luck, got his feet moving and began to dominate the bowling, eventually scoring a fine 81* in 76 balls.
Together with Thomas, who scored 58*, the pair put on an unbeaten 123 partnership featuring some big hitting (both players managed to lose the ball in the next-door farmer’s field) and sharp running between the wickets, taking Petersfield home with 4 overs to spare. For the second time in four matches, opener Thomas remained not out at the end and hit the winning runs.
This was an impressive run chase by the ‘Field top order in pursuit of what appeared quite a stiff total. Tougher challenges no doubt lie ahead, starting with Odiham next Saturday, but afterwards, in a charming hostelry called the Fox, the ream could reflect on its third win out of four matches, 5th place in the table and a job well done. Bring on next week.
Comedy moment – Thomas (snr) showing Balotelli-like ball skills on the boundary and revealing why Wales didn’t make it to Brazil…
Author - Richard (Rich T) Thomas
