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Friday, July 08, 2005

Chigwell De-railed Just Outside Hadley Wood Station (Hadley Wood Green Away 3/7/2005)

Chigwell suffered badly at the hands of Hadley Wood Green on Sunday, with only Dom and our two lady players coming out of the debacle with any honour.
It was miserable and drizzly when the skipper inconveniently lost the toss and with it pretty much any chance of winning. Chris, the HWG skipper had no hesitation inserting Chigwell and with a combination of precipitation, poor light, no sight screens, a lively pitch, and excellent bowling, the top order crumbled. Adam Randall bowled particularly well, ably supported by the skipper. Indeed Mr. De Villiers, another pace bowler was not even called into action as Chigwell slumped to 44 for 8. When Adam wasn't having batsmen caught he was hitting the stumps direct to effect a run out.
Dom, no doubt remembering his heroics from this fixture last season, remained defiant and smashed 60-odd runs, including 2 or three clean hit sixes. He was able to do this because Chigwell finally found a batsman who could stay in: Hannah Newman. With excellent technique and determined application Hannah kept Dom company in the middle for about half an hour, during which period Dom accumulated the bulk of his runs. It was a mature display from the young Newman, and gnarled old Chigwellians nodded their approval from the boundary.
Sally was eventually called on to replace Hannah and lasted a lot longer than her husband Karl, who had earlier bagged a golden duck. Sally, under instruction not to move from her position in front of the stumps took this advice literally and remained resolutely in place even when the bowling was coming from her end. Dom eventually holed out to Jim, having drawn a fig-leave over Chigwell's naked inadequacies.
Tea arrived (early) and as we feasted the drizzle stopped and the conditions became altogether more benign. Hadley Wood Green scored the requisite 87 runs for the loss of three wickets, one each for Rob A, Tim M and Brad, the other notable feature the superb keeping of Newers, and the body-on-the-line approach to fielding of Sally, who had become some sort of ball-magnet for the day. We congratulated the opposition on their well deserved victory, apologised for such a limp display, then went to find a bar wherein to drown our sorrows.
Great to see Karl and Sally again: Sally is, and always will be "Not Out Newman".

posted by Rob at 2:06 PM