Match Report
On a sunny/cloudy/windy day a formidable Plough Sunday team, bolstered by several double headers after mid-week appeals from skippers past and present, were invited to bat by Goldleaf.
Leon & Lockers opened, both unlucky not to score more in a tight few opening overs. Both fell cheaply, Leon bowled off one that nipped in and Lockers toe-ending tamely to cover off their rotund tweaker, both for single figures.
Enter Britto & Plough debutant James ?Treetops? Tissato into the arena. Both settled in quickly and had Goldleaf chasing the cherry to all corners of the DSG. After a spicy 28 Britto fell to a catch off the same Hovis-shaped spinmeister as Lockers, bringing in Skipper Freddie. He promptly set about the Goldleaf attack, bludgeoning 41 off not very many, including more 6?s than 4?s and generally giving the Goldleaf covers some much needed exercise.
After Freddy fell to someone called Tarquin (no, really), and with Treetops now also carving it up, Goldleaf then huddled to form a plan to restrict the run flow by keeping Treetops away from the strike. A plan that made sense on one level but, unfortunately for them, the next man in was a certain Mr P Hynes, which gave Club Captain Carson, standing at umpire, no end of amusement.
Paulie did what Paulie does, but fell cheaply (for him) playing round a straight one for 20. Goldleaf?s misery didn?t end there. After Treetops eventually fell for the day?s highest score of 77 (and his first jug of the day), Lonnen and Lilford formed their first partnership of the match. Both were merciless, flogging a now very tired looking Goldleaf all over the shop and completed the innings undefeated for 27 and 34 respectively. The fact that Student and Paddy were padded up but unused at 9 & 10 showed just how strong the batting was. Ploughmen finish 272-6.
The huge total allowed Skipper Mills some creative license with the bowling. After 8 tight opening overs from Tom ?Angry Dad? Lonnen and ?Nice? Chris Lilford, resulting in a wicket each, Mills then exercised his license by making the somewhat eccentric decision to call on the services of Matt Rees at first change.
After what ?Posh? Tom Lockhart later described – with magnificent understatement worthy of his expensive education – an inauspicious start, Rees started to find his range (such as it was) and began keeping wides down to a mere 3 or 4 per over. The daring bowling choice began to reap rewards when The Slowest Seamer in Christendom started to frustrate the oppo and, in combination with Leon at slip (twice) and Posh Tom pouching a rocket at square leg, found himself with an improbable 3 off 3 overs. It could have been a frankly ridiculous 4 in 3 had Leon and Paddy not been gazing longingly into each other?s eyes instead of watching the f***ing ball which dropped harmlessly between them.
Wickets continued to fall cheaply at regular intervals and were shared around evenly; Angry Dad unlucky to get only 1 for a parsimonious 24, Nice Chris on 2-32, and Jim Tissato bagging a debut wicket (2nd jug of the day, thanks James). The game as a contest then fizzled out completely. The target was unassailable but, with one opener still in and the last man being an opener returning from injury, Goldleaf belligerently dug in and the 10th wicket lasted for 1 1/2 hours of blocks and nurdles. There were some grumbles from the Goldies about bringing Treetops Tisatto on for some rapid stuff towards the end, but seeing as they had 2 competent batsmen in and TT was bowling a good length with control, I?m not sure what they had much to genuinely complain about.
Freddie had a controlled 4 overs for 13 & Paulie wrapped up proceedings with a single over conceded a single run.
Pick of the bowlers was Student, bowling with control throughout and finishing with commendable figures of 8-1-21-2. Goldleaf 179-9.
Convivial post-match beers followed thanks to a solid victory and 2 jugs provided by new boy Tissato.
Matt Rees.
