West Meon vs Wield, Sunday 10th July
Weather – 2 Jumpers and sunny
Match summary – Hmm, a little bit of a pasting as Wield’s sunshine bus has an outing!!!!
In a game long, long, long ago; Max, our skipper won the toss on an interesting looking pitch. Yorkey couldn’t be bothered to turn up (apparently he had a problem with his heart, poor excuse!) which left us one short until 11 year old Joe Thomas made his debut.
Having two pace (for Wield) opening bowlers was a novelty and with Ken bowling down hill and down wind with gentle swing and Dave manfully bowling at the other end runs were hard to come by and Dave picked up their opening bat early in the piece caught at mid wicket by Ken. This proved to be the only success for quite a while as the odd bad ball was dealt with in boundaries.
After a change in the bowling - Hunt for Maltby and Butler for Thomas, the over rate increased along with the run rate and my blood pressure. Mrs Miggins’ pie shop was well and truly open as full toss and half tracker followed in regular succession; the two bats helping themselves to this veritable feast and piled on several stone. Hunt, not only using most of the outfield for his lengthy run up brought out his desk and decided to answer work calls during his run up! Any way as the summary indicates Wield’s fielding was less than spectacular and the only person (exaggeration) that could be truly happy with his fielding was young Joe Thomas who was outstanding and an example to the rest of the dribbling team!!!
Butler was deservedly replaced by the better Blackman who quickly picked up a couple of wickets bowling his usual line and length. Meon’s remaining opener continued to flay the constant supply of rank deliveries and reached his hundred.
West Meon’s innings eventually closed on 260 odd-5?
A wonderful tea ensued with cold meat and cakes galore.
Wield, replete, took to the crease with trepidation and with a field looking more like the West Indian fields of the 70’s. Defence appeared to be the only option as wicket after wicket headed back to the pavilion with a mixture of rubbish shots and more rubbish bounce off the pitch; Matt Blackman was especially unlucky as his ball rolled for half the length of the pitch before hitting the stumps. Ken Thomas proved to be the only real resistance as he topped scored with 19. Wield eventually capitulated for a woeful 90 something and West Meon had their revenge in a reversal of last years game.
Apologies for the hazy recollection the game only happened two months ago!!
Dougie
