CUP OF DESPAIR

29/06/03: The OLCC suffered a Brewers Cup nightmare as the Old Aldenhamians raced to an eight-wicket first-round victory.

Opting to bat first on a tricky pitch, Paul Newell Price's side were dismissed for just 140 with 17 balls of their 50-over allocation unused.

The hosts, who had only 10 players on their team, then reached their target for the loss of two wickets, having taken just 15.5 overs to get there.

The OLCC had suffered their first blow in only the second over when John Acland-Hood (2) was bowled by a full-length delivery, but they recovered well through a promising partnership between skipper Newell Price and Jonny Shingles.

The pair put on 49 for the second wicket before a risky single resulted in Shingles being sent back to the pavilion for 23 with the score on 54-2.

Another solid partnership ensued between Dayalan Doraisamy and Newell Price before the latter's innings of 28 from 70 balls was ended by a devilish ball from Habib. He was to be the OLCC's top scorer.

Charles Allan was next to go, caught trying to hit spinner Galvin to the midwicket boundary and he departed without troubling the scorers to leave the OLs wobbling on 77-4.

However Doraismay and Jason Thomas looked well set to reach lunch without further loss, Thomas in particular hitting some fine strokes, but in the penultimate over of the session Doraisamy was castled for 12.

The resumption after lunch brought no respite and within five overs the visitors had lost four wickets for the addition of just 12 runs.

First out was Thomas, lbw for a good-looking 24, with Bibby (4) and Gillmor (9) then holing out to close fielders in successive balls, although it took a magnificent catch to dismiss the latter.

Geoff Samuels' dismissal lbw for 0 reduced the OLs to 124-9 but Richard Newell Price (7*) and Julian Shackel (3) clung on for 10 overs to take the score up to 140 before Shackel was pinned lbw by Moledina's first ball.

Any hope of restricting the home side to a tense battle for runs quickly disappeared as Allen and Jahangir tore into the OLCC bowling, putting on 90 for the first wicket in just 12 overs.

Gillmor then produced a fine steepling catch at long-off to get rid of Jahangir (52) off the bowling of Samuels, and when Gavlin went lbw to Daoraisamy for a duck the OLs finally had some hope to which to cling.

However Allen (41*) and Clenow (49*) finished the job and buried the OLCC's cup dreams for another year.

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