Nether Whitacre CC vs OLCC
The OLCC kicked off the Midlands Tour 2017 with a new fixture at Nether Whitacre CC, in a new county for the club in Warwickshire. Guv and Mrs Guv arrived late on tour thanks to directions from El Presidente. This caused much amusement as the team watched Den march up and down the road looking for the Guvmobile. ‘Granny’ Simon Best had joined us for the first time in a while; as this was a local fixture for The Granster.
Gillers and Haylo led the way and steady progress was made. Batting proved tricky on a slow pitch with Sebby the only one to really master conditions. Well set on 43 he was to be the victim of a cruel dismissal, thanks to movement behind the bowlers arm from Doc and Guv which was enough to put him off and get our leading batsman back in the hutch. A few lusty blows from Google helped things along (until he missed a straight one) and a few cultured strokes from RNP saw us over the 170 mark. Then calamity, or comedy, depending on your point of view. A “yes…wait…no…sorry” moment from Pricey ended up with CPS being run out, without facing a ball! Granny received the loudest cheer of the day with a ‘guided’ edge for 4 down to Third Man and the OLCC ended up on 184 – 9 from their 40 overs.
We opened our bowling with a ‘pace’ attack of Pricey and Google. Things looked bleak at 21-0 off the first two overs but our heroes found a line and length and began to claw things back. Joker had a Herr Trigger moment to remove their dangerous opener off of Google and then RNP nipped in with a couple, so that at the half way point Nether Whitacre needed 90 to win, with 5 down already. The Guv winkled out a couple and CPS came into the attack. Their number 7 lofted one to Haylo at Long-On… only for our man to step in and beautifully chest the ball to the ground and soon after RNP shelled one at point. With three overs to go, it all seemed to have got away from the OLCC, particularly as Guv went for ‘a lot’ in his last over. Some brief hope flickered, as their left hander was prised out by the Allan’s; caught father, bowled son with a Jaffa that took the edge. With 8 down and two overs to go, things were tense for the hosts – but they saw the win other the line in penultimate over; finishing 185 – 8. A greatly contested game, played in a great spirit and with a fitting result to setup the fixture for next year.
Nether Whitacre win by 2 wickets