Stratfield Turgis & Hartley Wespall Cricket Club

Scorecard

Goring v Stratfield Turgis & Hartley Wespall Cricket Club 1st XI on Sat 31 Jul 2010 at
Stratfield Turgis & Hartley Wespall Cricket Club Won By 3 wickets

Match report The closest game I can remember being in, this had it all. Goring batted first and slowly edged (sometimes literally!) their way through to 60 off of 23 overs when the first drinks break was taken. The pitch was doing a bit, plus the accuracy of the over 50's Clay and Ayers was making it difficult to score. The one thing in Goring's favour though at this point was their wickets in hand.

On resumption after drinks they showed their intent for the remaining 22 overs by playing their shots more often, plus looking to push the singles. They batted well and managed to score at a rate of between 7 and 8 an over for the remainder of their innings to finish on a creditable 206. Some lusty hitting by their middle and lower order contributed greatly to this, however a score of around 200 was considered getable by Stratfield, especially considering their batting depth on the day.

Things mirrored the Goring innings in some ways for the initial 10 overs. Reasonably slow scoring rate of about 2 per over, but after this things changed a little. A few wickets fell in reasonably quick succession, but the scoring at drinks was about the same - approx 60.

None of the top/early middle order contributed greatly, but upon the dismissal of Spence for 9, and the score at 75 for 6, a solid partnership between Adrian Sandland and Richard Carter took place and the wickets dried up, while the scoring was increasing, the runs required per over were still creeping up and by the time Adrian was out we needed a consistent 8+ an over.

In came the determined figure of Martin Sandland, irked by having to do more than 10 overs as square leg umpire and also being dropped from his opening spot, while itching to prove that the this should be a one off oversight rather than his new full-time batting position, he set about playing shots I can't recall he ever played before. With three overs left and Carter on his 50 (well batted!), Stratfield had to score at 12 an over off the last three overs. The 43rd over was well bowled by Carrier for only 6 runs to come off it, needing 15 per over to win off the last two overs Stratfield looked dead and buried as Hodges (who had bowled 10 overs for 17 runs) came in to bowl his last over.

Something happened then, no one knows quite what, but a few healthy blows, outside edges, leg byes and miss-fields meant that suddenly 19 runs had come from the over in total and Stratfield now needed 11 off 6 balls.

A four early in the over, two soon after and a single straight after that meant that Stratfield now needed 4 off of 2. The next ball had Martin Sandland playing all around it and the scene was set for a great finish one way or the other with 4 needed off of 1 ball - time for someone to become the hero, but would it be Sandland or Carrier?

Cometh the hour, cometh the man and Sandland connected with the ball toward cow corner. Into the sky it sailed and collected breaths were held on the boundary as it disappeared into the sun and the watching players waited for it to show on its decent. Would it drop to the waiting fielder, or was it, as it looked when being hit, clearing him? What seemed an eternity went by before the answer was known - it cleared the boundary by 10 metres and Stratfield had won!

Off to a hero's welcome strode Sandland and Carter - handshakes all round to the Goring lads and a game well played and one hell of a finish made the trip back to Gloucester that night all the more enjoyable - even if it did mean an early exit from the after match proceedings.

Goring Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 8 wickets
0
206 (0.0 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Stratfield Turgis & Hartley Wespall Cricket Club 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Steve Ayers11.0237137.003.36
Tom Clay11.0138219.003.45
Stephen Clarke12.0236312.003.00
James Wright7.0041220.505.86
Danny Spence5.003500.007.00
Martin Sandland0.00000.000.00

Stratfield Turgis & Hartley Wespall Cricket Club 1st XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 7 wickets
0
209		        
Stephen Clarke Caught  13 1
James Wright Caught  13 1
Raju Shah Caught  18
Andy Headford Caught  14 1 1
Carl Gillham Caught  5
Adrian Sandland Caught  35
Danny Spence Bowled  9
Richard Carter Not Out  57 1
Martin Sandland Not Out  24
Steve Ayers  
Tom Clay  

Goring Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.