Strongroom mauled
Highgate Wood, 7/23/2011
Jesmond Jaguars won by 99 runs
Jesmond Jaguars: 168 [M.Chataway 50, A.Bush 43]
Strongroom: 69 [E.Eccles 4-20]
View the Scorecard
Strongroom’s batting woes worsened as we were dismissed for one of our lowest scores ever and slumped to a very heavy defeat.
The day started badly with two late dropouts and we were grateful to Dave Proctor for boosting us to 10. Strongroom won the toss and chose to field, hopeful that the pitch might dry out later after a week of rubbish weather. There was some debate about whether this was the correct decision, but it proved immaterial because we bowled average at the start and dropped an almost unbelievable number of catches (and later batted terribly).
Batting was difficult all day. The pitch didn’t misbehave, but the wicket and outfield were painfully slow. Matt Chataway reached 50 and played some tasty shots but was dropped several times. In all there were 7 dropped catches, 2 or 3 other close shaves/refusals, and one catch off a no-ball. In a game in which every run was likely to be valuable this was suicidal, and a couple of lazy misses in the outfield compounded things. As did having only ten men on the field.
On the plus side, nobody bowled particularly badly, some of the out-fielding was good, and Strongroom came back well after a poor start. Karan’s second spell was excellent.
At tea, Jaguars probably didn’t realize how good their 168 all out total was, but it didn’t take long to find out. Opening bowlers Eccles and XXX bowled tight lines, good lengths and swung the ball. The field was close set and only got closer through the innings as it fell apart. Yes, we have not been bating well and were missing some of our best players, but surely we are not as bad at batting to be 25-5? After two very early lbws (Jimmy, Karan), Dave and Chris Wilcock seemed to have calmed things down until the latter was run out after a call from the former that was probably too sharp in the circumstances. Then Will popped one to mid-on, Sumer fell to a tasty outswinging yorker, and Joe chose to cut the wrong ball. The two Daves looked comfortable for a while without being able to score, with first change bower Rickards bowling exceptionally tightly. The only possible redemption seemed to be to hang on and try to get a look at Jaguars’ fourth and fifth bowlers. But with drinks in sight Dave G failed to get over a drive and was well caught at cover. After drinks the procession continued as Strongroom scraped to just under a three-figure defeat. Dave P had batted well – playing straight and watching the ball carefully – and showed the rest of the team that there was no reason to have collapsed so badly. Jaguars bowled more accurately than Strongroom, and were much better in the field.
It was good to see Chris Wilcock back in his Strongroom shirt, and good to see Dave G and Dave P back in their bowling boots. Let’s hope Strongroom can remember how to bat in time for the return fixture…
Written By: D.Gower
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