Strongroom too strong
Lustleigh, Devon, 6/8/2013
Strongroom won by 92 runs
Strongroom: 288-7 [J.Gower 83, W.Davies 83, J.Kjelly 60]
Lustleigh: 188-9
View the Scorecard
Another fantastic hot sunny day, and another beautiful setting for a cricket ground. Dave P won the toss and duly decided to bat first. Lustleigh were fielding a team of minors and seniors - a give-away indication that this was not their league team. All in all, this looked a good toss to win. James Schneider again looked good, before cutting a wide ball straight to point. After this wicket, myself (83) and Will Davies (83) started to gradually move up through the gears, and must have put on 100+ for the second wicket. Although Brewer and Smerdon bowled some wily stuff, the following change bowlers were less accurate, and Will in particular set about the bowling with belligerence and plenty of biff and boff. For a while we both looked set for centuries, but we were also taking chances to score freely, and after we were dismissed Jules (60) played by far the most fluent innings of the day. At one stage we were looking like a total of 320 was possible, but Brewer (5-20) returned for the death overs and used his Dartmoor experience to good effect, reducing our target down to 278. Still a strong total though. Also worth a mention here is the appearance of Adrian ‘Skip’ Horne! The previous Strongroom skipper had not ‘represented’ for well over a decade, but he had responded brilliantly to the call that Richard Boote sent out.
An incredible tea. A mind-blowing spread of every conceivable sandwich, spread, quiche, savoury, roly-poly, confectionery, hot tea, juice, cake was laid on for our benefit. Not forgetting the scones and cream.
Rahman again bowled a miserly spell (2-20), and DP ran frequent changes among our attack, rotating 8 bowlers in total. Early strikes had Lustleigh reeling in the first 10 overs, and with the dismissal of the tenacious Smerdon, it looked like it could all fold quite quickly. However, veterans Cookson and Cheer both played very well, and took Lustleigh towards a very respectful total. Within all of this, Will Davies took a stunning, diving caught and bowled, Dave P took an equally stunning catch in the field and I ran-out a youngster with a direct-throw. All in all it was a good afternoon, and we all had a good run-around in some capacity. We ended up drinking and eating in the Cleave, and several of us camped on the outfield.
Written By: J.Gower
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