Strongroom outplayed south of the river
Battersea Park, 7/14/2007
Balham Roamers won by 8 wickets
Strongroom: 180 (J.Claro 46)
Balham Roamers: 182-2 (Haines 86*, Gray 54)
View the Scorecard
From start to finish, Strongroom were horribly outplayed by Balham Roamers in this Battersea Park encounter. Indeed, the looming presence of the formed Power Station provided an ironic backdrop to this power-less Strongroom performance.
Stand-in-skipper Jon Gower won the toss and decided to bat first on a hard and true surface. However, Strongroom were quickly on the back foot as openers D.Gower and R.Woolhouse fell to intelligent bowling, as Balham Roamers revealed their experience of bowling on this small ground. James Claro (46) again played a smooth, classy innings in his no.3 position, punishing anything over-pitched and ignoring ‘length’ deliveries. J.Gower (19) swished around unproductively, and his departure left Strongroom in a spot of bother at 75-4. Enter Joylon (30) at no.5, and together with Claro, these two elegant batsmen set about the task at hand. Jolyon again proved his case as an high-order batsman, combining good timing with alert running between the wickets. However, just as Claro was looking to step up a gear, he was deceived by a smart slower-ball, and thus the stage was set for Strongroom veteran Omar to take the stage. Omar (16) revealed some deft strokeplay in his innings, displaying a much-improved technique (courtesy of four years down under?). A clatter of wickets towards the end of the innings enabled James ‘The Horse’ Horsman (26*) to hoist a pair of lusty sixes, leaving Strongroom at 180 off 39 overs. Balham Roamers simply bowled very well on a track which offered something for both batters and bowlers, yet Strongroom knew they were 70-80 runs shy on this occasion.
Tea Report: Null and Void! No tea was provided, so Strongroom made-do with their own respources of home-made sandwiches.
Strongroom opened up with The Horse and The Gabster (Mike Gabbay), who both bowled excellent spells around Boycott’s much-fabled ‘top-of-off-stump’, yet only The Horse was rewarded for his accuracy with a glove behind to Claro off a lively delivery. This pair were replaced by the inswing of Moore and the outswing of Woolhouse, who again bowled well to their field, but neither could get the surface to spark sufficiently to oust the now comfortably settled Aussie-Kiwi pairing of Haines and Gray. At 18 overs, Balham were around 65-1, and J.Gower knew a wicket was required quickly. He experimented with the ‘chinaman’ of Sarfran, he tried himself, he brought on the spin of Jolyon and the zip of D.Gower’s tidy medium pace…and he brought The Horse back on for a final blast…but all this effort yielded only one wicket for Jolyon, and the Roamers eased past their target score with eight wickets still intact.
Strongroom had bowled and fielded with impressive commitment, but were simply short of runs. Balham Roamers displayed an impressive knowledge of their home conditions, and simply played to their strengths by bowling and batting patiently. We look forward to a double-rematch in 2008.
Written By: Jon Gower
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