Palm Tree outshade Strongroom
Highgate Woods, 9/1/2007
Palm Tree won by 24 runs
Palm Tree: 193-3 (Schanders 47*, Stockhill 54*)
Strongroom: 169 (J.Gower 56, J.Claro 53)
View the Scorecard
Here is my bullet-point style report:
Pleasant conditions for this inaugural encounter between these two Highgate Woods teams
Strongroom fielding an ‘old-skool’ team, with Omar celebrating his 40th birthday by donning the keepers gloves - to become the ‘Mitten Kitten’
Dave Proctor lost the toss
Palm Tree decided to bat first
Their openers made steady progress against superb back-to-basics bowling by Orme and Woolhouse
Woolhouse traps one opener lbw
Orme unlucky to go wicketless
Boote snares the only two other wickets; one clean bowled, the other caught in absurdly sleepy fashion by myself at deep point
Proctor sets good fields and rotates his bowlers, but the slow track provides no further help
After 20 overs Palm Tree are only on about 70-3, but Schanders and Stockhill re-build, and get on top of our bowlers to set a healthy 193-3
Orme and Guy injure their shoulder and ankle respectively. Orme’s looks bad – and has out him out of the season already
Scott replaces Orme, and makes a great effort to take a catch in the deep, but the ball bobbled out
We drop several catches
We still bowled too many wides, but I fear this is now endemic!
Tea Report: 8/10 A fine combined effort between Jolyon and Chris W. Jolyon’s egg mayonnaise sandwiches were particularly fine in quality.
New-look openers Jolyon [24] and James Claro [53] make an excellent start to the innings
Jolyon looked composed at the crease, whilst Claro showed great patience
Jolyon eventually falls to the dangerous pull-shot [on this track anyway]
Proctor and Woolhouse were soon back in the hutch
With a lot of good fortune [lbw shouts and dropped catches] I manage to score 56 runs
Myself and Claro put on a good 4th wicket partnership, but
Claro is run out by a stunning direct hit from deep mid-wicket
I eventually fall to a cross-bat drive-pull
Guy bats with a runner
Everyone else tried their best, but ultimately the Palm Tree bowling was too strong for us
Inam in particular bowled a deadly accurate spell which always had us under pressure
Strongroom’s run of defeats continues…can we turn this around to end the season on top? Currently we have won 8, lost 9…
For the Palm Tree version of events - go to: http://palmtree.play-cricket.com/home/home.asp
Written By: Jon Gower
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