Wargrave (at Leighton Park) – 1.8.10

Wargrave 192-8
Zia 2-42, Jagesh 2-44

RUASCC 183-8
Zia 82, Eagle 27

MATCH DRAWN

On the first Sunday in August RUASCC played their first “home” game of the season at Leighton Park School against the lesser-spotted Wargrave Cricket Club. In a pleasing show of hospitality Captain Eagle lost yet another toss (eleven in a row for the club) and in an equally welcome display of politeness Wargrave opted to bat first.

And they made a decent start, with three early boundaries, before Zia’s extra bounce found a leading edge and Young Sam took the catch almost on top of the stumps. From the other end Main was hitting the right areas (as usual) and the outside edge over the slips seemed to be the shot of choice. With nearly an hour played the score had just passed fifty when the batsmen attempted a suicidal run to Jagesh’s right arm and the second wicket fell. The third soon followed when a Zia bouncer was brilliantly taken by Young Sam having deflected off the batsman’s glove. Sadly the necessary forward dive crushed one of Sam’s fingers and Dip took over the gloves shortly afterwards.

As the innings continued many balls seemed to go high in the air only to land between fielders, but Main clung on to a steep one off his own bowling to leave Wargrave four wickets down for about a hundred runs. Jagesh replaced Zia from the Tennis Court End and picked up a wicket of his own, clean bowling the man with the bat made almost entirely of edge.

Withers came on to replace Main and, to everyone’s relief, bowled a maiden with his first over. While Withers imagined the ball was swinging a bit, Dr Ashman pointed out that he was now bowling so slowly the earth was rotating just a few inches before the ball reached the other end. Either way, success came in Withers’ third over courtesy of an edge to Zia at slip.

Robinson (Henley 2nds, don't you know) was going along nicely on 32 but he fell for Jagesh’s long-hop trap when his enormous pull shot went straight to Withers on the square leg boundary. Withers had been placed there only three balls earlier and he gratefully accepted the catch.

The visitors had passed 150 and with two young lads swinging the bat they carried on at a run a ball until the end. Ken Stewart took a wicket with his first ball then saw a catch dropped from his second in an eventful one-over spell as Wargrave finished on 192-8.

After two weeks away on holiday the pressure was on Withers to come through with an edible tea and as far as I know, 48 hours on, there have been no reports of any unpleasantness from either side. It is sad to report that several peanut butter sandwiches had to be discarded as their expected popularity was greatly over-estimated.

With Wardy absent, presumed drunk, a new opening pairing was needed and it was decided that Zia should accompany Eagle at the top of the order. Wargrave quickly realised they needed a man on the boundary at square leg for Zia but they couldn’t stop runs coming at a decent rate in the early stages. Eagle continues to play with the confidence of a wookie in an ewok basketball match and soon the gentler opening bowlers were replaced by more obvious pace. This brought about a couple of maidens but, once Zia decided to accelerate, 26 runs came from two exhilarating overs.

One ball into the 18th over umpire Dersh announced there were twenty overs remaining, however this was widely shouted down and it was agreed we would fit in one more. Almost immediately Eagle made his first mistake, chipping the ball to point for a handy 27. 72-1.

Carpenter was next in and the runs continued to flow. Zia, despite being severely hampered by a muscle injury in his leg, and Carpo, on the back of his 97 at Braywood, recorded our second half-century partnership of the innings before Carpo was run out for 21 going for a risky single. 139-2 with a run a ball needed for victory.

Wargrave fielded well throughout the innings and Carpenter, Dip and Stewart were all run out with direct hits. Dip was done for by a superb thrown from mid-on; he didn’t even wait for the umpire’s signal. Young Sam, in at number five, chipped the ball to mid-wicket for a duck and suddenly RUASCC were running out of batsmen.

Things got even worse when finally Zia was dismissed, caught going for another big hit for a magnificent 82. Stewart’s run out, the sixth wicket to fall, brought Main in and his partnership with Dersh, who found the gaps well for plenty of singles, was the last hope. Main then became the fourth RUASCC batsman to be run out and in the penultimate over Dersh holed out to mid-off with twelve runs still needed.

If you could pick two men to bash twelve runs from six balls it most definitely wouldn’t be Jagesh and Withers. In fact they picked up just a single run each from the final over and RUASCC finished ten runs short of victory.

RUASCC Highlight: The two overs that went for 26 runs as Zia and Eagle (mostly Zia!) accelerated.

RUASCC Man of the Match: Two wickets, one catch and 82 runs all achieved while apparently attempting to shake off a broken leg – Zia.

RUASCC Team: Eagle (capt), Zia, Carpenter, Dip (wkt), Griffiths (wkt), Dersh, Stewart, Main, Jagesh, Withers, Ashman