Peppard (A) – 15.7.12

RUASCC 127-9 dec
Ward 29, Dip 18

Peppard 128-5
Withers 3-51, Jagesh 1-16

RUASCC lost by 5 wickets

As everyone is well aware it had been raining constantly for six weeks leading up to this match and it certainly had an effect on the Peppard wicket which Dr Eagle referred to as being “worse than Highmoor” and “like a chocolate torte”. So you can imagine our delight when the skipper lost the toss and we were told to bat on it.

Openers Ward and Eagle were quick to notice that the ball wasn’t travelling well over the outfield, on the rare occasions that they got the damn thing off the square, so even when Wardy middled a couple of straight drives they still had to run threes. Dr Eagle refused to work in these conditions and got himself out, as did several more RUSACC batsmen - including Zia who was half-way through walking what should have been an easy leg bye when a fielder’s throw flew back over his head and hit the stumps at the non-striker’s end.

Ward showed impressive levels of concentration to reach 29 in 29 overs but following a change of bowling his eyes lit up and he chipped a dreadful long hop to square leg. Debutant Dale Partridge showed plenty of enthusiasm and a good eye as he made 10 but once he was dismissed RUASCC were eight wickets down with barely a hundred on the board. Jagesh gave it some welly in the last few overs, supported by the ever-watchful Withers, but when Tim Vines brought himself back on to give us some easy runs (deliberately, I mean) Jagesh slapped his first ball straight to mid-on and it was time for tea.

In the same fixture last year Peppard chased down a similar total for the loss of just two wickets with an imperious unbeaten half-century from opener Legg. Well, they dropped Legg for this match to give one of the youngsters a chance and as it turned out they almost gave RUASCC a chance too.

New boy Partridge was given the gloves and he got to use them straight away – Withers finding the edge with the fourth ball of the first over. Soon afterwards Jagesh somehow got one to spin through the gate for the second wicket before Withers followed that with a double wicket maiden, removing Vines for a duck three balls after Carpenter took a neat low catch at slip. Peppard were 16-4, Withers had 3-6 and suddenly we had a game on our hands.

Unfortunately RUASCC couldn’t turn that early dominance into more wickets. The two new batsmen stuck around, the sun shone, the ground dried out and conditions became easier for playing shots. Withers bowled another 11 overs without success and it was only when Zia reacted quickly to run out Chard Junior that we managed to break through.

As usual a couple of catching chances went down and Eagle told a few people to go and field at “sort of um… there-ish” but ultimately, mostly due to the squelchy conditions early on, we didn’t have enough runs to protect and Peppard reached the total with time to spare. Good tea though.

RUASCC Highlight: The opening burst from Withers (3-6 from 4 overs) that left Peppard struggling on 16-4.

RUASCC Man of the Match: In conditions that were decidedly anti-batsmen Mike Ward played a welcome and unusually patient innings.

RUASCC Team: Ward, Eagle (capt), Carpenter, Dip, Zia, Stewart, Tranter, Partridge (wkt), Withers, Jagesh, Ashman