Wargrave (H) – 5.8.12

Wargrave 174-6 dec
Stewart 3-46, Withers 1-9

RUASCC 94-9
Carpenter 23, Weeks 13

Match drawn

I don’t feel like wasting too many words on this one as it follows a very similar pattern to the Braywood game the week before: RUASCC bowl first and do a reasonably OK job, drop a few catches, then have a bat and fall a long way short of the mark but cling on for a draw. The game was at least notable for being our first this season at our “home” ground at Reading University.

Withers opened with a wicket maiden, bowling the left-handed Drew through the gate, and followed up with three more consecutive maidens from the tennis court end. Meanwhile the batsmen were taking six an over from Jagesh at the other end so Carpenter was brought on to calm things down a bit. Withers completed a ten-over spell conceding just nine runs but despite this the second-wicket partnership added 92 before they were eventually separated by that man Ken Stewart again – Eagle taking the catch.

Poor old Ken should have had six wickets in this match but he didn’t have much luck: Jagesh spilled two straightforward chances at mid-on and Wardy failed to hold on when diving to his left at square leg – all off the same batsman! Fittingly the two chastened fielders later combined to run the man out but by then he’d scored 72.

Stewart did earn an LBW to remove Davies for 20 before French was run out for 4 as RUASCC rallied. Then Chan’s superb fielding directly led to another wicket: angry at picking out Chan at short mid-off the ball before, Clark Junior came dancing down the wicket to Ken and was stumped by a couple of yards. The final wicket to fall came from an unlikely source as Mike Ward’s occasional slow ones gave another catch to Captain Eagle at mid-off, and it’s fair to say that Wardy would have had a second wicket but for Dip’s grotesque manhandling of another stumping chance.

RUASCC would usually feel confident of topping 174 on the university wicket and the opening batsmen survived the first ten overs before Eagle was caught behind for nine and Ward gave catching practice to slip for just six. Carpenter set off confidently and got the scoreboard going while Gehlot (3) was run out and we reached drinks needing 117 from the final 20 overs with seven wickets in hand.

Our hopes largely depended on Carpenter but he scooped the first ball after the break straight to point and a promising innings was ended on 23. Dip (3) was dismissed in the next over, closely followed by Chan (0) and Stewart (1). We do love a good collapse and from 58-3 we were suddenly 66-7 with 15 overs remaining.

Having already dropped two catches Jagesh was having a bit of a special day and it didn’t get a whole lot better when he was given run out for five when he looked suspiciously safe. Poor old Jagesh made his way back to the pavilion where he crossed a black cat, walked into a door and stumbled backwards onto a rake which sprung up and hit him in the back of the head, pushing him face first into a wheelbarrow full of manure in the style of Biff Tannen from Back to the Future.

Tom Weeks became only the second RUASCC batsman to reach double figures before he was bowled for 13 and his departure meant Withers and Ashman had to see out eight more overs to earn a draw. Facing increasing tetchiness from the growing ring of close fielders the two ever-reliable blockers put together a painfully slow partnership against innocuous slow bowling – both men quietly wondering why Wargrave didn’t bring the quicks back on to finish the job.

Withers saw off the final over without difficulty and we finished the match just 80 runs behind.

RUASCC Highlight: Chan’s diving stops at short mid-off.

RUASCC Man of the Match: Jagesh.

RUASCC Team: Ward, Eagle (capt), Gehlot, Carpenter, Dip (wkt), Malde, Weeks, Stewart, Jagesh, Withers, Ashman