Tilehurst & Theale (A) – 9.9.12

Tilehurst & Theale 209-8
Zia 4-46, Saad 3-53

RUASCC 191-8
Fawaz 58, Eagle 47

Match drawn

The second leg of our weekend double-header saw RUASCC travel to Tilehurst & Theale Cricket Club, a ground that’s seen plenty of runs in our recent encounters. As regular followers of the blog will know this is the fixture where I usually put songs into the match report – well, just for a change, this time I’ve put the match report into a song. With an appreciative nod to 1950s comedy duo Flanders & Swann, I present to you “The Batsman Cometh”.

(piano intro.)

'Twas on a recent Sunday we travelled down to Theale
Our skipper won the toss – and promptly chose to field
He threw the ball to Taimur, the innings to commence
But his first ball was a long-hop and was clattered to the fence.

Oh, it all makes work for the fielding team to do.

'Twas in the fifteenth over we saw a wicket fall
When Zia bowled a straight one – and Puri missed the ball
We’d been waiting for that breakthrough for an hour in the sun
And it was at least an hour before we saw another one.

Oh, it all makes work for the bowling team to do.

'Twas when he’d scored a hundred the opener retired
We’re rather glad he chose to go before we all expired
We tried some different bowlers, but all were doomed to fail
So we had to bring old Saad back on to come and clean the tail.

Oh, it all makes work for the taxi man to do.

'Twas from a Saad delivery that Wardy took a knock
While diving down the leg side, used his ankle for the block
The bruise and painful swelling made it hard to run about
So Withers took the gloves and promptly ran a batsman out.

Oh, it all makes work for the hospital to do.

'Twas when they’d passed two hundred the home side had enough
And based on recent history we could tell it would be tough
Then Carpenter and Ward got out with just five overs gone
And no one on the planet thought the victory might be on.

Oh, it all makes work for the batsmen still to do.

'Twas down to Doctor Eagle to try to make a score
And he was joined by Fawaz, who started with a four
They faced some useful bowling, which tested their techniques
So a hundred runs were added but it took them several weeks.

Oh, it all makes work for the scorer’s pen to do.

'Twas down to Brian Cooper to take the game apart
He bowled Fawaz for fifty-eight, and that was just the start
Main and Saad and Taimur were dealt with pretty quick
With Zia given leg-before despite a massive knick.

Oh, it all makes work for the umpire to do.

With forty runs still needed it wasn’t looking good
We would have liked to chase the win but didn’t think we could
With any decent batsmen we’d have won with time to spare
But neither Ken nor Withers could get it off the square.

The stubborn tail-enders simply shut and locked the door
So t’was on a Sunday evening that we finished with the draw.

RUASCC Highlight: Great to see Saad back and bowling quick!

RUASCC Man of the Match: Fawaz for his debut fifty.

RUASCC Team: Carpenter, Eagle (capt), Ward (wkt), Fawaz, Zia, Main, Taimur, Saad, Stewart, Withers, Ashman