CLOWNE AMBUSHED IN CALOW JUNGLE
11/05/04
At Calow
Clowne kicked off their Mid Week league campaign in high spirits after doing so well in the limited overs indoor league throughout the winter. On arrival Clowne were dealt a huge shock when they were greeted with a pitch which wouldn’t have been suitable for a game of football never mind Cricket. John Hendley commented that there could still be some snipers left over from the Second World War in the long grassy outfield. Anyhow both captains agreed to play so the game went ahead with Clowne winning the toss and opting to bat trying to get full use of the light and the best out of a very soft wicket.
With the fielders cleverly hopping from foot to foot to prevent them from becoming stuck in the mud. Holmes and A. White opened the batting and were soon in trouble when Holmes (2) was bowled by an unplayable ball from Wilson. Although he was out this gave Holmes great amusement because to say it kept low would be an understatement. This brought Andy Walker to the crease he and White looked in little trouble and took the score up to 28 from 4 overs until Andy went for the big hit over the short boundary but didn’t quite get hold of it, ending up being caught off Johnson for 7.
Womble came to the crease and quick running between the wickets and a couple of big hits from White gave Clowne some momentum. Womble was next to go though caught by the wicket keeper for 4. Paul Thopmson was next in and scored a quick 4 before exiting the same way as Womble. White however was still there despite lofting the ball into the outfield several times finding the gaps with each wayward shot.
One of the Calow fielders out on the boundary got the shock of his life when he thought he was being charged by a Rhino out of the long grass but came face to face with Smalley doing a tour of the ground.
C.Hendley and Smalley batting at 6 and 7 (dropped down the order by Ben for arriving late) were both caught off A.Horton for 5 and 4 respectively. J.Kinsey came in at 8 when Clowne were looking for a final push to get the score as high as possible and some quick running from kinky helped the cause greatly until he played on off Johnson with 1 ball remaining. G. White was the man to take the last ball but could only manage a leg bye. This left Clowne on 86 for 7 off their 15 8 ball overs, with A. White carrying his bat for 48. The pick of the bowlers were Johnson 3-25 and A. Horton 2-14.
Clowne 86 for 7
Not a bad score considering anything hit along the ground stopped well short of the boundary
Calows innings got off to a slow start with the opening bowlers of Smalley and Andy Walker tying the batsmen down, with Andrews excessive movement off the seam on second bounce baffling both batsmen. Walker had Poiney bowled for a duck and Chris Hendley keeping wicket lulled the batsmen into taking a quick single to a miss-field and ran Tomley out for 5. John Hendley went down as if shot by one of the snipers trying to get to a catch on the legside and then gave an action reply in the next over.
After 2 overs each, these experienced bowlers gave way to the even more experienced Thompson and the youngster Womble. Again both these kept the play reasonably tight and the game was building to a close finale when Ben brought A White into the attack.
Tomley and G Horton were now at the crease and needed to push the scoring on and this they did to great effect although Clowne did put down a couple of difficult catches. Joe Kinsey was brought into the attack and bowled a tidy over in the circumstances but the game was all over in the penultimate over with Tomley being run out for 40 and G Horton not out 35.
All in all a very enjoyable evening even though we lost.
Calow 89 for 3.
Calow beat Clowne by 7 wickets.