Another glorious sunny April day at the Shrine, and a lot less windy than last week. Newborough 2nds were the visitors following their promotion last season.
There were a couple of changes to the Baston side, and a massive IQ decrease with Liam and Bash making their first appearances of the season, replacing dynamic duo Luke and Ginger Darren.
Ben lost the toss and Baston were asked to bat first, with Ant and Alex sent out to continue their good start as an opening pair.
The two young opening bowlers were giving enough room for the Baston duo to tick along nicely. Alex (17) was the first to fall, playing on with Baston 39-1. Bino Jon (with his glasses on) was in at 3 making a binary 10 including a couple of lovely fours clipped through the leg side. A horrendous shot across the line from captain Ben second ball reduced the home side to 61-3 just after drinks.
A decent 17 from 21st century pirate Alex, not sure he needed to raise his bat for it.
Newborough’s experienced bowling duo Lawton and Griffin really put the squeeze on, backed up by 7 or 8 young players in the outfield, which made scoring difficult. Ant started to accelerate his innings with some lusty blows over the top, but Liam (7) copied Ben and fell to a poor shot across the line; 85-4.
Roffe came in at six and batted well with Ant; rotating the strike and not doing anything stupid. The fielding side seemed a bit more relaxed with their fielding positions, pushing men back to the boundary and allowing singles. The score pushed along nicely to 112 before Roffe (12) sliced one to gully. Buzz and Baker both fell cheaply with the innings losing any momentum.
Ant nearly carried his bat through the whole innings, falling for an excellent 45, backing up his solid 39 last week. Some late fireworks from Bash (9*) pushed the Baston score to 127, as Jonny and Lamin both fell for ducks in the 44th over. Excellent bowling from experienced Newborough pair Lawton (5-22) and Griffin (4-20) restricted Baston to a below par score. There were some poor shots in the dismissals and quite a few runs left out there with some singles and twos missed. The Baston bowlers knew they had their work cut out to win this one.
Ant's special posture cushion in his car, reminiscent of Tickler's comfort pillow
Baston’s start wasn’t quite as electric as last week. Newborough made a steady start before Neil (2-21) took the wickets of both openers. Newman leaving a ball that cut in and bowled him, before JWH taking a smart one-handed grab down the legside to remove cack hander Woods. Newborough were 28-2. Baston had a few other early chances, JWH dropping Newman in the second over, Liam’s throw at the stumps well off target, and Bash dropping one smacked at him at mid-wicket.
Lazarus Lamin got an early go from the far end, and broke a good developing partnership, trapping keeper Cawley (14) in front to leave the visitors 59-3.
Buzz (12 overs, 0-22) bowled well with no reward, and fast bowler Bash was given his chance. Regular nets and a new hairstyle, Steffi Graf look-a-like Bash was a new man. Bowling excellent lines on a good length; he had a wicket straight away with the impressive Morris (29) edging behind. The batsman stood his ground before the umpire raised his finger. He can’t have believed he hadn’t hit it, so could only have been gobsmacked at Jonny Safe Hands hanging on.
As Lamin continued, a ball was driven down the ground and mid-on Jon Digby was forced to hot step across. Unfortunately, Jon’s foot lodged in the hard Baston outfield and twisted his knee badly, forcing him off the pitch. Jon made a trip to A & E, where he was probably told to put some ice on it, after a 4 hour wait.
Bash (2-28) had another a few overs later as Olley (14) was another to fall to the Bash/JSH combination. This should have been the beginning of the end of the Newborough innings. 40 runs to get and 5 wickets down, but instead Baston capitulated. Bash could have had 3 wickets in that over, but Jonny put down Hearn, and then skipper Greenwood on nought. In the next over Hearn tried to lift Lamin over mid-off, but dollied it straight to Liam, who inexplicably dropped it. Further poor fielding kept allowing easy singles for the Newborough batsmen.
Bash 2-28, fine bowling on his return to the team
Lamin (1-40) was replaced by Liam with Newborough just 20 away. Liam has worked on his spin bowling for the last couple of years and should have had a wicket in his first over with Ben taking his turn to drop a snipper at mid-on. As Baston’s former best fielders had a nightmare, it was Ant Morris who led by example in the field, becoming a specialist extra cover, with the ball attracted to him like a magnet, and no Newborough player daring to run a single to him.
Newborough, led by skipper Greenwood (22*) confidently batted towards victory, with Hearn smashing a 4 past Davies to tie up the scores on 127. A bit of magic came from Davies as he ragged a leggy through the defenses of Hearn (21) for the sixth wicket. Out strode Griffin with just 1 needed for victory, and he smashed a poor ball towards mid-wicket where Neil Baker pulled off a trademark unbelievable grab for Liam’s second wicket. Amazingly Liam took a hat trick as the next ball went straight through Worley. As the final two batsmen had to get their whites back on and find some kit to bat in, Liam had 2 more balls of his over, and why wouldn’t he be able to take 2 more!
Spin twins Liam and Lamin
Well, Jonny saw the end of that dream as a bye slipped through and gave Newborough their victory. At least Liam’s hat-trick had given Baston an extra couple of bonus points, which could be crucial later in the season.
A disappointing defeat to take, and while our batting wasn’t at its best, we had enough chances in the field to win the game, including seven dropped catches.
A few players came out of the game well, Nozza for another sterling effort at the top of the order scoring 45. Bash for some explosive deliveries in the middle overs, and Jonny for some excellent keeping again.
The boys went back to the White Horse for Roffy’s birthday beers bonanza, where Ant Morris was conned out of £17 for the smallest burger and 7 chips imaginable.
Scorecard - https://baston.play-cricket.com/website/results/5175412