Sheldon Marlborough CC Blog

Latest news from Foliot Fields

We were pretty close to getting an outright win over Stockton at their ground on Saturday. If I’d hit the stumps at the non-striker’s end off the last ball of the 49th over we would have had a run out and 24 points. Nevertheless, another excellent performance against good opposition.

Keith Rondeau finally got the half-century he deserved at the top of the order, Nasir Munir looked good on debut until he missed a straight one, and Guy Morris made a solid 30, whilst Jack Hemming’s unbeaten 80 supported by Neal Rughani’s 37 provided the partnership that took us from a decent score to a matchwinning one - aided by some indifferent fielding, it has to be said.

In the field we were pretty good but not perfect, with a few misfields and a couple of (difficult) missed chances. Tom Hemming’s pick up to run out opener Hughes was an outstanding moment. The bowling was good and there were very few wides. Viz Parmar ran uphill and into the wind, adding another wicket to his season’s tally - and then three excellent catches. Good spells from Simon Baxter, Jim Shirley and Tim Westwood saw them all take wickets, and often just as batsmen looked like they might settle. Keith Rondeau picked up a couple to secure the man of the match award, the umpires giving a special mention to Jack - who had a tough time behind the stumps on a track that looked very good but offered indifferent bounce.

In terms of the league table, we move level with Stockton in 6th place - but within reach of 4th and 5th (we are also mounting a formal appeal regarding our penalty points). Next week’s visitors are Fillongley who narrowly beat us on their own patch - one of the games this season we should have won. They lost to Bablake yesterday (as everyone has), whilst the following week’s opponents - Wishaw - thrashed Walsall YMF. Possibly the only surprise of the day was Southam beating Camp Hill, which gives them a cushion over relegation-threatened Bournville, and keeps Camp Hill only four points ahead of us in 5th.

Another win for the 2nd XI (by the small margin of 159 runs) sees them open up a 37 point lead in their division - and they travel to their nearest rivals next week and so can improve upon this.

It looks likely that the Sunday fixtures have been rained out as the weather reminds us there’s really not long to go until the end of another campaign. Make the most of it, everyone.

[UPDATED: So I got the Jack/Ronnie story about the Man of the Match the wrong way round. Oops.]

Trackback This Post | Subscribe to the comments through RSS Feed