Compton House Vs Parley
May 10th - Home Game
Our first home game of the season turned out to be one of the biggest run gluts ever seen at our ground.........
Having scored runs freely in our first match posting a total was never going to be a cause for concern. Our main problem at the moment is our miss firing bowling attack and as the day unfolded the reality of this kicked in.
Our stars with the bat last week did not come off this time and it was some different new and familiar faces that came good. The Parley bowling attack was hardly the most potent in the league but on a soft drying slow wicket it was testing enough. Our batsmen set about dispatching the ball to all corners of the ground and more often than not it went flying over the boundary!! Our players seemed to put every bad/average ball out of the ground much to our spectators delight. As usual Mike Harper appeared in the run glut as did Nick Price, Tim Clark, Dan "the fortress" Thorne and on his Compton debut Ed Elliot- Square. There is not a lot more i can add about our innings except that the ball was hit hard and we finished on 339.
The "second half" could not have been more surprising...............
We did not really expect the young Parley team to get close to our score and we knew we had to remove their talented Indian Niak to secure victory. This was not as easy as we thought it was going to be!! The pitch turned out to be as easy for them to bat on as it was for us. Although we took a steady number of wickets they were all the wrong man
as their Indian master took our bowling apart. However hard our bowlers tried we could not dismiss him and 339 was steadily looking quite vulnerable. Although it was painful at the time you had to hand it to him he could hit the ball with some style. Our bowling and fielding as usual at the start of a season is looking quite poor. The tidiest bowler of the day was Ed Elliot- Square with the others not really being consistent enough. The big turning point came when the "nimble" Mike Harper managed to remove one of his keeping gloves to run out Niak(170) as he tried to run a single to hog the strike.
It all came down to the last over with Parley needing 10 to win. Having dropped a catch in the previous over Greg Ridout had the task of bowling. After a couple of wides and a keen crowd watching on the last ball of the match Greg clean bowled their batsmen giving us maximum points!!!!!!
Apart from the obvious flaws in our game at the moment this turned out to be a great day of cricket. Everyone who was at the ground by the end was standing watching all the action and it was fantastic entertainment full of tension.
Once again i need to thank all our supporters, without you our club would not be where it is today and to those who did not come and support you missed a fantastic day so come along next weekend when we are playing the formidable Suttoners at home.
Regards
Robert Dunning (captain)
Sat 3rd May Broadstone vs Compton House
Normally our first game of the season is a bit of a hit and miss affair, but not this year for a change......
We were put into bat first probably based on our last seasons efforts at the Delph (don't ask..!!!! ) Greg Ridout grabbed the chance to open and scored runs freely setting up a nice platform. What encouraged me watching from the sidelines was the fact that we actually looked like we had practiced over winter and overall the bowling did not trouble us at all. Everyone who came to the crease managed to time the ball falling foul only to wrong shot selection. Dan Buxton hit the ball as sweetly as only he knows how and was a joy to watch. So all in all we looked like a competitive batting side posting 239.
As for our bowling yet again Nick Price proved why he is one of the best opening bowlers in the league. He even had a hatrick chance having removed their very dangerous number 4 first ball. Our new bowler from down under Perrin Bowman didn't let us down on debut either taking 3 wickets over two spells.
However over the 50 overs we kept giving silly singles away which put added pressure on the later bowlers. This is something we need to sort out badly to avoid another season of relegation worry. The pick of the other bowlers has to be Simon Wildbur.
Sadly in the end Broadstone knocked off the runs in the last over which was a hard pill to swallow with us knowing we should have won. However I think as a team we know we have more to give and there is a tremendous team spirit as usual and we seem to be more of a unit this year.
Finally, a big thank you to all those who came to watch,Luke, Nick, Johnny, Bill etc this really helps and shows what being part of Compton House is all about. We out numbered the home fans easily and you should be proud of your efforts.
My man of the match has to be SIMON WILDBUR!!!!
Sorry i cant be more specific with the stats i don't have the score
book!!
PLEASE COME TO WATCH OUR FIRST HOME GAME THIS SATURDAY. WE NEED YOU
ALLL!!!!!!!!!!!
Regards
Rob Dunning