Halberton soak up the local scenery
Posted Saturday, August 18, 2007
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Sunseekers 125-2 (35 overs) (Carpenter 65)
Halberton 36 (S Taylor 2-5, Bennett 3-15, Coxon 3-3, Ashford 2-3)
A big welcome back to our great friends from Halberton in Devon but a big shame that the weather put the dampeners on the day.
Although almost dry enough to start at the start, the day was never without rain of some degree but, mindful of the distance Halberton had come, both sides got stuck in and toughed it out at a still-welcoming Draycott & Hanbury ground.
We were put in after losing the toss and would have batted. Your stand in captain asked for opinions in the home dressing room: "Bat," said one. "Bowl," said another. "A concensus!" said the wicketkeeper, unhelpfully.
After coming off for heavy rain after eight overs, we decided to cut the contest to 35 overs and most of these were occupied by Carpo and Benno's opening double act.
"I bet I had almost as many scoring shots as John," quoth Benno upon his saturated return to the pavilion with 18 runs to his name.
"Yes," shot back sardonic scorer Gibbo: "18!" Well, he keeps it ticking over!
This was Carpo of old, in difficult batting conditions, playing the only innings of substance in the day. Fours needed a big thump and he also managed a big six over midwicket.
Solid runs from Paul and Steve closed the innings and Pete Brewer, having stood in exactly the same place in the field for the whole innings, strolled off soaked on one side, the direction the rain had been coming - and completely dry on the other, a bizarre sight.
Our experienced opening attack boasted a combined age of 131
There was a feeling that Halberton, full of new young blood these days (some of it, Will Diggle, twice the size it was last time we went down there), had enough hitters in the side to make short work of a target of 125 but, having had two hours of fielding in the rain (their choice, your stand-in captain, feels the need to point out again), they were perhaps weary of the battle when time came for them to bat.
Or perhaps it was the unparalleled experience of our opening attack, which boasted a combined age of 131.
Fred was virtually unplayable, swinging one past the bat of Halberton's opener, who came with a reputation for big scoring, and the wickets just kept on tumbling.
Sam and Ross reduced the combined age of the attack by almost a century
It was time for slightly less experience and the introduction of Sam and Ross reduced the combined age of the by almost a century!
Introducing new bowlers to try to give everyone a go made no difference... down went the wickets, whatever we did.
Benno was to congratulate the captain repeatedly on his excellent tactics after the match, having opened the bowling and the batting a couple of days after his 70th birthday. This was, I hasten to add, an oversight, and he only opened the batting because Paul Downes was bloody late. The old fella was dumbfounded to be assured that his original position in the order was 7!
Anyway, despite the weather, a very sociable day was had by all and, for sure, Sunseekers' first trip back to Halberton in three years is on the cards for next season.
CC
