Sadly our specialist reporter was wounded in action on Sunday and has been ruled unfit to write this report.
Whilst skippering his side in a crunch ‘Wandering Clash’ at the weekend, Mike Tilles, keeping wicket and recounting a particularly long anecdote was struck on the chin and required some stitches.
Back to the cricket:
Saturday took us on a winding route across south London to Alleys who occupy Second place in the division.
We rattled up 242 in the allotted 50 overs. Singhy lead the way with a classy 86 to follow a great start by Daisy (42) and Tom (43). A damp outfield with some lush grass slowed the run rate considerably, our first boundary coming in the 10th over from an overthrow !
Bowling second, we missed chances off both openers in Dan’s second over but recovered well with Dan dismissing the opener and No. 3 in his next. The Burglar then took centre stage with a wicket in his third over and a fantastic hat-trick in his 4th (including 2 LBW’s from the home Umpire).
Some might look at the 5 LBW’s awarded to us and might assume that our own Umpire was perhaps enjoying himself a little too much, but for the record, 4 were quite rightly awarded by the Home Umpire.
At this point the match was effectively over and the batsmen decided to graft for as long as possible.
Singhy had grabbed a wicket in his first spell but like an old television he was struggling with the ‘Vertical Hold’. After 5 balls of his second spell, Stan invited Singhy to have a rest and the remaining ball was delivered by Fish (now top of division bowling for Strike rate) who slipped in a wide to start but then nabbed the 9th wicket to break a partnership that was threatening to send the entire crowd to sleep. Williams bowled the last to wrap up the innings for a laboured 130. At one point Alleyns were reeling at 20 for 6 (a two match score of 58 for 16) but they battled on to respectability.
Onwards to Kenley who are also fighting for the one remaining promotion spot with Alleyns, Churt and Woking.
