Saturday First XI – lost at home to Haslemere
Saturday Second XI – lost away at Haslemere – match report is below
Sunday First XI Development Side – lost away at Sunbury
Sunday Second XI – did what England couldn’t do and won against St. Joseph’s!
Long Ditton Saturday 2nd XI match report for 26/06/10 vs Haslemere
After last weeks performance the team started the day with a surprising text message from the run master that is Thomas Rogers. The text read this – “Hi it’s tom, I have changed my batting stance and now I am getting runs”. With this new knowledge the team felt that no one could stop us as we had a player in fine form and with a new stance.
The ground was another long distance trek from the Hog’s fortress. Nevertheless, the team got on with it and made their way down. Dave Oldham once again uses the “magic” coin and wins the toss and lust electing to bat on a very hard bouncy track. With Paul Mock unable to play the captain stepped up to his duties and opened the batting with Mr Sweeney. Paul got a hard grafted four runs but was bowled by the pacey right arm bowler for 4. With Oldham up the order it gave him more time to settle in and play his usual game. The captain batted extremely well notching up 11 fours and going onto getting 52 until getting bowled by the spinner. Craig Connaughton was run out on 9 and Mark Blackwell was caught for 18. Next up was Tom “I have a new batting stance” Rogers. The jury was out for the young man as he walked into the crease (very slowly). Tom failed to utilise the new stance and was consequently out LBW from the slow leg spinner. Sam Cheema came to the crease with a whole amount of pressure coming in on 3 consecutive ducks with a new bat. However, it’s a new game and he finally got some runs (not a lot) as he got 10 before being bowled. Long Ditton’s heart and soul Mark Lambert hit a nice 7 before being caught. Adam Barlow was also caught for 3. Sean O’Rourke stepped to the crease with Cheema’s new bat and got more runs with it that Sam has in 4 innings. He got a not out (batted for his average) for 11 with Jerry and Suresh both getting 6. Ditton were bowled out for 142 of 49.2 over’s. However, a rarity had been achieved as no one in the batting line up got a duck.
With Ditton failing to reach a par score on a track where runs should have been scored it was always going to be an up hill struggle for the bowlers. Adam Barlow was thrown the new ball by skipper Oldham and failed to make the much needed early break through. With the batsman going after the bowlers from ball one it was going to very hard. Sam Cheema opened the bowling as well and was getting good bounce. However, with dropped catches and missed chances he couldn’t get the breakthrough. This was until Tom “I have a new batting stance” Rogers caught a routine catch of his bowling. Jerry was bought on for Adam and got a wicket with a fine off stump ball. After Cheema had tired it was left to spinner O’Rourke to bowl. Taking a wicket with a nice flighted ball and consequently stumped by Lambert. Haslemere got the total in 18.5 over’s.
Bowling figures: A.Barlow 4 overs, 24 runs. S.Cheema 6 overs for 50 runs for 1 wicket. J.Morton 5.5 overs, 44 runs, 1 wicket. S.O’Rourke 3 overs, 22 runs, 1 wicket.
Next the 2nd XI face Guildford City at the famous Stokes Field ground.
Sam Cheema match reporter