North Devon League Division 2
Shebbear v. Witheridge Incorrigibles
Incorrigibles 137-3 (A Crossman 45, R Hilton 40, H Landymore 2-21), beat
Shebbear 135 all out (O Wickett 36, J Chappell 35, B Franks 3-19) by 7 wickets
A difficult week for the two captains.
Other commitments elsewhere meant that we were only able to raise 20
players between us, so it looked as though we would both play with 10. A late cancellation by Victoria Park, however, meant we were able to take a
full 11 to Shebbear for the first XI game, with Ed Strong and Les Rendall making welcome additions to our
bowling attack. Ed Hosegood volunteered to stand down as he had
pressing work at home. Thank you to everyone who was willing to turn
out.
Winning the toss yet again we decided to
bowl, hoping that the soft pitch and damp outfield may give us an
advantage. And a low slow pitch
it turned out to be. The two experienced Shebbear openers struggled
against some accurate bowling by opening pair Ed Strong and Ben Franks. With 24 on the board, skipper Andrew Bryan missed a swinging full toss from Franks which hit the stumps, before a couple of useful stands put Shebbear in a position to
reach about 180 with still 20 overs to go. Les Rendall eventually
trapped Wickett, the other opener, LBW for 36, and with an injured
Russell Hilton bowling well at the other end, the runs started to dry up. Ben got their number three Chappell, who was beginning to look dangerous, for 35. Then a cameo bowling appearance by our skip,
bowling his weird mixed bag of slow wind-assisted outswingers, nipped out their middle order. Ed Strong finished things off with a wicket he deserved for his opening spell.
A subdued Andy Crossman and Ed Pincombe
led the chase, but runs were hard to come by and Ed fell to an excellent
ball that nipped back and clipped his off bail. Enter Russell Hilton,
always looking the part but usually unable to deliver. The pair put on a
steady 60 or so with hardly a boundary in sight. The unusually quiet
Crossman didn’t hit a boundary for 27 overs, before dispatching successive fours and a six. Russell advanced to the 40s and looked a
certainty for a jug, but fell LBW, and Andy Crossman was caught for 45
shortly after. Double jug avoidance!
Jittery times remembering the 2nd
team collapse the week before and still needing 36 off 13 overs, the
experienced Jake McDonald and Ben Franks steadied the innings, and
the Franks stamp of finishing the innings with a six won us the
game with five overs remaining.
Overall we played very well with
some excellent fielding by all, especially Mark Reader who threw
himself around to save several boundaries, breaking his glasses in the process! Also well done to Ed Reader who kept for the whole innngs with
no byes or extras. The only blemish on our fielding performance was the
skipper, who dropped a sitter of Ben, before claiming the wicket of the same batsman himself two balls later...
Scorecard
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