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SNCL Division C/D

1st XI v West Bridgfordians

Saturday 3-July-2004

West Bridgfordians 106ao (17 points) beat Wilsons 96ao (4 points) by 10 runs

Tim Caldwell 3-30
Imran Khan 3-16

Wilsons crashed to their second defeat of the league season in a rain-interrupted game at West Bridgfordians.

Wilsons had a strong 1st XI which included the returning Rose, Khan and Syed from best man duties, injuries and getting involved with a sheep in Wales respectively. TT dropped down to the 2's where he hoped to continue his great run of wicket taking whilst Norman headed for the coast of Portsmouth with new girlfriend Kerry.

The short trip to Stamford Road was easily negociated, apart from Rose who had to wait in Roko Car Park for the late arriving Ifty.

We arrived to be greeted by a heavy shower but West Bridgfordians are a resourceful bunch. They had a cover over the wicket and this plastic groundsheet proved to be a source of rain protection, arguments and pathetic 'SuperMan' impressions each and every time it was out on the wicket.

Boss won the toss and elected to bowl first on a pitch that would inevitably do things. The first thing it did do was to get wet as the rain came after only 2 overs. Off we trotted to eagerly look at the fast moving clouds. 30 minutes later we were back on after small arguments over the safety of Tim Caldwell and the marshland he would have to run through on his follow through. Sawdust dried the naughty area, much to the delight of their left handed opener who had maintained since 1.30pm that the pitch was safe to play on. "Dont you want to play?"..."We're here to play cricket" etc...were his wise words on the safety of personnel on a cricketing field.

TC had the first laugh in the very first over after the interruption when he caught and bowled the right-hander from a ball, which stopped on the pitch. Rose than provided one of the most pleasing moments of the day by inducing the left-handed opener's edge to Nabeel caught it in his well-developed pectoral area.

Boss then made the shock decision to replace Rose with Khan after only two overs with the instructions to get wickets quickly. Khan heeded the advice and shot out 3 batsmen. He bowled a great spell, broken by another stint by Rose. At the other end, TC was proving to be as successful and his three wickets were well deserved. He also contributed to a run out, one of two in the innings. Rose also picked up another wicket with a caught and bowled of their dangerous left-hander.

The West Bridgfordian innings ended on 106 all out, a fair score in the conditions.

Wilsons started brightly with Bush and Khan opening. The score was pushed on to 30 before Khan misjudged a ball, which came back at him and was bowled.

The game then swung in the way of the home team as Wilsons collapsed from 32-1 to 47-7. In the conditions runs were always going to be difficult to get. Some batsmen threw their wickets away, other such as Stef and TC got rippers which they were too good not to edge. Zak and Ifty slowly bought the innings back around and the game was finely balanced until Zak tried to punch the ball over the infield and was caught which left Rose and Ifty to try and get the runs needed.

Ifty in particular was playing well and fully deserved to win the game like last year but with 10 runs to get he gloved the ball down the leg side and the keeper took a good catch.

Wilsons dropped to 3rd in the league with only 4 points obtained.

Dave Rose [edited for public consumption by A Odell]