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With plenty of players not selected for
either Saturday side it looked like a good day could be had.
But with a late drop out and another 2nd XI player playing
with an injury (stitches in the hand) things looked in
doubt.
After a look at the wicket produced by Nigel
and the recent rain, Dave was hoping to lose the toss as he
was undecided what his option would be, Then came the toss,
which he won. He conversed with some of the more experience
players and decided to bowl.
The bowling attack supported the decision,
with tight bowling, restricting the run rate (4 of the first
6 overs were maidens). In addition, wickets fell regularly
and the longest partnership was 7.1 overs. The fielding was
the best I've seen from the side this year and a couple of
good catches taken by Gavin Beatty and Tom Bollard. Steve
Collins (Swag) had a good day behind the stumps and stumped
the Ardingly captain whilst standing back, and then took a
couple of neat catches.
Both Dan Leach and Tom Scotcher ended up with
3 for 16 and Paul Watkin and Cal Cleary took a couple of
wickets a piece, and Ardingly were bowled out for 70.
With the innings only taking 2 hours, the
Palmers innings started before tea. Dave Brook opened as a
test opener while Shane Barnard thought it was T20 hitting
his first ball for 6. Unfortunately was over all too soon
after another 2 boundaries. Dave followed soon after,
leaving Swag and Steve Hogg at the crease. Together they
blocked the good balls and put away the bad. By tea at
5pm they had moved the score onto 58 (13 to win). The
Ardingly captain surprised the Palmers side by insisting on
taking tea rather than wait until the end on the match.
Following tea the Ardingly skippers
insistence became clear, when he brought on his young
opening bowler back on. If play had continued he could not
have bowled until the 17th over! This tactic work as 6 balls
after tea Palmers lost their 3rd wicket, with Steve Hogg
going for a big shot that was quite there.
With Steve back in the pavilion, big hitting
Tom Scotcher joined Swag needing 12 for a win. When Tom
faced he didn't think about defending, scoring a single off
his first ball and a 4 off his 2nd, and he only faced 2!
Swag fittingly brought the victory for Palmers with a well
struck boundary, ending with 37*. This all by 17.45.
This was a superb response to last week's
performance, well done guys. | 
