Hampsthwaite Away Match Report

On a sunny April day, Hampsthwaite's ground looked in fantastic condition. However, the idiot Dacre captain, having won the toss chose to have a bowl.

Initially, this looked a decent decision, as Robbie Andonovski seemed able to beat the bat at will and the inevitable nick was snaffled by Chris Eckford behind the stumps. 20-1. However, with a lightning quick outfield, anything that beat the infield raced away to the boundary, meaning that it was difficult to keep a lid on the run rate. A couple of missed chances and some sloppy fielding – combined with some good strokeplay from Hampsthwaite batsmen ensured that they reached 132 before Steve Lawrence (1-48) made partial amends for his earlier drop by taking a one handed blinder at midwicket to give Callum McIntosh (1-35) a deserved first wicket in the first division.

The game seemed to swing back into the balance with some excellent bowling from Steve Ellison (2-55) and Robbie Andonovski – with 3 wickets falling for 9 runs to reduce Hampsthwaite to 170-5, including Matt Boyle for a well made 81. However, a good knock from Paul Taylor and some lower order slogging combined with yet more dropped catches, lax outfielding and moderate captaincy decisions lifted Hampsthwaite to 257-7 on a wicket where 200 was probably par.

The key to chasing such a target is to keep wickets in hand – however the loss of Steve Lawrence and Greg Crossley by the time the scoreboard had reached only 12 made this a difficult proposition. A typically turgid 12 from the skipper, a flowing 18 from Chronic, an encouraging 9 from the newly returned Leon Peachey and a brave 16 from the injured Andy Merrill (who was so injured he looked slow even in comparision to his usual running) at least slowed the rate of decline, but with so many starts it was disappointing that no one went on to provide the serene Robbie Andonovski (90*) with the support required to mount an assault on the target. However, with the support of Chris Eckford, the batting point was comfortably secured as we closed on 183-7.

So despite the disappointing loss – there were plenty of positives to take from our first outing of the season. Chris Eckford performed very competently behind the stumps (despite not gloving a single ball in the warm-up!), Steve Ellison responded well to the responsibility of opening the bowling with a mature performance, whilst Callum McIntosh showed massive potential on debut and was unlucky to take only one wicket.

But inevitably, with 90* out 3-53 off 12 – the star of the day had to be Robbie Andonovski, who settled into the team with ease and performed admirably.

scorecard