Cricket: Bray Slaughter Shenley Church End

Posted on May 5, 2008

On a pitch that would do well to be decscribed as poor, Bray were inevitably asked to bat after losing yet another toss.

The attitude of the batsmen was to try and play positive as it was expected that a ball with your name on it would soon be coming. An early wicket brought the experienced Norris & Kerins together and with some fine hitting and at times gutsy defending, the rate ticked along at more than a run a ball.

A stand of 157 in 25 overs was eventually ended when Kerins was well caught for 71 and Norris soon followed for 80 when the ball failed to bounce. Fine hitting by Peacock and Hurren (42 and 35 respectively) kept the momentum going and Bray ended up 283-6, a score well in excess of par on that wicket.

Church End never had any momentum as wickets fell steadily. 2 catches from Wilson (the less said about the celebrations the better) paved the way for a good fielding performance as 7 catches were taken in total.

But the man able to extract the most from the wicket was Roff. Bamboozaling the number 3 by clean bowling him, he went on to claim his first ever 5 wicket haul, his figures ending up 5-25. He even deliberately dropped a dolly catch off skipper Jones so he could claim the wicket at the other end.

But the story doesn't end there. The introduction of Spicer left players and spectators gaping as his missiles were launched. One batsman thought he was the luckiest person in the world when, after being completely deceived by the flight and guile of Spicer, the ball hit the bail and failed to remove it!!! The batsman then became the unluckiest player in the world when in the next over he was caught Jones bowled Spicer!!!

There was still time for Jones to drop another catch off the luckless Harvey before Spicer wrapped up proceedings and ended with figures of 3-34.

Source: Eaton Bray Cricket Club