Herts Trophy Semi Final

Clarendon v Holtwhites Trinibis

Sunday 26th August


The sun was shining for a change as we all arrived for the 10.30 meet
at the club.
Habib had somehow forgotten to come back from Birmingham the previous
night, so Anuj thankfully stepped in at the last minute so that we
had 11 to take to the field.
Blighter loaded up his sat Nav and off we went staying in convoy for
at least half a mile before Taff and Alan disappeared out of sight!.
Luckily Taff knew where he was going and guided Alan safely to the
ground without a sat Nav!
Sue was delighted when on arrival she saw the huge Bouncy castle that
Ben was going to be playing on all afternoon (I won't repeat her
exact words, but she was not best pleased!) and we got ourselves
ready and even managed a good warm up before we commenced battle.
After announcing in the 2nd round at Exiles that I had'nt lost a toss
all season I have subsequently lost every toss since, so I didn't
hold much hope for this one!
How right I was as I lost once again and we were put into the field.
This actually was what I would have chosen as the wicket was still
damp and the conditions looked good for some swing bowling.
What a start! Kyal started from the top end and removed their opening
bat in the first over lbw.Jack then opened from the other end and in
his second over had their captain Gary Wise caught driving over the
top and an excellent catch it was by Matt Bird.
The rest of their team then failed to make any runs of note with only
their no 1 bat making double figure (34) and he was their last man
out. Kyal and Jack again gave us great momentum from the start,
between them removing 5 of the top 6 batsmen. Quadir was again very
economical with only 15 runs coming from his 10 overs and he also
bagged 2 vital wickets. Anuj bowled an improving 10 over spell,
taking the 1 wicket and Alex removed the final 2 wickets with a tight
spell of bowling.
One disappointing aspect was the number of extras we gave away , 61,
which included 51 wides! We definitely need practise at bowling to
left handers although I doubt we will ever play against a side with
so many in this competition again.
Clarendon were eventually dismissed for 122 in 45.3 overs and we took
the long walk back to the pavilion to take tea.
Blighter and Dan opened up our innings and after Dan was removed in
the 3rd over, yours truelly entered the fray. Blighter was then
caught at second slip by a ball that decided to pop off the pitch as
he went to drive it and we were then 15-2. Myself and Kyal then
managed to take the score onto 58 before Kyal got a top edge pulling
which brought Taffy into the fold. Together we pushed the score onto
92 before Taff was harshly given out lbw as the ball drifted down the
leg side. I was next out with the score on 117, 6 away from victory.
As I left the field I was disappointed I had given my wicket away so
close to the end, but was confident that it would shortly all be
over. How wrong I was! 40 minutes later I was still pacing up and
down with us slipping from 117-5 to 121- 8 . Jack was still there on
9 not out and Matt Bird had just joined him. The next thing I
remember seeing was Matt sprinting towards the danger end and the
ball missing the stumps as he was still halfway down the pitch.In
fact the ball had shaved the stumps without dislodging the bails!
Victory at Last!! Man hugs were exchanged and the dream of a final at
Shenley was now reality.
Team work, along with some excellent individual performances had once
again seen us win the day against a team 1 division above us in the
Saturday league.

we're on our way to Shenley…..etc…etc….


Mark.