Willingale.

Report vs Willingale

Match Report
Date 28/05/23 
Oppo Willingale (a)
Type 40 Overs
Report by Liam Mulholland

On the Ride London cycle day, the evergreen fixture secretary organised the worst possible game location wise at Willingale CC, whose residents in the village were trapped 
indoors for 24 hours. The routes to the ground were effectively impossible to negotiate. Stefan amazingly had no problem at all and arrived earlier than normal, he did say 
though that there were a lot of bike riders around and guys with clip boards and 'Hi Vis' jackets were shouting at him as he just moved some signage that was in his way, 
blasting through with no problem. Sandeep suffered the most, leaving home at 2:34am but got confused with another bike race as his journey went down to the coast of Perpignan 
and Narbonne, eventually arriving at 3:30pm. Danny was another that suffered badly, as he arrived via Gateshead. The skippers then left their brains on the boundary edge 
before the toss. They talked bollocks for 10 minutes before returning and advising Willingale who won the toss and are batting in a 40 over game, "Are you sure?", time 2:15pm. 
Signs were ominous when various early deliveries pitched and rolled along the wicket crushing the batters feet. The O's match ball purchased from 'Balls From Us are Shite", not
 really helping the batsman as they were scuffed and battered out of shape just on the throw round to the bowler. Balls in the Lords Museum are in better condition! The fielding
 effort seem to go on forever due to the multiple searches for balls hit into the bushes. The scorecard made no strange viewing 175-8, Qudeer 113 not out, unfortunately dropped 
a few times by divers still suffering from cramp in their fingers due to the marathon stint at the wheel, 112 runs batted down between midwicket and long off. The rest of the 
team 63-8. Jack Baker-Merry posting a handy 4-23, some of his half trackers proving deadly as they slammed into the batters toes for a couple of LBW dismissals, on that wicket 
it was going to be a tough ask, but the O's had a stroke of luck as the 2nd innings began with a brand new ball that actually looked like a cricket ball. Some very useful 
boundaries were picked up pushing the score along, wickets of course fell due to the nature of the pitch. Sandeep on his LBW dismissal walked straight to his car and drove off
 in his pads, batting gloves and helmet, estimated arrival back in Colchester, looking like Tuesday. Hudson and Shah put on an entertaining partnership but the game changed after
 another fine Shah boundary, the ball was lost and replaced by another old battered ball. Shah unluckily caught sweeping down the leg side by the keeper with the top score of 42.
 Skipper Dawson 3-37 and Hossem 3-11 finished off the last 13 overs giving very little to hit. Once Hudson departed for a battling 29 the innings was cooked. With the temperature 
dropping rapidly and woolly mammoths roaming the boundary edge, the O's tail end scrambled well to get to 162-9, falling 13 short. Of the 9 wickets to fall, 8 were LBW or bowled.
 Eventually at 8:20pm the stumps were drawn as frost bite set in. Time for a quick hot-toddy and back on the road. There will be no fixture on Ride London cycle day Sunday 2024.   

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