WCC 161 (38 overs)Stonor 162-5 (34 overs)
Stonor won by five wickets
Perhaps it was the memory of the free beer
being served by the local pub last year, possibly it was the appeal of being
out of mobile range for a few hours but with the sun shining on this gem of a
ground it was good to see eleven players on the field for the season's
pipe-opener against our old friends Stonor.
Picking up as though winter hadn't happened,
the Weekenders were 9 for three in the eleventh over. Chas Lloyd and Sparkles
rescued the innings with a blush-saving and superbly paced partnership of 145
against some testing bowling. Apart from Nass's nuggety 1 not out, no other
Weekender managed to engage the interest of the scorers partly because we all
made nought but mainly because we'd forgotten to bring the book again. The
Weekenders scorebook remains, like the Turin shroud, inexplicably remote from
the action and now bears only faintest traces of our history.
Dunne accidentally trod on a ball as the
Weekenders warmed up after a high quality tea. No one could recall the taciturn
tyke indulging in fielding practice before and the Glenn McGrath-style injury
may well have cost us the match. With the ball swinging and the pitch offering
plenty of help the Weekenders bowlers kept the batsmen guessing with a mixture
of long-hops, wides and full-tosses. The ball was regularly thumped over the
road and into the grounds of Stonor Park. Mercurial as ever, the Weekenders
matched their bowling with an amazingly spirited performance in the field and
three sensational catches.
It fell to Chas Lloyd to keep trudging
across the road and through the stately iron gates to retrieve the ball but he had
plenty of support from his teammates with frequent encouragement along the
lines of It's £8.50 to get in but there's a pound off for
seniors'. By the time Chas trotted up the historic gravel drive for the
umpteenth time the game was lost but not the evening as the gate-keeper
saluted and told him the son-et-lumiere was about to start.
The important thing is that we take some
positives away from this game. Hopefully lessons will have been learned about
the folly of fielding practice and we can certainly give ourselves a massive
pat on the back for managing to wear whites. Nor did we verbally insult our
hosts or soil the dressing room carpet. Again progress. Obviously it would make
sense for the club to take out National Trust membership before next year's
fixture. A bit pricey perhaps but a saving in the long run, given the number of
games we play near the perimeter walls of English country houses.
Lee 0, Taylor 0, Douglas 0, Cooper 83, Lloyd 51*,
Lyons 0, Dunne 0, Husaini 1*
Vuletich, d'Inverno, Dibley dnb
STONOR 162-5
Dibley 8-1-28-0; Douglas 12-1-37-4; Lyons
5-1-25-0; Husaini 3-0-29-0; Cooper 6-0-32-1
Catches: Dunne, Cooper, Douglas