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A one o'clock start in anticipation for the upcoming England vs. France Euro 2004 match seemed to lift the spirits of most involved, but not me, I'm with Dermot Reeve on this one, you shouldn't think about football until the cricket season is finished. Limpley Stoke's squad was down to 10 this week and when Captain Gregory again won the toss, yet again, Limpley Stoke took the field with just 8 players, Clark and Underdown earned themselves detention because of their time keeping. Box were the opposition, a well known league side in the Wiltshire league, and on hearing news that 3 first team players were in their team Limpley prepared for the worst. Twist and Owen opened and the bowling, Owen's spell was notable for yet another dropped catch by poor Martin off his own bowling, the once bucket hands are now resembling spades. Twist, however, was not in such a forgiving mood getting the ball to spit up off a length causing the batsmen all sorts of troubles, he finished with figures of 8-4-10-3, removing all three of those troublesome "First teamers". Bush and Tyrie replaced the openers and and continued the excellent bowling, Bush with his quick off breaks bowled several unplayable overs in a devilish spell, finishing with 8-3-13-2. Tyrie polished off the tale with some accurate and at times pace bowling, and also stole the 10 year old's wicket from Gregory, Tyrie finishing with 4 wickets. Limpley Stoke had reduced Box to mere flat pack cardboard, they were eventually bowled out for 81 off 29 overs. After tea, the batting order was tweaked slightly and the Richards brothers, Alex and Simon, strode out to chase the paltry total. Richards S started brightly hitting boundaries off both openers, including some lovely straight sixes, Simon reached 30 before brother Richards A got off the mark, Alex then hit several boundaries, including a big six over mid-wicket to join the party in a match that was fast turning into a farce. The score reached 50 off just 5 overs before Richards A was snaffled at square leg after a lazy shot, Smith was next in to join Richards S and the boundaries continued, with Smith hitting a four and a six to reach the required runs with over 32 overs remaining. Twist was Man of the Match ahead of Tyrie, because he had to bowl to the superior batsmen, Alex was kit boy and beginning to perfect his technique and a well stocked tea was done by Simon. Geoffrey's Final Thought: Boycs |
