Egerton

Match Report

On a second successive weekend of Ashes theatre, this time from Headingley, the Stragglers (unlike England) succumbed to a third defeat on the bounce, the first time since 2009 that the Straggs have been on a three-game losing streak.  A man down due to a last-minute injury to James Pollington, skipper Tom Tribe lost the toss, and the Stragglers were invited to bat.  The innings did not begin well, as Benny waved at a straight one on his first ball. Will Fenwick now joined his captain, who was keen to remind everyone that ‘Bazball’ had been invented with him in mind – every shot was heading into the trees.  The score raced to 50 from 7 overs, but, on 29, Tom tried one too many and failed to keep out a straight one.  Kieran (10) and Inigo (19) made a start and subsided, Inigo the unfortunate victim of Benny’s difficulty with counting to six, as he fell to a sharp catch from the extra ball of a second successive 7 ball over (maths teachers at Tonbridge are in therapy).  Will Fenwick (44) had been accumulating at the other end as his partners came and went, but he too now took on a short ball only to edge it through to the keeper.  Rufus launched one monster six into the field, and in the end, it was only a 34 run 8the wicket partnership between Jasper Williams (21) and Max Richardson (19), that delivered any sort of respectability to the score. 152 all out in the 29th over of a 40 over game is unlikely to do the business. However, Stragglers have defended fewer….

Rufus (2 for 41) opened the bowling, with no obvious sign of a recent shoulder injury, extracting some fierce bounce and finding edges at will. Of course, most of the edges flew through the cordon and down to the short third man fence, but two head high bouncers found a finer edge and were gratefully pouched by Benny behind the stumps. At the other end Jasper, was bowling a lovely line and shape, reminiscent of many great England left-armers. However, as is often the case with Stragglers bowling so well, the batsmen do not find it easy to catch and edge, and, when they do, the support in the cordon can be somewhat lacklustre. In the end Jasper (1 for 30) did get his man, as Will Fenwick at short-extra leapt to catch a lofted drive one handed. Will is making something of a habit of remarkable catches at short extra in 2023. The target was never sufficiently challenging, and the batsmen had no need to take risks. Good balls were defended carefully, and bad balls despatched.  A high, swirling top edge was well held by Ed Ferris to bring a glimmer of hope, and a couple of sharp shouts for LBW turned down.  But the end was never in any real doubt, even with Straggler fielders surrounding the bat to delay the winning run for more than an over.  Defeat by 6 wickets with 11 overs remaining.