Match Report

Thursday proved to be a tough day at the office for the Stragglers, not scoring enough runs and then failing to take enough wickets to apply real pressure. However, bowling and fielding were not without merit.

The Straggler innings did not start well, as Jeremy Godden nicked the second ball of the day to second slip, where it was well held. Will Chilcott and Ryan Martin dug in with diligence to build a partnership of 75 over the next 18 overs. Tight bowling and the ‘up slope’ to most boundaries held scoring back to not much more than four an over. Ryan (27) fell just before the drinks break, and there then followed something of a procession as the muscular middle order kept Will company briefly and departed, Archie Brown alone to reach double figures (11). Stan and Jordan Godden managed to fall to the wiles of Adam Cork, caught in identical fashion some way short of the long-off boundary. When Will was adjudged LBW for 80, the score had rather meandered to 146 for 6. Skipper, Louis (15), with Ben Edge (13) on secondment from Mersham, added some late momentum to take the score towards respectability. Bruno Wainman contributed at number 10 get the Stragglers to 185 for 9 from 40 overs.

With a target run rate of four and a half an over, the Nonington openers could afford to take their time to get used to the pace of Stan and the whippy action of Bruno. Stan found an edge, caught behind by part-time keeper, Archie. From here, the innings rather ground on through to the drinks break, at which point Nonington were actually behind the Stragglers at 76 for 1. Jordan proved to be particularly mean, going for 9 runs from his 5 overs, and Ryan induced a miscue just after the break, neatly caught by Ben running back from slip. However, the set opener was now punishing anything short or misguided and moved to his half-century. He had been joined by Adam Cork, with a record of enjoying Straggler bowling over the years. At thirty and at thirty-five overs, Nonington were still behind the Straggler score, but a couple of big overs took them close. The opener wandered down the wicket to Kieran for Archie to whip off the bails. Adam then retired on 50, but was replaced by a batsman, who was really not hanging about, hitting 12 in four balls to bring scores level. The Stragglers had not done much wrong in the field, the only very difficult drop coming in the final over, but had never been able to apply real pressure, defeat by 7 wickets in the 38th over.