Carpe Vinum CC slumped to
their first defeat of the season as their batting line-up was blown away in the
face of an enthusiastic and fierce bowling attack.
Carpe’s season usually begins
with a victory, purely on the basis that the first match tends to be an
intra-club fixture, so regardless of the result Carpe still wins. However, with
a discouraging turnout of players, other opposition was sought and found in the
form of Wickham House CC.
Carpe were asked to bowl first
at Fulham’s South Park, so under glorious Bank Holiday sunshine and with a
sellout crowd of picnickers and dog walkers, the team set about their task with
relish, probing the openers’ defences and chasing after the ball with an energy
that was only matched by spectating spaniels and terriers. The wicket itself
was unreliable and tricky to judge, often hurtling past the batsman and clear
past the unfortunate keeper Alex Keith, who battled manfully behind the stumps
throughout.
The breakthrough came through Captain
Johnny Hilliard, whose aggressive bowling, which yielded only 15 runs in seven overs,
was rewarded when two batsmen in quick succession were sent back to the
boundary with their stumps rearranged.
Before long Toby Adamson and
Sanjay Bremakumar were getting in on the action, each taking wickets that
fizzed past the bat and crashed into the stumps behind. Wickham were being well
contained and Carpe’s confidence took another boost when Luke Bettesworth took
over the bowling at the Pavilion End, sustaining what was a venomous attack and
taking the wicket of a batsman who had just started to look comfortable.
However, this brought No.7 to
the crease, a man who was to prove to be Carpe’s nemesis. His first two deliveries
were casually clipped to the boundary. The third ball was edged to the slips
and Bettesworth came agonisingly close to taking the catch that would have
exposed Wickham’s tail. It was to prove costly.
While Bremakumar took another
wicket and Hilliard narrowly avoided impaling himself on the stumps taking a
fine catch off his bowling, yet the No.7 batsman remained, living dangerously
but profiting by it. Dropped by Hilliard just before his half century and
clattered on the skull by a Bettesworth high yorker, he dug in, ably assisted
by his partner, to reach 79 not out and take Wickham’s total to 191 seemingly
out of reach.
That total seemed even further
away when Carpe’s first wicket fell before the first over was complete, Jamie
Denny clean bowled for five. Whether it was early nerves, ferocious bowling or
the treacherous wicket, none of the batsmen was able to settle and start
scoring. After Keith was despatched for four runs, Oliver Grimes started to go
after the ball, but to no avail, returning to the hutch runless. Hilliard
joined him next ball, with Charlie Walker and Bremakumar also both failing to
score before being run out and caught respectively. Bettesworth was
injudiciously given out caught behind, the ball clipping his pads before being
juggled by the keeper and caught by the slip for an outrageous wicket that
signalled the end.
There was a late rally as ‘Ed
Thomson’ scored a quickfire 24, displaying a range of shots never before seen
from the West Country man. Christopher Strong was holding out well at the other
end, but it was not to last. Thomson was clean bowled looking for another
boundary and then Strong went the same way as the spinners were brought into
play. When Adamson went for two, it left Charlie Whitting stranded at the
crease on three not out and Carpe out of wickets and still 127 runs short.
It was a chastening start to
the season for Carpe, but the team can be proud of their display in the first
part of the match and can look forward to playing on a less dangerous wicket at
their sparkly new home ground in Wandsworth very soon.
http://carpevinum.play-cricket.com/view_results_details?id=12031818#summary
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