Full Fixture Information

Result Descriptiom

Win

Man of the Match

Aaron Rees - CAP DAY

Champagne Moment

Aaron Rees - wicket number FIVE (definitely not wicket four)

Teddy Bear Moment

a teddy bearless afternoon

Full Match Report

Back at Bedales. On a Wednesday, fresh(ish) from tour, a mixed side, three debutants (Jacob Roland ? jeff?s Nephew, Henry & Tom ? Mark?s ringers from Bedales), the sun?s out, the 5th fixture against Stonor (WLDL over the last four years) you know the score.

We turn up with 12. They only have 10. Whereupon, with a moment of farsighted clarity and indisputable tactical genius, rather than giving them one of Tom or Henry I suggest that Nick Sole plays for them ? as a current parent of a Bedalian he felt like a good choice. I?m not quite sure how Nick felt about it, he wasn?t asked to bowl, batted 11, faced one ball and from memory the ball came to him in the field about twice. Still thanks for coming and being a good sport and playing for them.

The second piece of excellent captaincy was winning the toss, followed by the third decisive decision which was to put them in.

Put them in? On a timed game? Really? Well looking back over the season, we?ve won four matches. We?ve successfully chased a target in all of them. In fact in the one match we didn?t win batting second, we only lost by 1 run in the last over. So maybe we are a chasing team after all? We?d certainly failed to bowl a few sides out earlier in the season and ended up drawing.
Anyway, put them in I did.

I then asked Matt S and ringer Tom to open the bowling. Matt started well with a maiden, Tom bowled fast and bouncily, but the Stoner batsmen were pretty untroubled. And before too long it was going at 6 an over and they?d got to 56 after 10 overs ? Matt had a catch dropped off his bowling in the gully ? but otherwise they?d not really put a foot wrong.

Time to change tack. So Matt S made way for Aaron Rees. Aaron has looked good in parts this season, but all too often he?s tried a bit hard and looked for that special ball and ended up bowling pies down the legside that had been clunked to the boundary. But not today. Today, for some reason, his dander was up and his radar was immaculate ? whether it was a night spooning with M Cooke in Brighton or not, we?ll never know ? but he bowled as well as anyone has bowled for the club for a very long time.

Rhythm was perfect, line was perfect, length was perfect. Without jumping ahead to the good bits ? I can tell you he ended up with figures of 7-3-6-5. Unbelievable.

First over, their opener mistimes one straight to Ollie Cooke at extra cover, second over their other opener mistimes one straight to Mark Davis at cover. Although it?s worth dwelling on the over in between from the other end. Up to this point Tom had bowled a very nice 5 over spell for just 18 runs. Whether it was now bowling at a left-hander, whether it was knowing that left-hander was Justin Jones who?d hit runs for fun against East Meon most years, or whether he was just a bit tired after too many post GSCE celebrations ? but his 6th over lasted 13 balls, had a dropped catch behind the wicket, two further under edges that didn?t carry to the keeper and also the wicket of Justin as he blazed one straight back to me at mid-off to be out for four and leave the score on 71-2.

As noted, Aaron made that 71-3 in his second over and then 77-4 in his third over as I completed the ring of offside catches catching their number 4 at mid-off.

Jacob Rowland, fresh from the Oxford under 14s came on to bowl after Tom and soon settled into a lovely groove, repeatedly beating the bat (or finding an edge on a dead ball which Martin deigned to drop anyway so there were no controversies).

One expensive over aside ? he bowled a beautiful spell to end up with 5-0-24-1.

Meanwhile Aaron was wicketless in overs 4 & 5 before picking up a wicket caught behind in his 6th (although Jeff tried to invite the batsman back saying he?d not hit it ? despite the umpire giving him out and Aaron and Martin being convinced) and then in his 7th over he picked up his 5th wicket and an invitation to upgrade his dodgy red baseball cap with a proper green cap. Well bowled Aaron ? a really memorable spell.

With Stoner now 106-7, there was just time for Mark to step up to mop up the tail with a lovely spell of 4.2-2-6-3.

Stoner all out for 136 and time for an early tea.

Andrew and Martin opened up and put on 33 before Martin was out playing across the line for 13, Andrew followed shortly after for 17 bowled to a horrible hoick, Sticko didn?t last long at four and nor did Davis at 5, O Cooke at 6, J Wheeler at 7 ? it wasn?t long before it was 64-6 and we were less than halfway there.

But Josh H had been batting very sensibly at three. He?s a good batsman who plays proper shots, hits the ball very hard and very far and just needs to concentrate. Well concentrate he did (despite trying to run his captain out early on) and it was a pleasure to watch.

Henry, batting at 8, joined Josh. There was something a bit familiar about H Bott ? and it was only when I got home and looked up last year?s scorecard, that I realised he?d played against us last year and coming in then, with over 100 needed, he?d ended up on 60 odd not out winning them the game. I?m not saying Nick Sole couldn?t have scored 45 not out for us, run like a hare between the wickets with Josh and hit an enormous six, but I think, on the whole I was glad Henry was playing for us and Nick for them.

And so it was, with lots of overs left and three to win, that Josh, fittingly, smashed the winning runs to the boundary through extra cover and brought up his 50 at the same time. Hurrah.

East Meon had won ? thank you Stoner it was a very enjoyable game ? well played East Meon ? Aaron you bowled brilliantly, and Josh and then Henry you batted with incredible poise and maturity to first steady the ship and then see us home with a partnership of 70-odd. What a great game.