|
|
|
|
Hampshire Hogs - Sunday 5th June 2011
The day began ominously for LNZ with a dodgy looking weather forecast and only 10 players on the team sheet. Things got worse as this number was reduced to 8 by kick off with a couple of players not managing to make it to the ground, one with a legitimate excuse and one apparently lost to the bars and nightclubs of London.
Undermanned and still
holding out hope for a couple of late arrivals, it was a crucial toss for LNZ to
win. Captain Holden duly lost the (agreed) toss, although thankfully did manage
to procure a couple of extra fielders from the Hogs as LNZ headed out to bowl
first. Dougal McLachlan charged down the hill with the new ball and soon picked
up a wicket as the opener skied one to point. Trundling in up the hill from the
other end, Phil Gallagher bowled accurately and economically and produced the
ball of the day to clean bowl the dangerous looking Hog number 3. Somewhat short
on options, the skipper attempted to bowl Gallagher into the ground with an 11
over up-hill-into-the-wind opening spell and at 56/2 LNZ were right in the
contest. However further wickets proved hard to come by despite tidy spells and
numerous half chances created by all the other bowlers. Eventually the Hogs
sportingly declared their innings closed at 259/3 after both the opener and the
number 4 had made centuries. With only 7 wickets in hand, conserving wickets early was of utmost importance. So at 23/3 things weren’t exactly going to plan and an embarrassingly large defeat was looming. Things got worse with the score on 37 as Gallagher was given out lbw in an interesting looking decision by Marty “that’s-my-quota-for-the-weekend” Conway. However it was a different story after tea as the LNZ middle order/tail end took the Hampshire bowling apart. McLachlan and debutant Dean Millar put on 92 at better than a run a ball to take LNZ over 100 and restore some credibility. Millar eventually feel for a belligerent 38 off just 30 balls, bringing Shaun Gordon to the crease.
Gordon managed to
overcome a stomach bug aka hangover that had plagued him earlier in the day as
he blasted the ball to all parts of the ground, the highlight being a huge six
over long on off the Hogs young opening bowler. With McLachlan and Gordon in
full flow and the skipper still to come an extremely unlikely victory began to
look a possibility; however the dream was ended when Gordon was very well caught
at deep mid-off for 42 and McLachlan was bowled for a classy 60 soon afterwards,
leaving LNZ all out 66 runs short. A great fight-back by the lads and with a
full side who knows what might have been. Many thanks to those
who played, especially Phil Bartle who volunteered at the last minute and
managed to make the ball follow him everywhere in the field yet again. Also
thanks to Marty for his organisational and umpiring efforts, and to Richard
Holden for skippering the side, helping to get a team together and the sweet
tunes in the car on the way home. Scoreboard Hampshire Hogs 259 for 3 dec (52 overs) LNZCC 193 All Out (33.5 overs) Hogs win by 66 runs
Hogs captain Mike
Goodeve-Docker won the toss and elected to bat in this declaration match. Game
started at 11.40am. Richard Holden captained for LNZ. Batting Runs Catches Stumpings Run Outs Statistics Guy
Simm 10
caught FOW 12, 12, 23, 37, 129, 189, 193
Bowling O M R W Statistics
Dougal McLachlan 9 0 42
1 caught Extras 12 (byes 1, leg byes 3, no ball 4, wides 4)
Umpire: Martin Conway GBK Man of the Match vouchers: Dougal McLachlan, Shaun Gordon |
|
Webmaster webmaster@lnzcc.org Website by Hatchford Consulting
|