Match Report – Portcullis vs AGSFP 2XI, by “Celebrity” Captain, Chris Owens

Another foray in to the Sunday R&D League, and another volunteer captain saw myself take the team at Harlaw against a good Grammar School side. Having lost the toss, the 11 men of Portcullis were put out in the field, with 90% of us in strong fighting spirits, while Ross had rather too many spirits the night before!

Brian Harper and Andy Phillips opened the bowling in overcast conditions, and immediately put good pressure on opening batsmen. Both bowled very tight lines, betting good movement on the ball, with Andy bowling very tight lines, his first three over spell only going for 4 runs. It was Brian who found the first wicket however, a ball in the ‘corridor of uncertainty’ being edged behind to yours truly, behind the stumps.

Following the good opening spells, Owen ‘Raptor’ Thorpe, and Ronnie Falconer came on to bowl. Once again both bowled very well, and the fielding was excellent, preventing easy singles, and always putting pressure on the batsmen. Despite this, Norwood and McDonald put on a good 2nd wicket partnership, with Owen’s good bowling proving less likely to take a wicket that his short ball, 2nd bounce, Yorker from the day before.

After Ronnie and Owen came the next bowling changes, of Chris Poolman and Richard Collinson, and it fell to Chris to break the partnership. A somewhat dubious LBW, where even we appealing weren’t convinced was out, was given, and Norwood departed for 20 runs. Both Chris and Richard bowled well, and always kept the run rate down, and the pressure on.

Andy and Brian returned to the attack, and both took a wicket at an important time, McDonald departing, bowled by Brian, for 33, and J. Alexander, bowled by Andy. It was left to Owen and Chris to finish the innings, and the leg spinner duly provided the best spell of the game. Taking 3 additional wickets to end with figures of 4-23, I believe his best for the club.

Everyone bowled extremely well, and fielding was top notch also. We restricted AGSFP to 113-7 from 40 overs, and after a very good tea (with some particularly excellent banana loaf courtesy of Tom), we set about the chase. Dave Forbes and Andrew Blackwell opened up, and Andrew showcased his opening ability he has shown earlier in the year in this league, hitting some powerful shots through midwicket. Dave got out to a good ball, bringing Richard to the crease. Him and Andrew put on a good partnership, before Andrew departed, caught and bowled by the economical J. Alexander.

This brought Ross to the crease, now slightly better after several naps, however he departed shortly after having been given out LBW, slightly unfortunately looking from the sidelines. Wickets followed quickly for a period, with Tom, Owen and Chris all departing without troubling the scoreboard, as Grammar School brought on their best bowlers.

Brian Harper and Andy Phillip steadied the ship, before both were out, both out to very good catches. This brought myself and Ronnie to the crease for the final wicket, and with the score around 50, we pushed the score on, but with the weather deteriorating, we eventually lost our last wicket, bowled out for 84, J. Alexander and A. Sood the pick of the bowlers, each with 3 wickets.

Overall it was a good day, with a very strong opening 40 overs, restricting the score greatly, against batsmen who were actively trying to score quickly, but the quality of the Grammar school bowling attack saw us fall short.

Apologies for the length of the report, for those that have persevered, I’ll leave you with a joke.

In school, the teacher asked Johnny to spell "bowling". Back came the answer: "B-o-e-l-i-n." "That," said the teacher, "is the worst spell of bowling I've ever seen."

Monday, 24 July, 2017