Charlton Down Cricket Club
Charlton Down versus Stalbridge
Sunday 7 June
Charlton Down Go Close But No Cigar
After a bad forecast all week the sun decided to shine. Stalbridge were the visitors to the Herrison Oval and CD were hoping to continue their run of recent good form. Sid lost the toss and was put into bat. Sid’s ideal opening partnership was back and Nick Roe and CCD did him proud making a steady start and they racked up 80 by the 20 over drinks break. From there the pair started to push on and did so well until Nick fell for a well batted 43 the 2 having put on 125. As often seems to happen CCD having reached his half centaury fell next for 59. Doyley and skip took on duties and just as they started to score Doyley fell for an unlucky 11. Now the all too familiar CD middle order collapse started. Cossens(2), Sid(24)(again), Will Lowther(Run out without facing a ball), Bradshaw(2) and Burdett (1) , Homewood and Towndrow having performed superbly the week before were once again called upon to make the tail wag. Alas despite a quick 16 from Mark and Jesus making 6 n/o with Pretty (1) ending the innings with the score on 205 in the 43rd over. Would this be enough,?...only time would tell.
Smithy and Shy wag made the obligatory fantastic tea . I know I am biased but the teas at home have been truly fantastic this year.
With 2 Saturday Prem league batsman in their line up Stalbridge had a real chance but it was game on. Homewood and Pretty took on the opening bowling duties and shared the first 17 overs. Mark took 2 wickets while JP kept things very tight at the other end without any luck in the wicket dept (sound familiar?). Jesus came on and took a wkt after some great work by Nick behind the stumps. Burdett turned in some fantastic overs at the other end taking 2 well earned wkts. With Coates-Dale picking up 3-36 the innings was close all the way through. Stalbridge were keeping up with the req run rate but Cd taking Wkts at regular intervals. The 9th wkt went down with the away team still needing 26 but some brave and talented batting incl 3 6’s in that period meant they reached the total with 1 wkt and 4 overs to spare.
CD can take some positives from this performance but know that we were short on runs and maybe needed to tighten up in the field with small mistakes and dropped catches coming from all round the ground. The main positive that Skip said is that we fought right till the end and took 9 pts out of loss (often before only managing 1 or 2). Onward and upward to Lytchett Next week.