Charlton Down Cricket Club
Charlton Down versus Chesilbourne
Sunday 4th May 2009
Young Guns Deal with Chesilbourne
Sun in the sky, a mild breeze and a green field on which to start the new season. Well almost a green outfield if it weren’t for the large patches of dirt due to some ungrown grass seed. The first outing in Div 5 means Chesilbourne, newly relegated from Div 4 and sure to be a stern test for the upstarts from Charlton Down. Sid wins the toss and duly chooses to bat, Afzal and CCD immediately poo poo this decision but only time will tell. CD had 3 new starters in the team Richard Burdett, Ian Doyle and Nick Roe. It was young Nick Roe who joined CCD at the middle to start the season, both started well giving the bowling the respect it deserved and punishing the few bad balls. The partnership lasted 19 overs before CCD fell for a creditable 24 with the score on 72. A great platform to start from. Ian Doyle meant it was 2 new boys in the middle and the run rate picked up nicely with both partners working the ball in the gaps excellently. Roe’s 50 came up and the partnership then raced past 100. Roe was playing some great cover drives and Doyle cutting and pulling well. In the 40th over disaster struck when Nick Roe fell 6 short of his ton and Doyle followed next ball on 49. A superb partnership worth 127. With just 5 overs to try and push the score on Mike Lingham and Skip Sid both swashed before buckling for 4 each. Eric Bradshaw (7) and Mark Homewood (5) both remained unbeaten to bring the innings to a close at 219. A good score, which meant the game was wide open but meant our bowlers had plenty to do.
Tea , run and made by Colette was welcomed and up to her usual outstanding standards. Not many teas last year could compete with the CD offerings.
Then back to the important business. Homewood and Afzal and it was the latter that struck in his first over to get off to a great start. Mark toiled away but at the other end Afzal was knocking over stumps for fun taking the first 5 wickets in his 6 over spell for just 17 runs. Homewood (8-1-38-1)picked up his only wicket in his penultimate over before Towndrow (6-0-18-2)and Burdett (4-0-26-0) took over the duties. Both bowled well with a ball that was still swinging wildly all over the place. Afzal was brought back into the attack and promptly picked up his 6th wicket finishing on 7-2-20-6 . A truly great performance from Afzal , a brilliant way to start the season. Wormgoor (1.1-0-6-1)was brought in and cleared up the only visiting batsman to have a decent score (42) by gently knocking over his middle stump. Game over with Chesilbourne having made 109 and only lasting 26 overs.
This match will be remembered for 4 things Nick Roe scoring 96, a cracking 49 by Ian Doyle, Afzal’s 6 wicket haul and a contender for moment of the season when Mike Lingham managed to claw an unbelievable diving catch over his shoulder at full stretch . Truly amazing and the divot will still be there for years to come!
A great start to the season with max points and hopefully great things to come