Charlton Down Cricket Club
Charlton Down versus Oakdale Conservative Club
Sunday 31 June 2009
Homewood Hammers as Crispin Crackles
After a week off to play the Herrison Challenge Trophy Charlton Down got back on the league trail and it sent us on the road to Broadstone to play Oakdale Conservative Club. The Sun was blistering and spirits were high. All would have been well but for the no show of new boy Bertie Brown. Sid won the toss and chose to Bat. Erik and Andy Cossens opened and put on 55 before Cossens fell for 34. A quick collapse meant Doyle, Dunford and Crispin Brown all fell for ducks and Bradshaw went for 16 which left CD struggling on 76 for 5. Enter the tail. Backs to the wall and a great rear guard action meant Wormgoor (18) and Butterworth(33) started what Towndrow(46 n/o) and particularly Mark Homewood finished, Mark falling for a superb 93 from 57 balls. JP finished 3 n/o long with Jesus leaving CD on 291 for 8. A Great batting performance with a great resilience shown from the latter half of the batting order in particular.
With Homewood still puffing from his batting duties, Crispin and JP started bowling duties. It soon became apparent that the pitch seemed easier to score on than we had first thought. Despite Crispin picking up 2 early wkts the CD attack including Doyle, Homewood, Wormgoor and Cossens were being roundly smacked about the park. Rudo did manage to stop the run rate a little with his wicket but the Home team moved smoothly onto 217 before JB took the 4th wicket. At this point the 10 man CD team became 9 as Ian Doyle achieved his main moment of the match by stopping a hard off drive with his face. A small break ensued to mop up the blood and send Ian (now nearly mummified) off to Hospital. Crispin came back on and the game was up for Oakdale. He took the Home skip on 108 and from there he and JB shared the last 4 wkts 2 apiece. JB finished with 3-12 and Crispin joined the CD elite with 5-25.
Another great win for CD. The team as whole showed great spirit with a fightback in both innings to gain a full 20 points and all with 10 (Most of the time) men.