Cardiff Cavaliers Cricket Club

Match Report

Eclipse Print (Shield), Thursday 29 July

Cav 108/8 (18ovs, J Thomas 18, D Parsons 14, Chapman 13). EP 111/5 (16.3ovs, Graveson 2/12, Fraser 2/17). Lost by 5 wickets. Cav 0pts, EP 2pts

Scorecard

Following a disappointing run of results the Cavaliers arrived at St Fagans fired up for a shield fixture against an Eclipse Print team who were smarting from their defeat in the Cup Final against Chartered Trust two nights earlier.

With 8 of us at the ground and the other 3 likely lads heading back over from Llanrumney, led by Andrew ‘Tom Tom’ Steadman, the toss was made and won by Jim, who decided we would bat first, in an effort to get over our recent batting woes.

Our regular opening partnership of Mike ’The Cannon’ Mcveigh and Steaders took to the crease and, aided by extras, got us off to a decent start, with 17 off the first 2 overs.  They had only added a few more when Steaders (5), who was again modelling his new grip, smashed a wide delivery into the offside and, in similar fashion to last week, was very well caught at deep cover.  (Average with old grip 746.9; average with new grip 9.4...)

JT joined Mike and, although boundaries were hard to come by, they manoeuvred the ball around skilfully whilst adding 40 in 7 overs before Mike (17), in attempt to push the scoring on a bit, top edged a skier and was caught behind.

Glenn joined JT, who by now had got his eye in and had clubbed a couple of boundaries, but misfortune struck when JT (18) hammered a pull shot round the corner, only to find the square leg fielder, who parried the fizzing ball with his first attempt before catching it at the second.  It was a really unlucky way to get out as had the ball gone a yard either side of the fielder then it would have whistled to the boundary.

Skipper Jimmy decided that the innings needed a boost and sent Gravy (6) in next, under instruction to  ‘have a go’ and see if he could replicate his record-breaking innings against the same opposition from last month.  His first ball disappeared high over the fielder at long on and landed 30 yards beyond the rope into the field adjacent to the ground – he was away!  However more misfortune was to strike when he tried to club the next ball to the mid wicket boundary, only for it to take his under edge, clip his pads and dribble onto the stumps!

The skipper was next in but he could only watch as first Glenn (13) was caught behind and then Matt (6) departed before he himself got caught off a leading edge for 2.

It was left for Dave, who got a 14 at better than a run a ball, and then Jason (2no) & Jez (0no) to close out the innings and see us to 109-8 in our 18 overs.  We were indebted to extras, which top scored with 25, including 21 wides, and although we felt we were 20 runs short of a competitive total, with the bowling attack we were fielding we were still confident of challenging.

The Cavaliers took to the field with Jimmy’s words of encouragement ringing in our ears – bowl tight, give away no extras and support our bowlers in the field and we could win this.

Gravy & Mike opened the bowling and both hit their straps from the off – Mike opening up with a maiden and Gravy beating the outside edge a couple of times before the 2 combined to make the breakthrough – Court snr slashing a ball down to the welcome hands of Mcveigh at third man who took a well judged catch.  Mike continued to apply the pressure but, as so often this season, went unrewarded finishing a great spell of 3 overs, with 2 maidens and only conceding 6 runs.

Gravy meanwhile picked up a second wicket with a peach of a delivery, clipping the outside edge of Bonelle’s bat, flicking the off bail from its perch before being pouched behind by Dave - out twice just to be safe!  He finished his spell with an equally impressive 3-1-12-2 and at this stage we were in front.

Glenn (0-20) & Al (2-17) replaced the opening bowlers and continued to try and keep things tight although both conceded the odd boundary as Eclipse tried to increase their run rate.  Al however picked up the wicket of Coles with his first ball – a short ball which was cut to the cover boundary where Matt took a really good running catch while looking straight into the sun....a feat he repeated 2 overs later when he caught the opener Court jnr, again off the bowling of Bradley, in an almost identical fashion.

The fielding was good, catches were being taken and we were giving ourselves a good chance of winning the game but crucially Eclipse had held back a couple of batsmen, and one of them, Mike Williams, strode out to the crease at number 6 to join Coles.  We all know he is a clean hitter when he gets going but when Jimmy came on and bowled Coles with his first ball, Eclipse were 62-5 with only 6 overs remaining and we were still favourites.

Unfortunately, Williams, like his brother in a previous game, was in good touch and started to find the gaps and the boundary and along with Captain Collyer, put on an unbeaten 49 to take them to a 5 wicket win.  Jim (1-27) and Jase (0-23) couldn’t find the breakthrough that could have won us the game as Williams finished on an impressive 55 not out with 4 x 6 and 5 x 4.

As expected, we had finished 20 runs too short and we needed one of the top 6 to have gone on and made a bigger score...only Williams (and extras!) made more than 18 across the 2 sides and in the end this proved the difference but we can hold our heads up high with our performance in the field as we kept competing to defend a small target, only bowled 2 wides and took our catches.

Champagne moment: Admirable mentions for Mike's miserly spell and Gravy’s second dismissal and first ball 6 but for me Matt’s 2 difficult catches while looking into the sun were crucial in keeping us in the game so they get my vote – take your pick!

Team: Jimmy Marchant (capt), Jason Duffy (vice capt), Dave Parsons (wkt), Andrew Steadman, Michael McVeigh, Glenn Chapman, Andrew Graveson, Alasdair Fraser, Matt Thomas, Jeremy Sparkes, Jonathan Thomas