Tonking Time for the Twoo's!

The sun was shining and the sky was blue when Wrecclesham 2nd XI went to Frensham's picturesque ground on Saturday. There was a good turn out for the Twoo's and several players had to be rotated, including Stephen Houghton and Tony Boniface who supported the team from the boundary.

The match looked like it would get off to a predictable start. The toss was taken and Frensham to were put into bat. Mitch 'Golden' Brown (7 – 1 – 12 - 2) opened the bowling coming down the hill to G. Bond. The fireworks started the next over when James Merryweather stepped up and caught J. 'J. R.' Robertson off his first ball. From then on the tone of the match was set. James 'http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merryweather' Merryweather maintained the momentum and bowled B. Harrison a few balls later. The delivery was so fast that it actually broke one of the bails and a replacement had to be sought.

Frensham were to be on the back foot for the rest of the match. The only resistance to the fiery Wrecclesham bowling was from M. Fathers. He blocked the good balls and punished anything loose. However, after quite a few interruptions, his partner G. Bond was sent back to the pavilion when he was caught by Hayden 'He's a' Newman again off the bowling of Merryweather (6 - 0 - 30 - 3). 'Golden' Brown (texture like sun) finally got in on the action and in his last over (isn't it always?) bowled J. Warn Senior and then J. Warn Junior.

However, M. Fathers was busy working his way to 37 runs and the bowling needed to be changed. On came the brothers Newman! Hayden (who is never late) came running down the slope and sent down some fast and ferocious deliveries at the batsmen. Despite being instructed (rightly) from the boundary to 'pitch it up' it was one of his shorter bowls that took the valuable wicket of M. Fathers. The batsman took a huge swipe at it and was amazingly caught in the slips by Mitch. This marked a spate of incredible catching and fielding by the Wrecclesham side. Even those that did not take any catches worked hard to stop Frensham from scoring easy runs. Alex Hall has the cuts and bruises to show the extent he went to keep the opposition under the cosh.

The captain, Barry Croucher saw how the match was panning out and placed his field accordingly, putting Scott Newman at third man. This display of tactical nous paid off when Scott took a great catch off his own brother Hayden's bowling and, of course, celebrated by imitating the pose of Usain Bolt (who he is nothing like). Hayden (4 - 0 - 42 - 3) continued to threaten Frensham and bowled D. Shipway not long afterwards. Leo Carter and Matt 'Home' James were due to bowl the remaining overs, but Frensham ran out of batsmen and their innings came to a close when Leo made great catching look easy when he caught M. Weeks off Scott 'Dog' Newman (4 - 0 - 11 - 1). The score showed how efficient Wrecclesham were in the field. They had bowled Frensham out for 90 runs in a mere 21 overs.

As tea was not yet ready, both captains agreed to play for another 20 overs until the interval. Originally James Merryweather was expected to open with Barry Croucher, but James knew the good form Mitch was in, so dropped down to No. 3. Mitch responded with this opportunity by continuing from where he left off at a recent Steven's Cup match. He kept out anything that looking like it would hit the stumps and sent everything else to the boundary. Frensham's opening bowler, Harvey Herrington was left frustrated as his hard efforts were not paying off.

Things did not go any better for Frensham at the other end. Barry Croucher provided a solid and safe base from which to move on from and was not outdone in the run scoring. Although he did not score as quickly as Mitch, his 37 runs came from 13 scoring shots, 7 of those being boundaries. Despite seeing that the match was not going their way, Frensham continued to play the match in a good-natured way, with a jovial and sporting manner, a credit to all those involved.

Needless to say the runs continued to flow and Frensham had to act fast to salvage something from the match. They brought on the slow bowler, M. Weeks, and changed the field for Harvey Herrington. However, by this stage, Mitch had got his eye in and scored runs at a rate of knots. His 51 not out came from 15 scoring shots including 7 fours and 3 sixes.

Mitch finished the match in characteristic style with a six off the first ball of the 13th over. The match itself had lasted less than 34 overs. Wrecclesham had won by 10 wickets, taking 8 points.

by the Ginger Owl