Old Cranleighans 240 for 7 (60 overs, Andy Houston 75, Graeme Brown 42*, Eds Copleston 26, Chetwode 4-99) beat
Frogs 177 (41.5 overs, Ward 44, Derbyshire 42, Andy Houston 4-27, Mark Colegate 2-6, Abeed Janmohamed 2-14) by 63 runs
|
|
Eds Copleston gives it some air
|
|
Despite being on course to overhaul the OC's reasonable target up until tea, Frogs paid for their long tail and were bowled out in good time for 177.
Batting first it was very much a case of OC's versus Mike Chetwode who bowled a staggering 28 overs for the opposition. Both Coplestons, Abeed Janmohamed and Mike Chase fell to some clever bowling by the big man, much to their disgust and his delight. At one stage the innings looked to be meandering towards an unsatisfactory total but Janmohamed and Graeme Brown gave some middle order impetus before Andy Houston scampered to a rapid half century. Henry Watkinson mischievously delayed the declaration until he thought a century had been amassed off Chetwode's bowling. Unfortunately he demonstrated the kind of mathematical ineptitude not uncommon for an Old Cranleighan, leaving the Snake one short on 99.
On a good pitch with a fast outfield, Frogs got off to a solid start mainly due to the captain's generous refusal to cut off the constant flow of edged boundaries to third man. The fielding was generally sound. Chase hustled hard in the field for a man of his age, Mark Colgate took a sharp catch and Simon Copleston revelled in his new role at long-on. Eds Copleston on the other hand showed why short people shouldn't field at slip with two chances eluding him that would have been caught easily by someone of average height.
The Frogs top order was winkled out by Watkinson but the middle order, held together by Ward (44) stood firm. With 15 overs to go the match looked to be petering out into a draw. However, Watkinson gave the ball to Houston who promptly helped himself to four cheap wickets with his very gentle medium pace including that of Chetwode for 0.
As the match swung towards the OC's Watkinson tried his best to ignore Eds Copleston theatrically honing his bowling action in the slips, but caved in to the constant pestering and brought both Copleston and Colgate into the attack. It was a moment when the rest of the team turned up collars and pulled down caps hoping desperately to avoid being identified with what threatened to be a farcical period of cricket. Copleston achieved greater height with his legspin than he did throwing the ball in from the boundary. So much air was the ball given that the batsman had time to trot down the wicket to ask his partner how best to play it before returning to the crease and fencing haplessly as it began its slow ascent after bouncing. It was a relief to all when the marginally more respectable Colgate finished Frogs off, thus denying Copleston a wicket.
Ed Henderson
