Archived Match Report
Second XI vs. Amblecote & Wollaston - 04 Jun - Frome edge another tight game
Canon Frome's 2nd team seem to have hit on a winning formula: win the toss, put the opposition in, tight bowling and fielding to keep the opposition to around 140, and then knock the runs off without losing a wicket (ok, the last bit's not quite true).
Captain Badge, back in rude health after last week's violent collision with the boundary line, won the toss and asked A & W to bat. Ben Child soon struck with a high full toss, kindly sliced to Mr C at point, with the opener departing with questioning looks at the young umpires. The youngest of the Child cricketing dynasty then removed the dangerous Spooner with a well deserved return catch. Wickets then fell at regular intervals, with Calvin Cottrell, James Hughes and Pete Elkington all making life difficult for the batmen on an unpredictable wicket. The home team's middle order resistance was broken with James Hughes taking a great running catch at long on, at last having understood the skipper's instructions of where to stand on the boundary. The introduction of Luke Cottrell, star of last week's Casualty, saw off the host's tail-enders, and A & W finished on 137 all out.
Frome's reply, extended by 10 overs, got off to a disastrous start, with James Hughes, Pete Elkington and Mark Godsall departing without bothering the scorer unduly, but Captain Badge started to get the measure of the home attack. Vice-captain Sean Andrews joined his superior at the wicket to steady the ship, with stout defence mixed with a regular peppering of the boundary. Sean was then undone by a shooter, leaving the skipper to carry on showing that form is temporary, class is permanent. Eventually the skipper found the slower one too tempting and departed for an excellent 74, leaving David and Ben Child to apply the coup de grace (or so we thought). Another 2 wickets set the nerves jangling; the run rate required was now at least one an over, could the Frome blow another winning position? The flashing blade of one David Child (still wistfully reminding himself of the catch he took at slip off Mr C, just like plucking an apple) dispelled the doubts in the Frome camp as he dispatched the ball to the cover boundary to complete a 3 wicket victory. Onwards and upwards.
