Match Report

Scrummagers v The Swan

Wednesday 1st June 2011

After having whimpered to defeat against the Crown in their last league outing the Scrummagers knew they would be up against a good Swan side and wanted to show that they could be at least competitive against a side who normally beat them. Although the cricket purists might not have approved, what followed was a classic game that came down to the last ball.

The Scrummagers elected to field first despite the late arrival of a number of their players, but tidy spells from Harris (2-0-7-1) and Jeggo (2-0-9-0) kept the Swan pinned down. After Harris had caught Phil Brown kicking the ball off his stumps, further pressure arrived when Graham Goode bowled his incredibly straight ball to startle Boardman (and everyone else!), and then Oscar followed his dad’s example in clean bowling Collins. Roons also got in on the act to account for Briggsy (26) thanks to a good catch from Tom Harris after a number of practise attempts.

At not a massive score for 4 wickets down the Scrummagers appeared to have the upper hand, but the combination of Rolfe and Sparks wrested the game back in the Swan’s favour. Rolfe hit 27 before being clean bowled by Steve Hopper (after having been put down on a number of occasions) but Sparks looked a class act as he nudged and smashed his way to a retirement score. Daffyd in particular took a hammering which wasn’t a fair reflection of the fact that he bowled straight and Rob Milner and Goodie kept diving out of the way of the ball! Kish clean bowled the threatening Fox for 17, and this allowed Scrummagers end of innings specialist Keith Harding to snaffle three wickets thanks to catches from Rob Milner and Martin Jeggo, and a stumping from Browner. Sadly this allowed Sparks to return and he duly reached a well deserved 50, despite some good bowling from Kish, as the Swan finished on 157 for 9 from their twenty overs.

Captain Brown thought long and hard about who to open with, but with Goodie (6) and Steve Hopper (0) falling quickly to Sparks, things did not look promising. Kish made 22 before being caught by a juggling Middleton off the bowling of Reed, but Brown and Milner also went cheaply to leave the Scrummagers staring defeat in the face. Fortunately Tom Harris was on hand to focus his fire on smiting boundaries, and when he retired on 38 runs, Oscar Goode maintained the momentum with a quickfire 25 runs. The Scrummagers now appeared to have a chance but the loss of Martin Jeggo (pulled up lame) and Chesty Harding (without facing) to a lack of pace again put the Scrummagers behind.

The game now hinged on a crucial partnership between Roons (18 runs) and Daffyd (8 not out). Roons hit the ball with surprising power but scampered impressively between the wickets, whilst at the other end Daffyd responded positively to every call and nudged the score forwards. When Roons was clean bowled by Collins Tom Harris came back in to hopefully see the Scrummagers home. 2 runs were followed by another 2 runs to tie the scores, and although the next ball was a dot ball Harris managed to hit the final ball to the boundary to win the game the Scrummagers.

A thrilling finish to a good game, and pleasingly afterwards all of the players retired to the bar to reflect on a good game of social cricket, and also to consider whether the Swan would have won if a number of their players had been better taught to play cricket by their old PE teacher!

Swan: 157 for 9

Scrummagers: 161 for 8

Swan MoM: Sparksy (Classy batting, tidy bowling for his two wickets, but a good social approach to the game).

Scrummagers MoM: Tom Harris (2 overs, 1 wicket for only 7 runs, a catch after some practise, and a match winning 46 not out when batting).

The Roving Reporter