Middleham Stroll in the Park Gives Perfect Start to Season

 

Bishop Middleham finally got underway with a relatively straightforward victory over King James of Bishop Auckland.

Fielding a side of only nine players Middleham produced an outstanding performance for such an early stage to the season.  Despite no winter nets the side pulled together and gave some excellent performances both with the bat and in the field.  This contrasted with King James poor fielding performance, which gave a total of 18 extras off the allocated 20 overs whilst Middleham only conceded four.

 

Middleham batted first and opened with Woods and Boorman.  Woods made four before being caught off the bowling of Brown.  Minns and Josh supported Boorman and all three went on to reach at least 25 and thus retire from the fray.  Boorman at times rode his luck, with edges over the keeper and being dropped in the early stages of his innings.  However he accepted this good fortune to reach his retirement total. Following the three retirements Ball and Smith came to the crease and added some quick runs before Smith was run out.  At the post match examination (after game drink) there was some debate with both batsmen stating that the run out was each other’s fault, however the fines book will state that it was Ball who ran out Smith.  The last seven balls saw Davison accompany Ball at the crease, Davison Making 4 not out and Ball 9 not out , with Ball hitting  a four off the last ball of the innings. King James were quite sloppy in the field and gave a total of 18 as Extras.  Middleham finished the innings with 117 for 2 off the allocated 20 overs.

 

Middleham took the field and saw Ron Woods in the absence of Hutton take up the role of Wicket Keeper.  Woods (rolling back the years) had a fine performance and limited the opposition to only one bye. This must raise the temperature in the battle for this position between Hutton and himself. 

Davison opened the bowling and although he bowled fairly tidily he bowled three balls too far down the leg side and this resulted in a six and two fours being scored.  However he was unfortunate in that one stroke almost reached Boorman, who despite a valiant effort could not quite scoop it up from in front of him. One four was given away by Connolley as he went one way on the boundary only to see the ball go past him in the opposite direction.  Davison finally took a wicket in his third over with a leading edge skying over the batsman into the safe hands of Woods.  Boorman gave his usual display of bowling and it was in his over that the King James innings was ended due to a run out as the batsmen went for a second run.  Boorman also took a good catch at the boundary, which started the downfall of the opposition. However the game was really won by bowling in the middle of the innings. Minns, Ball, Connolley, Josh and Wetheridge all performed to a very high standard with all showing both accuracy and speed as they destroyed the King James batting order.  Worthy of special note is Wetheridge 2 overs that included one maiden and two wickets for 2 runs.  These wickets included a caught and bowled which saw him perform a graceful ‘pas de deux’ in order to take the catch.  It was a sight to behold.  Ball bowled with his usual pace and ripped out the stumps of two batsmen. Josh was the only other bowler to have a maiden over and also took one wicket, whilst Connolley, unfortunate not to take a wicket, kept the batsmen tied down and only gave fours runs off his 12 balls.

 

Middleham should be proud of their overall performance that showed good solid batting and all round enthusiasm in the field.  The lacklustre fielding from the King James side gave them a mountain to climb during their innings and fortunately for Middleham they only just managed to get out of base camp.  This gave Middleham a victory that they coasted to.

 

Bishop Middleham Innings

 

Batsman	How Out	Bowler	Total
R Woods	Caught Brown	Taylor	4
H.Boorman		Retired	25
Josh		Retired	26
D.Minns		Retired	25
M.Smith	Run Out		7
S.Ball	Not out		9
H.Davison	Not out		4
P Wetheridge	Did  not bat
M. Connolley	Did not bat
		Extras	18
		Total	117
King James Bowling
Bowler	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets
Skinner	2	0	7	0
Clark	2	0	6	0
Samms	2	0	9	0
Taylor	2	0	8	1
Haughton	2	0	17	0
Wild	2	0	20	0
Holliday	2	0	8	0
M. Wild	2	0	20	0
Robinson	2	0	5	0
Brown	2	0	11	0

 

King James Innings

Batsman	How Out	Bowler	Total
Skinner	Bowled	Minns	16
Clark	Caught Boorman	Minns	16
Holliday	Bowled	Ball	6
Brown	Bowled	Ball	9
Haughton	Caught and Bowled	Wetheridge	6
Robinson	Bowled	Josh	6
Taylor	Caught Woods	Davison	5
A.Wild	Bowled	Wetheridge	0
Samms	Run Out	Boorman	0
M.Wild	Not out		2
		Extras	4
		Total	70
Bowler	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets
Davison	3	0	17	1
Smith	2	0	9	0
Minns	2	0	11	2
Boorman	2.3	0	15	1
Ball	2	0	5	2
Connolley	2	0	4	0
Josh	2	1	6	1
Wetheridge	2	1	2	2