Middleham cruise to victory in

opening game of season

 

Bishop Middleham produced a solid display of both batting and fielding to open their account at the new venue of Trimdon Community College when they overcame St. Cuthbert's by five wickets. The opening day of the season was a dry but cold one with a brisk wind blowing across the ground from the north-east. The toss was lost by captain Boorman (a potentially ominous sign) and St. Cuthbert's opted to bat.

ST CUTHBERT'S INNINGS

St.Cuthbert's got off to a good start quickly moving the scoreboard along with the top three batsman scoring 17, 17 and 24 respectively. However the team quickly lost a number of wickets in quick succession to the bowling of David Boorman and Stephen Ball. Ball ending up with final figures of 3 wickets for 7 runs off 5 overs (let's hope he can repeat these figures consistently). Around this time a strange spectacle took place on the pitch when Derek Shaw lost one of his contact lenses. This resulted in an enforced stoppage of play whilst various members of the team went down on hands and knees to try to find the missing lens. This spectacle when viewed from the boundary looked like a mass Muslim prayer session. Play continued and Bishop Middleham took a grip on the game with wickets falling at a regular rate and with no further batsman getting into double figures. The fielding team was quick, agile and looked confident in the field despite it being the first game of the season and the introduction of a fine system for poor fielding.

The fine system for was introduced for the following errors

It has however to be said that the introduction of the fine system has led too much more concentration in the field and there were very few errors. Most catches went to hand and a couple of fine run outs were observed especially the one by Phil Woods. At the end of the first session St. Cuthbert's reached 85 after 26.5 of the allocated 30 overs.

Tea was provided and was much appreciated by all.

 

Bishop Middleham Innings

Captain Boorman introduced a new opening partnership for the first game of the season, combining Derek Shaw (with newly found contact lens) and the elder statesman of Ron Woods. The two played a sensible and solid game taking the score along to 49 before Ron retired on reaching 25 (He is still to be given out whilst playing a game). Next in was David Shaw who survived a couple of balls only to be bowled by a full toss for a duck. Is he in the running to become THE BINARY MAN? Next in was Hugh Boorman who played for the remainder of the innings as the anchor role guiding the team to victory whilst supporting the more flamboyant of his playing partners. These included Phil Woods, out for 3 after skying one and Stephen Ball, also going for THE BINARY MAN award after being out for 1. However the scoreboard was kept clicking over and the game was finally won in the 21st over when David Hutton hit a four to the offside boundary. A couple of incidents of note in the innings included Mike Smith being run out (when will he learn to ground the bat) and Stephen Ball lobbing one up to the bowler and being caught. However the bowler then dropped the ball on going to ground but it was adjudged by the umpire to have been held.

A fine system has been introduced for batting, fines include

 

The fine system is imposed by Ron Woods and all complaints should be made through him. He is usually found on the leg side whilst fielding with a pen and paper in hand.

 

MATCH STATISTICS

 

St Cuthbert's

 

Les Nevin

b D. Boorman

17

Steve Leybourne

c Smith b D.Boorman

17

Tom Smith

c Shaw b Davison

24

Mike Eve

b Ball

1

Mike Whalley

b Ball

4

Ian Harrison

b Ball

0

Simon Rosserty

Run out

2

Phil Blackburn

Run out

4

Mike Banks

c Smith b H.Boorman

5

Stuart Halliday

c Davison b N.Cooksey

1

John Blackburn

Not out

3

 

Total

85 off 26.5 overs

Extras

Byes 3, leg byes 3, wides 1, no Balls 0

Bowling

De Shaw 2-0-5-0, M Smith 3-0-11-0, D.Boorman 5-1-17-2, S.Ball 5-1-7-3,

H.Davison 5-0-24-1, N.Cooksey 4-1-7-1, H.Boorman 1.5-0-7-1, Da Shaw 1-0-1-0

 

BISHOP MIDDLEHAM

 

Derek Shaw

c and b Eve

23

Ron Woods

Not Out (retired)

25

David Shaw

b Smith

0

Hugh Boorman

Not out

10

Phil Woods

C and b Eve

3

Stephen Ball

C and b Eve

1

Mike Smith

Run out

7

Nigel Cooksey

B Nevin

9

David Hutton

Not out

4

 

Total

88 off 21 overs

Extras

Byes 1, leg byes 1, wides 4, no balls 0

Bowling

Rosserty 4-1-7-0, Leybourne 3-0-20-0, Nevin 5-0-24-1,

Smith 3-0-15-0, Harrison 3-0-11-0