Abysmal Performance as Middleham Sink to New Depths

On the same day that Pakistan rolled over and gave Australia the World Cup, Bishop Middleham Cricket team also put in a totally inept performance against the Midland Bank Team from Middlesbrough. The game was the most one-sided affair that it is my displeasure ever to have been involved in and Middleham can take no comfort from such a dire performance. From losing the toss and being put into bat, until trooping off the field at the end of the game, the result of this fixture was never in doubt.

In the first few overs the Middleham openers gave their wickets away with run outs and poor shots. In this innings run outs were attained by Phil Woods(1) and also Hugh Boorman, Boorman's wicket especially being thrown away going for a suicidal second run. The other top order batsmen Ron Woods (3) Mike Smith (0) Harry Davison (3) and David Shaw(0) also succumbed to either good bowling or playing really awful shots to lesser bowlers. The Middleham score was given some credibility by knocks of 15 by David Hutton (top Scorer), Stephen Ball reaching ten before being caught going for the big heave and Hugh Boorman making 10. Late order batsmen Mike Connelley continued the rot with a duck and only Paul Wetheridge gained some credit carrying his bat for 7. Young Andrew Shaw equalled his father's score coming in as last man.

The final score off only 20 of the allocated 30 overs reaching 65. The catastrophic batting performance is highlighted when looking at the final figures and seeing that extras were top joint score.

After an early tea Middleham took the field with a ludicrously small figure to defend and Midland bank soon reached the required target with only 12 overs gone and for the loss of one wicket.

Lets hope that this game was a total one off and a more coherent team performance is produced in the next game.

Middleham bowling fgures were Ball 4-0-12-0, Wetheridge 4-0-11-0, Smith 1-0-1-9,

Connelley 2.5-0-21-0, Davison 2-0-8-0.

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