Consecutive victories as Hutton and Shaw see Middleham home

Report by Hugh Boorman, editorial amendments made by Harry Davison

Bishop Middleham recorded a second successive victory in the defeat of King James. It also provided revenge for their opening day of the season defeat at Bishop Auckland. The 'series' will now be settled by an end of season encounter an the 5^th September at Bishop Auckland Rugby Club. King James won the toss and decided to bat in what were decidedly thundery conditions. They advanced to 13 for 1 wicket of 3 overs before the rains came and play was stopped. The one wicket to fall coming from Hugh Boorman as the batsman played a potential leg-side wide onto his own stumps.

When play resumed the game was reduced to 16 overs per side. Bishop Middleham were fortunate that Mr. Duckworth or Mr. Lewis were not present or the total to be attained may have been higher. (I have a feeling that this sentence is a bit of a ploy to placate the King James Team)

George Winn, returning to the side after a two year absence, exerted an immediate stranglehold by bowling 2 overs for 4 runs. The lay off obviously making George hungry for the game. Three chances were spilled during the King James innings, hardly surprising considering the rain drenched outfield and the soap like ball. However I can not let this pass as the dropped catches do mean that fines will be imposed. One catch was from Phil Woods who according to reports covered a good distance to reach the ball but then missed it and ending up sitting on it. Stephen Ball also dropped one catch and then unconfirmed reports state that he did not attempt to catch another but let it hit the ground before stopping it. It was in this fixture last year that the nickname 'can't catch-won't catch' was first instigated and it looks like it's returned to haunt Ball.

However the ground fielding remained sharp and the bowling was mostly tight. Paul Wetheridge took some stick being hit for 18 of his two overs and according to captain Boorman this was due to having little protection on the leg side boundaries. If this was the case then what does that say about the captain's field positioning. Wetheridge did however bowl a beauty to claim the only other wicket of the innings.

In the Absence of Ron Woods the Middleham innings was opened by Hugh Boorman and Phil Woods. Successful with the ball bowling one over for 2 runs Woods yet again failed to make his mark with the bat. Cleaned bowled after only scoring 2 runs it appears that we may have to think of Woods as a bowler rather than as a batsman (not a very nice thought). Captain Boorman held the beginning of the innings together and reached a score of 23 before being stumped going down the wicket for the drive. David Boorman made a useful 17 before being caught and bowled.

The innings was seen to a close by the capable batting of David Shaw and David Hutton with the pair seeing Middleham to a comfortable victory. David Hutton has certainly matured to a batsman of some stature (physically and mentally). Their mixture of good hitting and running (Hutton's slip and falling over whilst trying to turn for a second run did however cause some amusement amongst the home side) meant that the target was reached with 2.3 overs to spare.

King James

R.Harris	Bowled H.Boorman	6
A.Rowley jnr	Bowled P.Wetheridge	17
G.Berry	Retired	25
R.Brown	Not out	13
R.Pringle	Not out	11
Extras 8	Total	76 for 2 (16 overs)

 Bowling

H.Boorman 2-0-8-1, J.Alderson 2-0-8-0, G.Winn 1-0-4-0, D.Boorman 2-0-5-0,

M.Boorman 1-0-6-0, P.Wetheridge 2-0-18-1, P.Woods 1-0-2-0, Da Shaw 1-0-6-0,

S.Ball 2-0-14-0, M.Connelly 1-0-5-0

Middleham

H.Boorman	Stp A.Rowley Snr	Bowled Taylor	23
P.Woods	Bowled	Rowley Jnr	2
D.Boorman	Caught and bowled	Berry	17
Da Shaw	Not out		13
D.Hutton	Not out		15
Extras 7		Total	77 for 3 (13.2 overs)