Young Strollers unafraid of the dark as Bohemians beaten
posted: August 17, 2012

All good things must come to and end and, after our brief alliance against the VCC a fortnight ago, old rivalries with our friends the Bohemians were resumed last night in an absorbing T20 clash at North London CC where, after a 7 week wait, we finally got back to winning ways!

With the end of this so called summer now in hoving into view and the evenings drawing in, Tim's decision to field first upon winning the toss was initially met with some puzzlement, not least by the Bohemians who, noting the grey skies, offered to reduce the overs to avoid a late night finish after we kicked off at 6pm. But Tim brazenly insisted we stick to the full 20 regardless so on we went... not afraid of the dark, he!

The decision looked decidedly dodgy though as Rob Davies' first 'two balls' (aka 6, 5 wides and a 4) went for 15 before making the breakthrough beating Connolly's defences with a well disguised slower delivery, much to the relief of the onlooking Strollers. Davies quickly followed that up with another — Pfeiffer kindly walking after he gloved one behind to the Strollers' junior keeper, Josh Crine.

However, the Bohemians' opener Hayley was batting extremely well and was punishing the quicker bowlers through the offside, reclaiming momentum lost by the two early wickets. Bohemians anchor man Tom Whyte was also looking dangerous but Tim managed to hang onto a trademark rugby catch at cover to see him off early from the bowling of Tom Harvey, now operating at the lower end.

Harvey claimed another wicket next over whilst, from the top end, Chris was brought on to take the pace off the ball and bowled two very tight overs, although his figures were spoiled somewhat in the third through a series of fielding errors and lucky miss-hits.

The fielding in general was a mixed bag. However crucial catches were taken at key points — Dave Couldrey finally managing to hang onto a skier from Hayley just after he hit his half century, insodoing importantly preventing him from cashing in at the end of the innings. Whilst it often seemed the Bohos might get away, enough wickets fell here and there to keep a lid on the scoring rate. Spencer and Simon bowled out the last overs very well to restrict the scoring rate, each getting into the wickets column.

In the end the Bohemians closed on 136-7... a gettable score certainly although with the time now past 19.30, the skies were beginning to bruise alarmingly and the concern was the light may be too poor to bat in. However, despite the sense of urgency brought on by the fading conditions, the Strollers batsmen set out sensibly (having performed poorly in the last two matches and thrown wickets away too early).

Although Dave fell early to a Kyriakides pie, Gav batted on and took his time to see off the good balls. At the other end, Spencer came in early and immediately took to Kyriakides and the boundaries flowed. Gav and Spencer piled on a 50 run partnership with Gav also unleashing a couple of mighty blows before getting out to a good ball that jagged off the pitch.

The run rate was more or less on song however, and Bowstead looked untroubled as he maintained a good scoring rate before he was given out LBW. When Spencer also gloved one down leg side — falling just short of a well deserved 50 — that brought the two youngsters Harry and Josh to the crease with still a fair bit to do to see the game safe. Fortunately, both of them kept their heads and batted sensibly, keeping the scoreboard ticking with regular singles and boundaries, Josh with some sweet cover drives and Harry with some equally effective bludgeoning through mid-wicket or straight down the ground, evoking memories on the boundary of a young Mikey Ward several seasons earlier and his matchless ability to bat in the dark.

Unfortunately Harry ran his mate out with just three runs left for victory. However Harry bludgeoned another 4 to finish things off with an over to spare, much to the delight of his onlooking team mates. Job done.

Despite a couple of wobbles here and there it was a solid all round team performance that gained us a well deserved and much needed win. Let's keep up the momentum for Sunday!

Tim Sturm & Gavin Richardson
17.08.12

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