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Pacemakers lost to Doctors by 15 runs Doctors 110
all out
Pacemakers 95 for 8
Pacemakers’
Martin Short opened the bowling and showed the way to bowl on a slow Kings
Hall wicket with a fine spell of well pitched up medium pace. David Williamson and David Gwynne Jones
kept the scoreboard ticking until Gwynne Jones (10) got a ball from Short
(1-10) which “stopped” and gave the bowler a simple return
catch. Sam Powell then holed out to a
good running catch at deep square leg by James Murdoch off Peter Sprague and
the combination of Sprague’s teasing left arm spin and the pace of
South African S.Russell dried up the runs.
When Williamson (17) was lbw to Sprague trying to work a straight ball
to leg the new batsman was Matthew House, making his debut for Doctors. If House felt under pressure it certainly
didn’t show as he confidently drove his first ball for four and
proceeded to pepper the boundary with glorious straight drives as Sprague
(3-11) and Murdoch (1-25) worked their way through the middle order at the
other end. The return of Russell
(1-8), bowling with blinding sun behind him, accounted for skipper Phil
Barker but at last House found a stable partner in Andrew Paisley and at last
the run rate began to rise. A total of 110 is not normally enough at Kings Hall with its short boundaries and fast outfield, and against a strong Pacemakers batting line up Doctors knew that they would need to bowl and field immaculately. Sam Powell did the business for Doctors with a precise spell of 4 overs for 10 runs including the wicket of Paul Thomas, well caught by John Ogle, running back from mid on. Gwynne Jones leant excellent support at the other end and Murdoch and D.Botha were forced into some desperate singles to get things moving. Robert Seymour (2-20) replaced Powell and was able to extract turn from the dry wicket to trap Botha (11) lbw and to bowl M.Winsey through an extravagant pull shot. House continued his fairy tale debut with a spectacular wicket with his first ball as Murdoch (11) essayed an airy drive and lost his middle stump. Short came in and provided some much-needed aggression to wrest back the initiative as Russell settled in with three rifle-crack straight drives for singles. Man of the match House (2-15) was not to be denied as his spell came to its close with a fast, perfect-length ball that induced a fatal edge from Short (21) which was brilliantly caught by diving keeper Williamson. The match was still in the balance when Russell hoisted the first ball from Peter Reed into the safe hands of Barker at midwicket and the pendulum swung for the last time as the dangerous Andrew Clarke pulled a short ball towards short mid on where Ogle took a stunning catch. Sprague (11 n.o.) tried manfully to get near the target but the old heads of Reed (2-9) and Barker (1-20) made sure that there was no final twist. |
