|
Spaxton beat Doctors by 8 wickets Doctors 101
for 5
Spaxton 102
for 2
On a humid overcast evening Doctors seemed to collectively doze off and Spaxton took full advantage. Morning rain had taken the edge off the usual fast, hard Spaxton wicket and Jacob Bennett (1-19) was rewarded for an admirably accurate opening spell when John Ogle chipped an intended drive to mid off. Wayne Pither (1-19) adopted a policy of banging the ball in short and this paid off in unlikely fashion as Dave Rooke flat batted him to mid off to give Spaxton an early advantage at 16 for 2. The crucial moment came when Gary Meadows (1-2) produced a perfectly pitched outswinger to take the edge of Graham Fergusson’s bat and the chance was neatly taken by keeper Dan Rich. Up to this point the innings had been ticking along steadily at 5 an over but there followed a period of intense stagnation as Scott Bellinger and Neil Peek bowled with impressive control and the batsmen struggled to get the ball away. Andrew Paisley (13) was just beginning to time his shots when the mounting pressure led to his being run out. Phil Barker was a notable exception to Doctors’ collective ennui and played with his usual good sense. His 30 not out off 29 balls injected some needed urgency and his partnership of 51 with Charles Macadam was only ended when Macadam (18) was run out off the final ball of the innings. Adrian Fisher started in sparkling form and put on 21 in quick time in an enterprising opening stand with Keith Bellinger. Mike Sullivan (1-8) bowled with customary control and made the breakthrough as Fisher (13) edged him to keeper Fergusson. Bellinger soon followed, lbw to John Down (1-19) but from 32 for 2 the game was taken away from the visitors by a fine partnership between Meadows and James Venton. Circumspect at first, they then went for their shots before throttling back to finish the job in comfort. Doctors rotated their bowlers and several lofted shots fell tantalisingly short of the fielders but the modest target was never enough to put the batsmen under pressure and was achieved with more than 2 overs in hand. Meadows was unbeaten on 37 and Venton on 32. |
