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Doctors
beat Taunton Deane Council by 2 runs
Doctors 127 for 4
Taunton Deane 125 for 4
Doctors were asked to bat first and faced
hostile, accurate bowling from Lewis Knight.
At the other end Peter Weaver (2-30) varied his length to surprisingly
good effect and lured David Gwynne Jones (14) into a false shot, just as he
was getting into his stride. Wayne
Pither (13), to no one’s great surprise, hit his first ball for six,
but having repeated the feat against the wily Colin Trewren (1-24) holed out
to his next ball. This left Doctors
struggling on 37 for 3 and forced Graham Fergusson and Phil Barker into a
period of careful retrenchment. With
admirable rotation of the strike their partnership gradually blossomed into a
fine display of strokeplay and the field was rapidly adjusted so that all bar
three of the team were on the boundary.
They had added 78 when Barker (28) top-edged the excellent John Pike
(1-22) to keeper Bruce Carpenter but Fergusson dominated the rest of the
innings and, having ended the innings in
the grand manner with a six over midwicket, finished on 58 not out.
Knight and Dave Sizer opened the Taunton
Deane innings at a gallop with generous aid from Doctors’ fielders who
put down two catches off each batsman.
Fergusson and Mike Smart applied the brakes but more chances went
begging and it was not until the 12th over, with the score on 80,
that Charles Macadam made the breakthrough as Knight (39) wandered down the
wicket and was expertly stumped by Dave Rooke. There followed a mini collapse as Macadam
and Rooke combined again to remove D.Cox and Ralph Hammond swooped to run out
Ralph Willoughby Foster; and when Rooke pulled off another sharp stumping off
Fergusson (1-15) the visitors were in trouble. Fergusson’s fizzing leg breaks were
virtually unplayable but still Doctors made valiant attempts to lose the
match as more catches were spilled and Sizer and Pike rode their luck. Gwynne Jones came on to bowl the penultimate
over and performed heroically to tie the batsmen down and so 15 runs were
needed from the final over, to be bowled by Barker. Although Sizer (41 n.o.) and Pike (16 n.o.)
threw the bat at everything the challenge was too great and Doctors, having
dropped 9 chances and caught only one, achieved an unlikely victory.
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