Two runs short from victory at Felsted
Despite the usual scurrying around for available players, West Norfolk did manage to scrape together 10 able-bodied players for the annual fixture against the Felsted Robins. Unfortunately, veteran rent-a-cricketer Nigel Gadsby pulled out on the morning of the game, because he was doing his first day’s work of the year. The sun was shining in Cambridgeshire and he had to combine some barley… Anyway, at least it spared the remaining nine West Norfolk players from relentless great cricketing stories from Gorby.
The team was mainly made up of Thompsons: Two of Rocky’s boys played (Jim and Robert) and one of their friends from Uppingham school, the team was skippered by Richard Thompson.
An gentleman’s toss saw West Norfolk in the field first with the side supplemented by two Fesltedians, Charlie Knightly, the school’s director of cricket, and Chris Wood (NB please check). The opening bowlers of Ben Stanton and Symes took a fearful drubbing as the Robins raced to a 100 in just 17 overs.
Jim Thompson’s leg spin and Richard Thomson’s canny left-arm seamers stemmed the flow of runs and snared a handful of wickets, so that the Robins were ??? for ??? at lunch.
Jim Thomson’s leg breaks continued to come out well after lunch, hed ended the day with the commendable figures of 4 for 71. He was the pick of the West Norfolk bowlers on what was a flat batting wicket at Felsted.
Faced with a target of 259 West Norfolk were soon struggling at 74 for 5 when Andrew Waters and Richard Thomson came together. Their 99 partnership brought West Norfolk into a winning position, but then Waters fell for a well struck 87 and Thomo went for 76, with only 37 runs required to win, the target seemed to get further away rather than closer. In the last over West Norfolk required 4 to win, but fell short when Ben Stanton was the last wicket to fall.
All in all an excellent game – let’s hope next year we can field eleven West Norfolk players in this entertaining fixture.
