Bore draw ruins a good lunch
WNCC opened the bowling with Stanton B and Thompson R. ‘Tommo’ took a wicket with his 1st ball and another one 8 balls later, both bowled. The time was 12.05pm. The next wicket to fall occurred more than 3.5 hours later with the Gents of Suffolk adding a further 180 to their score. In between time an excellent lunch of 90 minutes was rather rudely interrupted by a game of cricket. The Gents eventually declared at 4.05pm on 235 for 5 with their opening batsman having amassed 120 not out, although Ben Stanton spent most of lunch muttering about how he had already got him out twice LBW. One other concern was the retirement of J Kennedy with a side strain at the start of his 4th over and Jeremy Stanton after just 1 ball with a ‘buggered’ shoulder.
WNCC started their innings at 4.15pm with 20 overs from 5.30pm and tea in between!! The Captain promoted himself up the order to lead the charge alongside the new recruit from the local EAPL team, Peter Richer. With both players back in the hutch with the score less than 30, we were caught between trying to survive and seriously chasing the Gents total. Kennedy was already back home in London by the time our innings started, so Humphreys and Stanton W consolidated with 174 needed from the last 22 overs. Each time a batsman tried to push the accelerator they were dismissed leaving Jeremy Stanton and Kevin Lecompte to see us to the draw with R Thompson coming in to secure yet another not out score.
In short the prospect of defeat was so unpallatable to both sides I am not sure if future fixtures should be played in a limited overs game because ‘Gents’ cricket it was not.
