BENFLEET CRICKET CLUB Benfleet 3rd XI v Ongar on Sat 18 Jun 2005 at 13:30
BENFLEET CRICKET CLUB Won 6 wickets
Benfleet IIIs v Ongar 18th June 2005
Ongar won the toss and elected to bat.
Ongar : 271 for 7 dec.
Benfleet : 273 for 4. Benfleet won by 6 wickets : Benfleet 18 pts, Ongar 8
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After last week’s epic victory the visit of Ongar was eagerly looked forward to.
League form (and last year’s results) gave us reason to be hopeful of a second league victory.
On a blistering afternoon, with the uncertainty of being able to bowl out the opposition, Captain Willis had half-decided to put Ongar in, if winning the toss, though the heat was deadly. The dilemma was removed as Ongar won the toss and elected to bat anyway - presumably due to the ferocious heat.
Ongar started cautiously, with the skipper pulling up and retiring with a knee ligament strain.
Then a wicket fell (ct Willis, bowled A.Waters), things were looking promising. Soon after, the runs began to flow on what turned out to be a pretty docile wicket and it became clear, as M.Dick and M.Wood got going, that Ongar had a bit more batting up their sleeve than we had hoped.
The bowlers toiled away, to no avail and with runs starting to flow profusely. There were a couple of dropped chances (Willis on the run at mid-off, and then Waters in the bread-basket at long-off, and Ongar made the most of it.
Eventually with the score on 199 and all bowling options explored, a miscue saw A.White running in at mid-off to take the chance and the spell was broken, Wood going for 58. His partner had now sustained an injury that stopped him running, and on 109, unable to make his ground, was run out by Willis when half way down the track. This was the signal for wickets to fall. M.Jackson passed a notable milestone with his 150th club catch at mid-off . J.Scarf then bowled one, as did L.Wilson and with S.Rowe and M.Ware chipping in as well, things started to perk up a bit. However, Ongar had scored well, and when they finally declared at 16:05 had 271 to defend. You would have to say, this was a) a decent score, but b) a sporting declaration, given the time and conditions, with a chance for both teams to win.
After a splendid tea (thanks to Mrs Wilson) A.Jarrett and M.Jackson began the Benfleet reply.
With a big total to attempt AND plenty of time to get it, what happened next was very, very unfortunate. Jazzza called for one, Jacko, hesitated briefly (his call) before a firm NO. This was followed by a second ‘NO’ as Jarrett continued, and a final ‘NNNOOOOOO !’ as Jarrett kept coming, before Jacko set off on an impossible single. Oh dear.
As standing umpire at the time, I would sum up as follows :
There ‘probably’ WAS a single IF both batsmen had gone immediately.
It WAS Jacko’s call – and the call was ‘NO’ – albeit, after a look to see where the ball had gone (fair do).
It was a bit unnecessary in the fourth over of the innings.
Ultimately, a classicly awful cricket moment, and very horrible to watch.
Moving on……This unhappy event brought one D.Nash to the crease at number 3.
In 475 years at the club Nashy has never batted on the bottom square so another first was achieved.
The Ongar attack was cautiously played (plenty of swing from one end), though any deviation saw the ball fly to the boundary from either end and we were up and running in our chase.
Nashy fell on 36, driving straight, with the bowler taking a very smart return catch, with the score now around 80. A.White kept us entertained with a rapid but jug-avoiding 42. Then M.Ware (14) kept Jazza company for a while as the score piled on. With the 20 overs beckoning Benfleet needed around a hundred and were now in the driving seat with wickets in hand. Jazza looked untroubled to this point.
With the afternoon sunshine burning till the end, and with J.Scarf (14 not out) accompanying Jazza (119 not out) to the finish, we were home : 273 for 4 with 10 overs to spare !!!!! In short, a superbly excecuted run chase with the top four doing the business around Jarrett’s fine innings.
With our game in hand, we are now starting our rise up the table – next game : away to bottom and winless Stanford-le-Hope !
M.Willis :20/6/05
BENFLEET CRICKET CLUB Benfleet 3rd XI Batting
273 for 4
Ongar Bowling
| L.Paris |
9.0 |
0 |
64 |
1 |
64.00 |
7.11 |
| N.Suker |
10.0 |
0 |
55 |
1 |
55.00 |
5.50 |
| M.Wood |
11.0 |
3 |
39 |
1 |
39.00 |
3.55 |
| B.Overy |
2.0 |
0 |
18 |
0 |
0.00 |
9.00 |
| J.Dick |
8.0 |
0 |
68 |
0 |
0.00 |
8.50 |
| Ziggy |
0.2 |
0 |
7 |
0 |
0.00 |
21.00 |
Ongar Batting
271 for 7
| M.Suker |
1 |
Retired |
| M.Adcock |
6 |
Caught |
| M.Dick |
109 |
Run out |
| M.Wood |
58 |
Caught |
| N.Suker |
7 |
Bowled |
| L.Paris |
19 |
Run out |
| B.Overy |
16 |
Bowled |
| D.Ginnaw |
17 |
Not Out |
| D.Thorby |
0 |
Caught |
| J.Dick |
4 |
Not Out |
| Ziggy |
|
|
BENFLEET CRICKET CLUB Benfleet 3rd XI Bowling