The match was played in the historic town of Bath and at Combe Park. We were hosted by the Lansdown cricket club which began in 1825 and was the home club of the legendary W.G.Grace for 10 years. The ground has hosted many other famous players over the years as well and a NZ over 70’s team just added to the illustrious history of the ground.
When you picture an English cricket ground you think white picket fences, quaint old club houses, brilliant green outfields surrounded by trees and old houses. Well yesterday we had all of those things except the brilliant green outfield. The outfield was bone dry, dirt brown, lumpy and fast. The club were
outstanding hosts though and the team had a great day and achieved an excellent first up result.
The toss was a virtual one with Roger being asked if he wanted to bat first, which we did. After a quiet start negotiating the opening bowlers we made it to the first drinks break at 15 overs 61 for none with Paul Facoory and Rod Smith well set ready to capitalise on their start. After drinks however Paul soon departed for 36 and Rod was next to go for 26. After Rod departed Bevan Guthrie came to the crease and he and Hamish Chochran set about taking the attack to the Somerset team. They put on 92 runs in just 12 overs together and took the run rate from 4.5 to 5.5. They saw off all the sides best bowlers and demoralised the rest. Hamish made a swashbuckling 71 smashing 10 4’s and Bevan retired not out on 52. They pushed all but the 4 fielders required inside the circle out onto the boundaries and took singles and 2’s at will.
Terry O’Laughlin and Roger Stachurski came in next and pretty much finished things off going run a ball for their 23 and 15 respectively. The final score was 281 for 7 off the 45 overs. The innings took some time to complete though. 45 overs in 3 hours and 40 minutes at a modern fast Bowlers pace of 12.3 overs per hour. It should be noted too that the boundaries were not 50 or 55 metres either. One section to the far corner was all of90 metres away. It was to that corner than Terry and Tony Penny got legendary 4 all run when the ball stopped a few feet from the rope.
That was a long time in the field for the home team and after a fantastic lunch on top of that their batters looked like they’d lost a bit of their zip. 28 degrees without a lot of breeze and chasing a lot of leather had certainly hadn’t helped either.
After Morris Dawson removed one of their openers in his first over their next 2 battled their way to their teams top partnership of 66 runs but it took them another 16 overs. It would turn out to be less than half of their teams total.
The battled through to the 38th over losing wickets steadily along the way. The wickets were shared by all the bowlers with Sunni, Bevan, and Chris getting 2 wickets and the others 1 each. In the end all out for 129 and a comprehensive win by 151 runs.
The game was not without incident or injury however. One of the Somerset players dislocated a finger dropping a catch but popped it back into place himself, added a bit of insulation tape, and he was back out and into the action. However Stanley Woolliscroft was not so lucky when he deflected a very hard hit return off from his bowling off his outstretched hand, onto his glasses then onto the wicket. A trip to the hospital, conveniently right next to the pitch, a few stitches, and a brain scan (there was one), and he was released back into the wild. Cricket can be a tough game played by tough people no matter your age.
It was a good confidence boost for the team and a great way to start the tour.
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