​​​​​​​NZ Over 70’s v England Overs 70s' Match Report

Game 1 of the Silver Fern Series 

The match was played at Frocester Cricket Club which is in a little village of the same name. The latest population estimate for the town is only 150 people. For a small village to have such an amazing club rooms and a terrific cricket pitch it’s extraordinary. There were twice as many people at the game than live there. The differences between the NZ and English cricket set up and facilities are well demonstrated at this venue.

The home side won the toss and predictably batted first. Morris Dawson made an early breakthrough getting one of the openers in his first over. That bought the England Captain, John Evans, to the crease to join the other opener, also an Evans but no relation, and the 2 of them hung around like unwelcome guests for 27 overs putting on a partnership of 157 runs. Every bowler had a go at breaking the partnership until Roger Stachurski managed to prise the opener out for the days top score of 90. That opened the door at one end and Roger and Bevin Guthrie set about exploiting that opening to restrict the next 5 partnerships to 3 runs, 27, 2, 0, and 26.  Bevin finishing with 4 for 48 off his 9 game changing overs and Roger 2 for 63. 

One of those wickets was John Evans, who was not only the England captain but also Frocester’s club captain. John had twice walked off after he thought he’d been bowled but each time it was Tony Penny quickly removing the bails. Eventually he did get out lifting a catch to Terry O’Laughlin for an influential 79. 

At 235 for 7 after 38 overs we had visions of keeping them below 270 but the next partnership plundered 64 runs off 7 overs unto John Durning removed one of them in the second last ball of their innings. 301 for 8 was seen as a par score on that track but we’d have to bat well.

Our chase got off to rocky start when Paul Facoory chased a ball outside the off stump and nicked it to the keeper. That brought Hamish Cochran to the crease but England, so we’d been told, had a plan for him to restrict his scoring areas. It didn’t work that well but in the end they did get him out for our top score of 41. But not before we saw more glimpses of his power hitting form.

The next player to go though was Tony Penny who became the first of the 4 LBW victims of our 8 wickets to fall. After Tony and Hamish’s 34 run partnership Bevin Guthrie and Hamish put together a promising stand of 42 runs in 7 overs and it looked like we might be able to put pressure back on England if we could maintain that for 20 or more overs. But once Hamish departed our next 5 partnerships were 15, 18, 0, 17, and 1. 

That brought Poppa John Durning, playing in front of his England based son and 4 grandsons, and Chris East together with 14 overs still to play. Determined to not get out and make England field for another hour we managed to forge an undefeated partnership of 74 runs and adding a tiny bit of respectability to the scoresheet finishing at 217 for 8 off our 45 overs.

There were lessons aplenty for us from this match. England are not unbeatable but have strengths across the board and we have to find improvements in our line and length bowling, our fielding, and our patience when batting, to square the series when we meet again in a weeks time. 


Chris East