Brent Win Hard Fought Local Derby!
South Brent 108 for 4 (20 overs)
Ugborough 79 for 10 (18.2 overs)
Scorecard
On an overcast evening with the sun only just managing to make a couple of brief cameo appearances, South Brent turned out for their penultimate Wednesday T20 game.
With South Brent only having managed to win a couple of their midweek games, it was time to turn the tide especially considering the tough challenges that the league side have been having to face recently.
South Brent had turned up with a positive attitude right from the start, especially considering the opposition had arrived with a side containing a (supposedly Brent!) player who had only just been practising with the rest of the South Brent team the evening before, and whose cricketing skills were just below par with his drinking skills down at the local (The Packhorse) pub.
The pitch selected for the game was green and we mean green! If the grass was any longer the team would have struggled to find the ball (luckily the ball being used was pink). South Brent lost the toss and was put into bat.
With a mildly strong line up, team captain Beaven was confident that a total of 130 - 140 was achievable. Mike 'The Hit Man' Jarvis and Scott 'The Holey One' Malpass took to the crease…..
After a laboured start South Brent began to make progress, slowly climbing to 4 an over. Largely due to a great spell of bowling from the up and coming star Charlotte Milner who managed to tie up the two opening batsmen for the first couple of overs.
Reaching 53 for 0 off 10 overs, the target was slowly disappearing into the fog that was appearing over Brent Hill (or was that the captain Beaven’s contacts playing up again?!)
It must be mentioned at this point that it was agreed at the beginning of the game by both captains, that the Umpires were to be lenient with LEG side wides to make it more of a friendly atmosphere between the two teams. However, it appeared as though both umpires had misinterpreted these requests, for some bowlers were bowling certain balls wider than the adjacent pitch that had been used for the previous Sunday game, and these were not deemed wides by the Umpires!
Malpass (14) eventually played a ball into the hands of Stewart resulting in the loss of Brent's first wicket. Was this to be the opening of the floodgates?! On reviewing the score book it turned out that Malpass had more dot balls than a leopard has spots on his back! Although it must be said that the leopard analogy could certainly not be applied to his running between the wickets!
It was then the turn of Chris 'The Magic' Daniel to take to the crease with strict instructions to up the run rate. He dually undertook the task in hand but hadn't bargained for the dramatic effect on opener Jarvis who, after a few overs of running with Daniel was now doubled over his bat at the bowlers end!
This eventually took its toll when Jarvis (38) was out caught behind by Stewart and only just managed to drag himself back to the pavilion before collapsing.
Ogilvie (20 not out) then took to the crease playing some risky but delicate shots and demonstrating some great calling and running between the wickets. The exuberant Daniel (14) unfortunately then lost his wicket caught behind by Stewart who was having a fantastic evening as keeper.
Monroe (5) was next in the firing line and after hitting a sweet boundary was bowled by Clough.
The score was now 101 for 4 with an over to go.
Wilson (0 not out) made his way to the crease and was given the instruction to ‘just hit every ball’. 2 balls were faced by him and after swinging and missing like an old housewife swatting flies, managed to get us 4 leg byes. Brent finished with a total of 108 for 4.
With a quick turnaround because of the rapidly diminishing light, Brent took to the field to defend a low total that if early wickets weren’t taken would quickly disappear.
The decision was made to go with an aggressive field with Daniel opening the Brent bowling attack from the railway end. With some magic bowling, slightly let down by the wicket keeping gloves that Malpass was wearing (which seemed to have more holes than a perforated teabag!) Daniel bowled a tight first over.
Beaven, opening from the pavilion end had the ball swinging and came close to taking a wicket. However, a couple of loose balls allowed the Ugborough openers a couple of easy boundaries.
It was left to the magic of Daniel to strike first, taking the first wicket, bowled with 13 runs on the board. The magic show had only just begun so was not to end here, and after only 5 more runs he struck again with his second wicket, also bowled.
Back at the pavilion end the astute Beaven had noticed that Ugborough batsman Clayden was starting to move further and further down the crease as he bowled. Beaven decided to bring keeper Malpass up to the stumps to try to catch him out with a stumping. The plan soon payed dividends as Malpass took the stumping after some nice juggling that a clown would of been proud of!
Ugborough were now 24 for 3 and Beaven’s spell was over (4-0-1-23)
To wrap up a fantastic bowling spell, Daniel then took another wicket almost removing the Ugborough (or Brent? depending on which way you swing!) batsmen Wakeham’s (0) stumps from the crease.
Daniel finished with the impressive figures of 4-2-7-3 with 2 wicket maidens. Not only that, Daniel was to later also take a stunning catch with a ball that was going behind him.
It was then the turn of Cook who gladly took the baton from Daniel and followed on exactly from where Daniel had left off, taking the wicket of Snell (0) bowled with his first ball. Cook continued to bowl tight lines destroying the opposition with another impressive spell from a Brent bowler.
Clough (P) (6) was Cook’s next victim trapped LBW and Northmore (bowled) soon followed. Cook finished with the impressive figures of 4-2-5-3. Captain Beaven attributed this down to Cook’s promotion to vice captain that must have given him an extra edge (or was it chuck factor that the batsmen couldn’t handle!)
McArdle was next to bowl from the pavilion end, however following an impressive performance on Sunday, struggled to have the same impact. McArdle nevertheless remained unphased and managed to take a wicket (with the assistance of Daniel’s aforementioned catch) and was praised highly for his sterling perseverance and hard work, finishing with figures of 4-0-38-1.
4 overs to go and Brent were looking like they were onto victory. Willoughby came on next to bowl from the Railway end and demonstrated an example of yet more tight bowling. Willoughby captured the prized wicket of J Clough who was by now both seeing and hitting the ball well. This took the total to 77 - 9 with 3 overs to go.
The crunch point for Beaven then came with the decision to be made of whom to bowl from the pavilion end. With some careful deliberation it was decided that Jarvis, who could barely walk at this point was to be given the ball.
After carefully setting the field, Jarvis steamed in off 3 paces and bowled his slow seam. The tail order struggled with this and failed to make any progress, resulting in a maiden over.
At 77 - 9 victory was almost within Brent’s grasp as Milner came in to bat. Willoughby began his second over with Milner scoring a delightful shot through gully for 2 runs.
Then out of nowhere came the ball that would finish off the innings (79 all out) with Milner lofting one up into the hands of Monroe who was determined he was not going to drop it. The concentration on Monroe’s face as it fell into his hands was comical, as this was victory for Brent with balls to spare. Willoughby finished with the very impressive figures of 1.4-1-2-2.
Captain Beaven expressed a big thank you everyone that took part creating a vibrant positive team performance with fantastic bowling and fielding as well as with the bat. Both teams played really well making the experience a really enjoyable evening.