WILTSHIRE COUNTY SENIORS CRICKET CLUB

Brilliant Bryant Blitzes Bails. With rain forecast during the afternoon Wiltshire actually won the toss (actually I did not win it, Wales lost it as they called) and put Wales in to bat. Excellent opening spells by both Tim Mynott and Pete Mathias soon saw Wales in trouble at 33-3 after 14 overs. Cooke and Price slowly recovered the situation but never got on top of the bowling and when Price was run out for 38 with the score on 90, 27 overs had already been bowled. Cooke followed shortly after due to Rich Bryant’s fast hands off ‘One wicket Williams’, his first wicket for several weeks despite having bowled so well in every game. Still Wales never accelerated with all the bowlers being very tight, well supported by another good fielding performance. As a result Wales only managed 139-9 in their 45 overs with Tim Mynott finishing with 9-3- 13-2 and Tim Nichols 7-0- 14-0. Rich Bryant had an excellent afternoon taking a further stumping and with two tight run outs and only 2 byes played a major part in keeping Wales to such a low score. Rain then caused the best part of an hour’s delay but as there was plenty of spare time the target did not change. On resumption of play Wiltshire soon looked in trouble due to two run outs and two LBWs and at 37-4 off 13 overs a win looked in doubt. When Tim Nichols was also run out the situation looked even worse as 78 runs were still required. Randy Roze (aka Vegas) came to the wicket and supported Tim Mynott who was still there. Randy started getting after the bowling and a win looked more likely once again. When he was out in the 25 th over with the score on 93 Pete Mathias came to the wicket and with some very sensible batting he and Tim Mynott blocked the good balls and dispatched the bad so that the target was reached with 10 overs to spare with 4 wickets in hand. Another great team performance and this completed the double over Wales. We are now away to Devon next week and then entertain Somerset for the last game of the season. Victory in both could see us through to the knockout stages for the first time.

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Wilts 60+ v Hants 60 +

On a rare sunny day with no chance of stoppages for rain Wiltshire visited Hursley Park to play Hampshire. This was in effect a home game for the five of us from the Salisbury area and a game against a lot of the people we know from the Hampshire league in which many of us play. I

continued the tradition set by Tim Nichols last year and lost the toss yet again. We are certainly some of the worst tossers in seniors’ cricket and we have in fact only won 2 out of the last 20. In case anyone would like me to work out the chances of doing so I will undertake the calculation in

time for the next match report. Hampshire unsurprisingly elected to bat but lost two quick wickets with their danger men, Micky Swain (no relation) and Geoff Beale out to some fine bowling by Tim Mynott 3-15. The Hampshire innings was rescued by a solid partnership by Morton (51) and Floyd

(72) who, although never looking completely comfortable, saw Hampshire through to 119 before the next wicket fell. Wiltshire kept plugging away with Wicketless Williams, again bowling like a shark’s orifices at 50 fathoms, finishing with 0-28 off his nine overs. Still it was a good bowling and fielding performance and we were please to limit them to 193-8 off 45 overs. Richard Guy (32) and Keith Redding again made a steady start taking a number of quick singles and after 10 overs it was looking good at 36 without loss. Smallbone then came on and stopped the runs and took the first three wickets finishing with 3-18 off his 9 overs. Wiltshire never really recovered and when the middle order lost three quick wickets, with a run out and two LBWs, the chances of getting the runs disappeared. Hampshire continued to bowl well and after 45 overs we had still only made 133 -8. Next week we face Wales in Swindon and then we have the two rearranged games against Devon and Somerset in which to regain our early season form. 

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