Nancledra Hillbillies 13/07/24

The tour bus made it’s way to Nacledra, near Penzance, for the Saturday fixture. David became tour captain for the day and won the toss and elected to bat in a 35 overs contest. Big Dog opened the batting with Max and was playing some positive cricket when Max (1) was bowled by a super delivery that left him down the slope and took top of off-stump (12-1, 3 overs). Tom was soon taking advantage of the short straight boundary and the Wanderers spent some time in the next field looking for balls! Tom passed his 50 with another straight six, but continued to play the rest of the over giving some chances that were not taken before retiring on 62 (99-2, 17). Skipper replaced him and hit second ball down the ground for six. He seemed to favour cow-corner where the home wicket-keeper had parked his car, hitting said car twice as well as 2 cars at square-leg. However, it was Big Dog (53 ret) who provided an acceleration to reach his 50 next with a delightful four (173-3, 25). Brett took a while to adjust to the slow pace and was fortunate to not get out early into his innings. However, he settled well and started to find the boundary. Skipper gave a chance with a drive going high into the air but the fielder never looked like holding it. He passed his fifty with another straight six (55 ret) (227-4, 31). Nick (3) went for a big shot but missed and David (1) tried a reverse sweep to a straight one and missed (246-6, 33). Brett (53 ret) hit two glorious fours to pass 50 bringing Tommy (9no) (on debut) to join Ben (6no) in the last over. 270-7.

After a break for tea and cake, the Wanderers took to the field, with Foz and Tommy (off-spin) opening the bowling. Foz was unlucky when an edge bounced off Big Dog’s pad and passed the outstretched hand of Skipper at slip. The first wicket fell when Tommy halfheartedly appealed for an LBW that was given (it did look fairly out!) (13-1, 6). Tommy was replaced by Ben who struggled with the slope and was expensive as a result. He did get the next wicket with a great delivery that went down the slope and took off-stump (58-2, 14). The incoming batsman was caught in Ben’s next over without troubling the scorers (70-3, 16) leaving Ben with figures of 2-31 from 5 overs. Stu managed to get into a pattern of bringing the ball back into the batsman until a couple of loose deliveries in his last over ruined his figures (0-19). Nick’s looping deliveries caused all sorts of difficulties for the batsman. By now, Skipper’s warming up exercises had caught the eye of the captain and he had a spell which was remarkably consistent (0-7 from 3) which should have included a wicket except he dropped a sharp c&b chance. Nick took 2 wickets in an over, including the key batsman, both bowled (115-6, 24). David (2-1-1-3) bowled out 3 batsmen in 2 overs before bringing Max on for a bowl, taking a wicket bowled (131-9, 28). Foz came back but seemed unable to find the right wicket to bowl on, conceding 11 runs in wides. Brett took the final wicket to seal a 124 run victory. the wides total was 42, easily the second highest scorer!

MOM: Big Dog provided a solid foundation for the innings.

Catch of the day: Not recorded

Quote of the day: What goes on tour stays on tour so there can not be a quote of the day.