Cranham v Minchinhampton (report by Minchinhampton)

Minchinhampton visited the superb Cranham cricket ground on Saturday and 
embarked on a good game of cricket, despite playing with 10 men following 
a late drop out. 

Winning the toss for the 6th game in a row Alex Waring chose to bat as Minch 
welcomed back some players missing from the previous week. Despite this Minch 
got off to a bad start. Youngster Tom Horrell couldn’t resist a slower ball 
from Finnican and was caught for a duck early on. Warren Cresswell was in 
aggressive mood with a quick fire 22 but also holed out from Finnican and 
John Davies became Finnicans 3rd victim falling LBW also for a duck. Alex 
Waring set about rebuilding the innings with a hard hit 32 but fell to the 
guile of Buzz Pockett and Minch were languishing on 77 for 6. 

However Jaime Waring had other ideas and attacked the Cranham bowling early on, 
picking off some much needed boundaries for Minch. Wall, Matthew and Shearman 
all providedbrief support but last man Pete Wallis showed strong resistance and 
Waring andWallis put on 30 for the last wicket. 

Waring finished on 58 and despite the bad start, Minch managed to post a slightly
more respectable 144 all out. Finnican, Pockett and Walden all picked up 3 wickets
as Cranhams bowling was testing throughout.

In reply Minch knew they needed early wickets. Shearman and Wallis bowled well and
very tightly for the first 8 overs and Wallis was rewarded with a great yorker
removing Matt Smith for 6. Moore soon went again bowled by Wallis and Minch sensed
a glimour of hope. Meanwhile opener James Mears batted well, dispatching the bad
balls. W

allis with 12 overs 2 for 26, was however bowling superbly well and his bounce and
swing was often unplayable. Minch were once again made to rue chances though. 
Mears offered 3 catches, all dropped by Minch and brother Brad and him started to 
form a good partnership to take the game away from Minch. Jaime Waring finally found
the breakthrough bowling Brad Mears for 21 but it was too late for any collapse as
James Mears guided the team home with a fine 93 not out.

A great game, played in great spirits by both teams on a picturesque day. Minch would
like to thank Cranham for their hospitality afterwards with the BBQ.

Man of the match: James Mears