Beddington v. East Molesey on Saturday 11th June 2016
Beddington 140-9 (43 Overs)
East Molesey 58-2 (16 Overs)
Match Abandoned because of rain.
It also meant that the Beddington innings was likely to be interrupted and, as is the nature of these games, that the advantage would be in the hands of the side batting second.
Beddington started brightly with Dave White and Sam Owen putting on 33 before White was LBW to Molesey’s overseas West Indian Currency. Soon afterwards Owen played a rash shot and was well caught in the slips off Moore.
As the clouds gathered overhead, Simon Lewis and Tom Bevan steadied the ship. But with the score on 53-2 after 19 overs, along came the predicted rain after just over an hour’s play. An early lunch was taken to save too many overs being deducted later on.
After an hour and a half, the rain relented but not for very long and there followed another downpour. Any further play was looking unlikely but when the rain stooped again the Beddington “groundstaff” were out there quickly, mopping up the puddles and making every effort to get in some further cricket. The club was praised highly by the umpires for the effort they put in.
Eventually, the umpires said that play would recommence at 4.30 – tea having been taken. But of course there was the mandatory decrease in the number of overs remaining. This meant that Beddington could bat for 43 overs (a further 24) and that Molesey would have 31 overs in return.
This put a completely different complexion on the Beddington innings as it was important to set as unlikely a target as possible for Molesey to chase. This did not start well. Lewis and Bevan took the score to 71 when Bevan played-on to Moore. Kyle Moolman joined Lewis and with boundaries hard to find on a wet outfield, they had to rely on some quick running between the wickets. But with the score on 95 Moolman was dismissed and two further wickets fell for the loss of just one run including that of Lewis.
Ryan Cummins and Arun Butler battled well against some short-pitched bowling. Before Cummins was run out looking for a quick single. Jack Rogerson joined Butler and these two guided Beddington to what was probably a below par total of 140.
Molesey started well with the left-handed Moore playing some flowing drives, especially on the leg side. His partner K. Burge was not quite so fluent and was eventually caught and bowled by Bevan for one off 26 balls – a miraculous reaction catch it was too. Simon Barrett was bowled by Bevan for 8 and then rain came back to haunt us. But just as the players were walking off, the rain stopped and back they went.
But not for long. The rain was coming down more heavily now, the bowlers could not stand up and so the umpires declared the game abandoned as Beddington had not bowled the necessary 20 overs to make it a game. All in all, a fairly unsatisfactory day but these come along every now and again and today was just one of those days.
Details
Next week Beddington 1st X1 are at home to newly-promoted Ashtead followed by away games at Guildford and Sunbury.
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