Today's date is

Sunday 5th June

Home v Bill Owen's XI

Sadly, this very enjoyable fixture fell foul of the wonderful June weather we're experiencing. Better luck next year we hope!

Tuesday 7th June

Away v Victorians EECL

Two versions of events for you, one from the scorebox and one from the heart of the action.

Version 1
Lovely evening! Good view of the city from the score box! Ted was unlucky, Phil bowled the opener and kept runs down. Will was ... tonked! Jeremy picked up a wicket (caught on the third attempt by Ted). A run out on last ball of innings, 148 to win.

Peter missed straight ball, Mike nicked to keeper. Partnership of 71 between Phil and Charles. Phil got stumped, Charles top scored (for once) but got caught on penultimate ball. Fifteen runs short. Oh well! AH

Version 2
Charles guessed right again, and chose to field first on the artificial surface.
Ted and Phil opened up, Ted from the Town end, Phil from the University end. They both bowled reasonably well, although Ted had problems with his line at times and both bowled too many 4 balls. Phil bowled a jaffa to get rid of the young opener, but was unable to repeat the feat. Ted was unlucky not to take a wicket when the batsman refused to walk, even though he later admitted he knew full well he had edged to Anthony behind the stumps. Not a good example of the spirit in which we want the game to be played.
After 10 overs Victorians had 72, and a big total was in the offing. The pressure was on Will and Jeremy to tighten things up. Unfortunately Will was not quite up to his usual self, but the slower bowling of Jeremy proved far more difficult to get away than the quicker stuff delivered by Will. Ted took a good catch in the deep to give Jeremy his wicket, but it was the three chances that went to ground that cost us dear. The Victorian's total of 148 was 20 or 30 more than we should have let them have, but still very gettable despite Robbie's comic juggling routine.

Mike and Peter went confidently to the middle and much to the amazement of the crowd they ran 2's off the first 3 balls. With 7 an over needed the pressure was always to put bat to ball, and both fell trying to do so. Phil and Charles ran themselves to the point of exhaustion, running 2's and 3's at every opportunity but needed to hit the boundary more often. With the required rate rising Phil was stumped trying to force the pace, bringing Jeremy to the wicket with only 20 balls to go and 36 runs needed. He and Charles did their best to maintain the 2 runs a ball needed, but tight bowling from the Town End proved the decisive factor. Charles was caught at fly slip off the last but one ball, leaving rob to somehow cunjour 16 from the last ball. He finished a creditable 0 not out.
Another game that got away, but an enjoyable match. Does anyone want some catching practice..........CH

Thursday 9th June

Home v Yeoford

You could not ask for a nicer evening to play cricket. Sunny but with a cooling breeze, swifts screaming and the smell of newly mown grass......

Sunday 12th June

Home v North Molton II NDL

Finally we get to play cricket in proper summer weather. What a change!

Charles won the toss (again) and asked North Molton to field in the heat of the afternoon (and bat into the setting sun...). As it turned out a good decision for the team but personally disastrous......
Mike and Peter opened up., but were parted early on when Chris Cole got one to come back down the hill to take Peter's off stump (1). There followed a bit of a procession as first Mike (10), then Charles (0), Dave (4) and Phil (18) all went in the same manner, bowled C. Cole. At 41 for 5 the Captain wondered if batting first had been a good idea! Cole ended with 5 for 30 from his 9, bowled in a single stint.
Steel then returned to the performance as Steve dug in for the long haul. He was ably assisted by Anthony and Ted, both of whom showed that they are more than capable with the bat. They may well be plucked from the quiet backwaters of the lower order to the sunlit upland of the top five on the basis of what we saw on Sunday.
The important thing was not to panic, to see out as many of the 45 overs as possible. We managed 42, which was an excellent effort in the circumstances. Steve ended up as last man out after a typically combative 71, one of his best innings for many years.

Tea was a time for reflection. 190 was not as much as we had hoped for, but it was enough to bowl at and if wickets started to fall, well you never know..

Phil started down the hill with typical economy and was unlucky not to get a wicket in his first over when a sharp chance went down at square leg. Ted found the uphill approach difficult, and after only two overs he was replaced by Robbie, which proved to be an inspired change. Robbie reminded us all why he is the leading wicket taker for the club with a series of wobbly tweakers that tempted the batsmen (and the Umpire!!) into some rash decisions. Not content with taking wickets he also bowled two maidens, if anything an even more impressive return to form! He proved that bowling at the stumps works, ending up with identical figures to Chris Cole, 5 for 30 from 9 overs, again bowled in one stint.
Ted returned to replace Phil at the Urinal End and found his rhythm. Told to bowl as fast as he could and try to hurry the batsmen he did just that, bowling fast and economically, going for only 2.5 an over (9-1-23-1).
With Rob bowling out and the quicks (Ted and Phil) needing a rest who was going to fill in? Well, the Captain need not have worried as Anthony and David stepped into the breach. David looked quite surprised to be woken from his slumbers and asked to bowl, but his 2 for 48 from 8 overs was well worth the efforts it took to disturb his day-dreaming. Anthony responded to the call to bowl in exactly the manner he had batted earlier. His 5 overs included 2 maidens and only cost 16 runs, putting huge pressure on the batsmen as the required rate climbed. Taking into account his batting, bowling and fielding Anthony was the all round star of the day, though the Man of the Match award must go to Steve for his excellent batting.
Another key moment was a run out crafted by Phil's footwork and accurate throw. It ended the best partnership of the innings, sending the last of the recognised batsman back to the pavilion and opening the way for Phil to come back on to take the final wicket. Nobody looked more shocked than the bowler himself when he actually hit the stumps!
North Molton ended up all out for 147, 43 runs short, giving us our second win in the league from a very enjoyable match that swung back and forwards for much of the afternoon. CS

Perfect cricketing weather! Anthony plays it correctly.

Phil digs out a shooter! Ted clips one to leg for 4..........

Tuesday 14th June

Away v Countess Wear EECL

Many a team have won a game of cricket without a full complement of players, many more have lost ...

Nine Cheriton members appeared at Countess Wear on this blustery Tuesday, the good news being that Charles won the toss!!! Batting was not as easy as it looked, as the pitch was not easy to time, this with some variable bounce (and variable bowling) meant that scoring was usually in extras in the early stages, nine (8 x wd, 1 x nb) off the first over! Charles fell for his now customary single figure score, but Jeremy was hitting boundaries to all parts before trying one too many. Father and son duo, Mike and Richard, looked solid and runs came at a fast pace until Richard didn't get hold of one that would usually disappear to the fence. Anthony didn't get in, but Rohan made 9 before the close of the innings on 132 for 4.

Rohan and Richard opened up in their usual fashion, kept it tight and finished with combined figures of 3-54, a good start to the innings. From there the fact we only had 9 fielders began to show as misfields crept in, but otherwise the fielding was good. The problem comes when the ball clears both the fielders and the boundary, it doesn't matter how many you've got then! Robbie was putting the ball on the spot and picked up a wicket, bowled, and also two run outs at the bowlers end, good thing the batsmen were up the other end of the pitch at the time. Luckily for Will his average has gone down, even if his economy rate is climbing, 2-51 from 4.4 overs tells the story. Eight wickets down, the winning runs were hit in the penultimate over. A bit of luck going our way (or having 11 players) and they could have been all out twenty runs before. AH

Thursday 16th June

Away v Heads & Tails

Heads and Tails are a "new" team on our fixtures card this season, however the faces aren't. They play at Newton Rec so it means that it's easy to score runs, not so easy to take wickets. Batting first saw a new opening partnership in the form of Charles and Anthony, it worked ... for a bit. Scoring was brisk and with good running between the wickets, Anthony fell for 22. Mike wasn't due to come in until No. 5 so Colin and Dave Lacey above him tried to fill their boots; Colin (64) did but Dave (4) didn't. When Mike did get in there was only 7 or so overs remaining, but some controlled hitting (and some not so controlled hitting) from Colin and Mike brought Cheriton to a respectable total of 146, even though Colin was caught behind off the last ball of the innings.

It was a good start from Anthony with the ball, but not so good from Andy who was quickly replaced by Colin. Wickets were hard to come by but none the less came at regular intervals, usually at the end of an over (and more often than not at the end of a spell). Charles took two catches, one on the boundary and one in the square, while Anthony (now behind the stumps) held on to one off Will. Colin's bowling also returned a catch for Robbie. Andy's comeback over was tighter and tricky for the batsmen, and Charlie also caused the batsmen some problems, but was a little expensive.

All this combined with good fielding, however, was not good enough to restrict the opposition enough as there was still just under three overs remaining when the winning runs came. AH

Sunday 19th June

Away v Nomansland NDL

On a day when doing nothing made you break out into a sweat, it was going to be an important toss to win. Charles' lost it! So we took to the field against an under strength and undermanned Nomansland (Witheridge II for the uninitiated).
After much deliberation Ted and Phil chose which end they would bowl from, and for once they both got it right. The first 10 overs brought very little runs, but no wickets - well we've become accusted to that now! Both bowlers bowled very well, beating the bat on numerous occasions. However, it was the out of form Will who finally broke through, with a ball that came off thigh and gloves to clip the top of the bails. Will then relaxed and bowled as we know he can do, swinging the ball markedly.This he did to such great effect, that his second wicket took out the off stump as the batsman watched in disbelief, thinking the ball was well outside the line.
9-2-18-2 was a great return, and will hopefully be the start of another successful season for Will with the ball.
Robbie's figures were equally as impressive, as he continued the good form of recent weeks. Andy was unlucky not to get in amongst the wickets, but still bowled a very good spell which at times had the batsmen, including their opener and top scorer, getting tied up in all sorts of knots! All five bowlers returned very good figures and reduced Nomansland to 120 all out (for 9).
Thankfully the temperature had dropped dramatically and cloud had rolled in, and it looked at one stage as if we might see some rain. Still there was always the England game on in the clubhouse. The rain stayed away but the majority of our players stayed to watch us thrash the Aussies rather than cheer their own side on!
Mike and Charles opened, and pushed things round quite comfortably. With a run rate of slightly more than 2.5 an over, this was always going to be a stroll in the park, so to make things interesting Brent gave the captain out LBW. This brought a flurry of wickets, as Anthony was unlucky to get caught and bowled off a well hit shot from his very meaty bat, and Mike was tempted into a half volley and was caught at gully. Brent then swung at the slow lofted bowling of Witheridge captain Andy Crossman and was bowled. Disappointment was etched on his face as he replayed the shot and wondered why it hadn't sailed over the clubhouse as he intended.
So it was down to the rearguard of old, ie Phil and Steve to guide us home. Charles, now umpiring, was heard pleading with batsmen, and I quote " for Gods sake don't lose this now"! He had little to worry about as both batsmen kept their heads (and wickets), with Phil getting a 50, very happy to accept alot of leg side deliveries which he despatched to the boundary with regularity. In fact 40 of his 54 not out came in boundaries. The rest of the team had by now come out to join the scorer (well done Andy) as England (well Pietersen) had won the ODI.
So a good day all round. We're now reaching the heady heights of mid table. Things might be a bit tougher next week as we (the lucky ones) travel to the Valley of the Rocks to face top of the table Lynton & Lynemouth, one of only two teams in all five divisions who still have a 100% record. PC