Leigh V Oakamoor match report On a blustery day that threatened rain at any point and with forecasts suggesting a full day’s play would not be available. The injured but still playing Captain Cotto wanted to win the toss and put the opposition in, hope to skittle them out and get the runs before the rain came. So it was Joe Gallimore and Stu Nash who opened the batting for Leigh. Joe looked in good form and rattled up a quick 17 before his departure, guiding a ball directly to the keeper, after which Stu and Ben Gallimore put on 84. Stu eventually out for 37 having looked very comfortable. Runs were coming fast and with no pressure to grind Leigh’s batting flourished. Ben was out for 55 and there were important cameo’s from Nash Jr and Wilko taking the total to 182 off 25 overs. With the Chairman padded up, steely glint in his eye and poised to make a decisive impact, Cotto promptly declared. I have to say that the bowling was accommodating. It wasn’t their best bowling line up and with the strong wind dislodging the bails frequently their bowlers were providing our batsmen with plenty of opportunity for easy runs. We went straight into their innings and after some initial reluctance to volunteer their wickets, Oakamoor were soon showing the sort of resistance one might find from a bride on her wedding night. There were four caught behind, Nashy dropped two at first slip but between them took a snorter from Bobby with his right hand. It was a good height but shifting and was one of the contenders for catch of the season. He also had a regulation second catch as did Joe and John Durose. It was Bobby and Nashy who took the wickets with four and six respectively. Joe Gallimore came on for an over before tea was taken with six wickets down, but looked so painfully inept that Cotto (quite rightly) decided that he didn’t deserve another over. It was little unsettling having to take tea as the clouds had been looking troublesome all day and with the match nearly in the bag we wanted to finish it off. Fortunately the weather held off and we were able to get back out to finish the match off. All in all as easy a victory as I’ve seen this season. Their bowling was pretty poor – our sometimes erratic batting needed a sterner test than was being offered if Oakamoor planned to get anything out of the game. Our bowling was good. Our fielding tight and energetic and the victory and 25 points were wrapped up by 5.10pm – too early for the Star or the Farmers to open their doors so the book examination took place at the Green Man. Man of the match was given to David Nash for his six wickets though Ben Gallimore was a contender with his half century. Champagne moment had a few contenders; Cotto taking off Joe after one over (which even the Umpire took the piss out of him for), Cotto being a non-playing Captain being another, but the clear winner was Ben Gallimore. Ben had strode onto the outfield as we started Oakamoor innings with his helmet on and with great purpose positioned himself within three feet of the batsmen for the entire innings. He eventually took a catch after some indifferent fielding but his major contribution was more of a passive nature. Nashy bowled an off-side half volley and the batsman finally spotted a relief from the pressure and launched his bat at it. He struck it sweetly and the ball flew at Ben’s head like a rocket. To his credit he didn’t flinch but then again he didn’t have time to. He looked like a crouching Easter Island Moai as the ball cannoned into his helmet just to the left of his forehead’s centre. He was unmoved - the irresistible object had met the unmovable force. The ball ballooned up to a startled Wilko who took the catch at cover. Leigh fielding at its best. MTR
Posted on: Sat, 17 Aug 2013 18:28:35 +0000
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