Honiton CC 2nd XI vs Bridestowe 2nd XI - 13/06/15

Post date: Jun 14, 2015 9:30:32 AM

Week 7 brought another road trip, this time to Honiton.  With a strong team, skipper Lee Jutson maintained his 100% winning record on the away toss and didn't hesitate in putting the lace men in on yet another damp and drying track.  The new ball was again taken by Jutson and Tim Shaw with the usual effect. Honiton openers, Beignton and Potter were wary of the variable bounce and played with ultimate caution as Shaw and Jutson joined up the dots and the scorers having little to do.  At 12 overs, the score was 21 and Jutson turned to a fresh pair of bowlers to try to winkle out a wicket.  Beignton always looked like a run-out candidate and sure enough, a confused single saw a sharp run out with Boother having time to analyse the situation before rightly deciding to sling the ball to keeper Pat Ewen who duly obliged by whipping off the bails.  This brought the big hitting Canniford to the crease who wasted no time launching anything with width and using his feet to come down the wicket to the new left arm bowling combination of Tom Boother and Dave Jopling.  Boother was the main target and Canniford's lusty blows soon had the scoreboard moving whilst at the same time offering chances including a regulation leading edge going to Neil Griffiths early who looked convincing getting to the ball before inexplicably then dropping it.  This led to skipper Jutson taking off the suffering Boother and giving Neil the opportunity to make amends by putting him on to bowl down the hill with the score on 70-1 the visitors starting to think they were staring down the barrel of a 250 plus total to chase.  Griffiths soon made amends and chucked down a wobbly full toss, the stubborn opener Potters eyes lighting up before missing the ball which crashed into middle stump ending a stubborn innings of 34.  The Jopling metronome was ticking at the other end and Canniford's luck ran out as he swished and missed once too often and was bowled top of off stump after a quick-fire 44.  This brought a calamitous collapse with Jutson, Shaw, Boother, Jopling and Griffiths all bowling magnificently to blow away the middle and bottom order ending the lace mens innings at an eminently gettable 119 all out with 12 overs to spare.

After what was generally agreed to be the finest tea thus far, the recovering Batstone was joined in the middle by the promoted Dave Jopling who having demonstrated his stickability low down the order, agreed to swap places with the ever moaning Ewen to face the new cherry.  Honiton's opening pair of Tansley and Brinsford showed control and pace giving little for Batstone and Jopling to hit however confidence was growing further back in the Hutch as over after over ticked by with Batsone and Jopling doing a great job seeing off the dangerous opening bowling combination.  After 10 overs, Batsone and Joping had not even changed ends and aside from one 2 hit through the covers by Batstone, the only runs had come from nicks which the well-packed Honiton slip cordon failed to stop as they raced to the 3rd man boundary.  It was the 12th over with the score on 19 when Batstone was adjudged to be trapped lbw, a surprising decision given that he was standing at least another set of stumps down the leg side at the time.  Buzz Brimacombe was then the first....but not the last, Bridestowe batter to play around a straight one and Jopling soon followed, ending an effective defensive innings.  As Tansley and Brinsford finished their spell, Bridestowe were very confident at 30-3 and looking forwards to the change bowlers.  Pat Ewen was a little too confident with his 'every ball is a coconut' approach as he was duly caught after smashing 3 fours, 45-4.   Confidence grew still further as Shaw and Griffiths took the score to 93 and Bridestowe were clearly eyeing up the bar and another good win.  This was not to be as a succession of poor shot selection and poor execution saw a collapse that eclipsed that of Honiton and Holliday, Lee, Boother and Jutson all fell cheaply, leaving the bemused Charlie Ewen stranded not out at the other end.

A hugely disappointed Bridestowe and an understandably delighted Honiton will both reflect on a day where bowlers were on top and with a bye next week, the BCC middle order will need to learn not to take anything for granted and apply themselves better in a game that demonstrated that a win can never be taken for granted and they can't leave the run scoring to 'somebody else'.