Post date: May 27, 2018 6:23:29 PM
Courtesy of guest editor, Tim Shaw.
The super two’s had to make the journey to Stover school to play Ipplepen with 10 men due to a last minute drop out. The two’s arrived in good time and strolled out to the artificial wicket with skipper Shaw deciding that if the toss was won he would ‘stick ‘em in’. This decision was not fully supported by the whole team and was much to the disgust of Ryan who clearly had beer on his mind. Win the toss he did and Anthony Juston opened the bowling along with ‘bomber’ Harris and some good tight bowling meant a slow start by the Ipplepen batters on a relatively small pitch. Harris beat the bat on several occasions with the added bounce and lift of the artificial pitch. A dropped catch In the slips seemed to spark a more attacking approach by the Ipplemen men and after a couple of boundaries by Boon and Heath the skipper decided it was time for a change with a double change of Butler and himself. Butler hit good line and length straight away and with the extra swing on a muggy day was causing problems straight away. Shaw (8-0-24-1) was not giving away much at the other end. Shaw bowled Heath for 36 and Butler followed up dismissing Talley for 4 with a smart catch in the slips from Shaw. Butler finishing with impressive figures of 8-1-16-1 and between them had slowed the run rate. Harris (8-0-46-1) and Jopling (8-0-26-1) both owed wickets to the athletic Ryan Lee who assisted in both of their wickets with two well judged catches. Joppers was his usual miserly self not giving much away with some tight lines and slight variation of pace. Buzz came on for the final 4 overs from the top end and bowled a nice spell of 4-0-18-1 dismissing Borraise for 41 with the last ball of the innings leaving Ipplepen finishing on 177-5 after the allotted 40, eminently gettable given the small ground and plastic wicket.
After a fine tea and some debate about who was going to open it was finally decided that after a lot of not out's Neilo and Buzz should give it a whirl. Buzz opted for a measured start whereas Neilo had clearly decided to go on the attack, dispatching one six nearly into Trago Mills. It wasn’t to last long and he soon went, caught on the back foot to one that kept low for 14. Ian Juston made his way to the middle and he and Buzz started to chip away at the young Ipplepen attack, Juston (8) chipped one up to Sampson at midwicket, 37-2 with 8 overs gone. Buzz met the incoming Shaw with the sage advice “take your time and you handle the quickie and I will take on the kids”. Buzz and Shaw started to attack the bowlers moving the score past 100 and Shaw started to get frustrated Buzz told him he couldn’t hit it off the square then dispatched the young bowler for two sixes In a row. “You always get one after drinks” worked yet again as Shaw went for 41 with and Ryan Lee (8) was next to knock off some of the 40 required to win. On a hot day, he hit two 4’s before appearing to get thirsty again and went back to his beer. Jack Shaw did his job by hanging around around for few overs whilst Buzz kept the score ticking over before Shaw was trapped in front. 20 to win and Butler strode out and smacked his 1st ball for 4 in true Butleresque fashion. Buzz was still taking singles and rotating the strike and the end came with a huge straight six from Butler and the game was over with Bridestowe 178 for 5 and Buzz undefeated an outstanding 85. Next week, the super 2’s entertain the as yet unbeaten Lustleigh who are scoring runs for fun, should be interesting they say.
Scoresheet here http://www.play-cricket.com/website/results/3236505