Match Report

It was the first real day of summer. The sun beat down and the ground looked fantastic, very difficult to believe for those of us who had 'enjoyed' the conditions at Castle Rising only 6 days earlier. Hetairoi fielded a side comprised of 9 regulars and a couple of ringers from Oriel, Martin White and Jez Pilch. St Johns won the toss, elected to insert and were rewarded with the wicket of White in the first over. This was swiftly followed by a 2nd with Michael Pennington falling for a disappointing 9. However, the fall of Pennington lead to the start of the partnership that was to dominate the game, between Tim Greenwood and Pilch.

An early indication of the change in conditions from the previous weekend was provided when a beautifully timed forward push from Greenwood raced over the perfectly manicured turf for four. Soon the ball was soon being dispatched to all parts with considerable vigour, particularly from the broad blade of Pilch. As a result of their sustained assault an astonishing 182 were added in only 22 overs (a new Hetairoi record for 3rd wicket and the 2nd highest ever) , during which time St Johns tried 9 bowlers. At this point, with the score on 209 after 30 overs, Tim felt that it was time to let others take a turn on the fine batting track and agreed with the St Johns skipper that both batsmen should retire. Tim ended on 53* whilst Jez outscored him by more than 2:1 in amassing his unbeaten 132, scored off only 86 balls (balls faced in reaching his 100 not available at time of going to print). Whilst Tim asserted that his was purely an altruistic gesture aimed at ensuring an early season batting opportunity for his teammates, the more cynical amongst us did wonder whether he was protecting his Hetairoi record score of 156* which, based upon his then rate of progress, Jez would probably have surpassed after only a couple more overs! As it was his 132* equals the 8th highest score made for Hetairoi (interestingly having been made twice before). Having got his unexpected chance, Boyle, after sitting for some time with his pads on watching the carnage, registered the inevitable duck, following which Derek Greenwood and David Freedman, returning to a rather more subdued scoring rate, took the score onto the declaration total of 228 of 36 overs with the additional loss of Derek's wicket.

In commencing their reply it became apparent that St John's early batting had more quality than their bowling and they made an assured start in seeing off both openers (Slade & Andrews) without any alarms. However, the introduction of White into the attack induced one to hole out to Slade at extra cover and the crucial breakthrough was made. The dam having been broken, wickets continued to fall at regular intervals and St John's realistic hopes of saving the game probably disappeared when the remaining opener having made 45ish received a juicy long hop from Lambert. He probably could have hit it anywhere, but instead mysteriously decided to clip it straight into Andrews' midriff at mid-on. From this point Greenwood shuffled his bowlers and was rewarded with wickets for Slade, Freedman and White(bowling spin this time) and St. John's were finally all out for 118 with half a dozen of the 20 overs remaining.