Energy Exiles Cricket Club

Match Summary: vs. Wealdstone Corinthians, Sunday, 06 Jul 2008

Ground: King's House Sports Ground
Captain: Andrew Wingfield
Match type: 32 overs
Toss: Exiles elected to field
Weather: Cloudy, damp pitch
Opposition: Wealdstone Corinthians scored: 163 all out (26.1 overs)
Exiles Score: 110 all out (31.1 overs)
Result: Lost by 53 runs
Man of the match: Jasper Searle 24 runs

Wealdstone Corinthians continued their recent hold over the Energy Exiles with an impressive 53 run win.

Having rained significantly early on Sunday morning, many players on both sides expected the game to be called off. However, on this occasion, the Chiswick groundsman obviously hadn't bothered to get out of bed to lock up the ground - and so, when the rain relented, and a 9 man Wealdstone team finally arrived at the ground having been stuck in traffic, the game started - hastily re-arranged as a 32 over affair.

Andy won the toss - that's 7 in a row this season now - and the Exiles elected to field in damp conditions. With a certain Jeffrey Hilson's late withdrawal due to a sudden late bout of 'Afghanitis', the Exiles were only able to manage a 10 man side themselves.

The Corinthians batters quickly showed their intentions by trying to hit every ball - whether straight, on a length, or neither - into the Thames. Moderate success was achieved off the regular opening pair of Andy and Naren - though the later did manage one wicket - as one of the openers was surprisingly comfortably taken by Amil at wide slip.

With Andy having bowled 4 wicketless overs, Marcin Zieleniewski was introduced into the attack - fresh from an impressive spell of bowling in league cricket the previous day. However this time our Polish team-mate was a little out-of-sorts, grumbling frequently as his body struggled to cope with the rigours of bowling a cricket ball on consecutive days and he was dispatched to various parts of the boundary with regularity. He did pick up one wicket though and another inroad for the Exiles was achieved by debutant Stephen Darke's direct hit from square leg.

Only further wickets would now do for the Exiles though, as the Corinthians run-rate was soaring and it was Nat Duke - in his second Exiles appearance - who duly obliged; after what turned out to be the Corinthians top-scorer was inexplicably dropped by keeper Wil when on about 18, Nat picked up 2 quick wickets - both caught by Wil, who was clearly keen to make amends. However the Corinthians star batter remained and smashed an astonishing-in-the-conditions 22 ball half-century; food for thought for Exiles batters certainly. He had offered a few other chances - a very difficult steepler, which James Glover did well to get hands to, and an easier one which was put down by Marcin at midwicket - though difficult light and a swirling wind were moderate mitigating circumstances for the very self-critical Pole. But his 50 punished some wayward, and some not so wayward bowling by Arnie and Jasper as the Corinthians built an impressive score. Mention goes to Stephen Darke for an excellent diving catch at midwicket to give Jasper a wicket during this phase.

Under pressure from the continuing fast scoring, Andy brought himself back into the attack earlier than planned and finally picked up another wicket for the Exiles, before he turned to Marcin for another spell. Never can a bowler have looked so unenthusiastic for a bowl, as he noted that the half-centurion was on strike. However a swing and a nick and the final wicket was achieved as the ball slid through to Wil to round off the innings. Wealdstone were all out for 163 with fully 5.5 overs unused.

Let off over 5 overs in the field, a touch of optimism was allowed to enter the Exiles batters' minds, but a sharp tea-time shower quickly dampened spirits. In more difficult circumstances, initially Wil and James batted stoutly, but reasonably quickly were ousted by the lively Wealdstone attack. Missing Wakeel Shah, a certain Wali Shah - no idea if they are related or not - started bowling - and with no lack of pace either.

Desperately out of form, Amil wasn't able to put up much resistance, and Stephen was also unable to back up an impressive fielding performance with any significant runs.

Jasper turned out to be the man to give the Exiles innings some much-needed impetus, with the ball cracking off the bat with regularity. With Andy looking reasonably solid at the other end, there might have been a glimmer for the Exiles. However this was quickly extinguished as Jasp ran himself out - looking for a 3rd run that was never there.

Extremely accurate bowling accounted for much of the rest of the Exiles batting; whilst Wali was quick at one end, it was his steadier partner at the other end who finished with 4 wickets. The most controversial of which was the triggering of Marcin, given LBW by Wil from the most apathetic of appeals by the Wealdstone team. Whilst Marcin was reasonably far forward, it did look pretty straight and hit him pretty low down. However the lack of appeal might have been a saving grace. It wasn't on this occasion, and Marcin stormed off, understandably irked.

Fading light and a slightly generous Wealdstone captain allowed Arnie and Naren some slogs against some part time bowling late on, but the damage was done. At least they took the Exiles past the hundred mark - for the first time in 3 outings against the Corinthians.

Fast bowlers, accurate seamers and a variety of spin bowlers - Wealdstone clearly have an abundance of players to choose from.

Disappointing defeat though this undoubtedly was for the Exiles, at least a game was fitted in - which looked unlikely for much of the morning. Hopefully with the return of 5 or 6 regulars in the upcoming weeks, a few more wins can be registered.

On the back of an impressive innings of 24 - more for the quality rather than the quantity of his runs, Jasper gets the man-of-the-match.

Report By: Andy Wingfield

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