IT is not often that a cricket match is done and dusted within the first half hour.
However, Sporting Club Franูais had effectively beaten the Caesareans well within that time at Grainville in the final of the Seniors’ Knock-out Cup Competition after reducing them to three for three after five overs, four for six after eight overs on Saturday afternoon.
‘They won the toss and batted, which is what we would have done,’ said Sporting Club’s captain, Matt Hague.
‘But 108 on that wicket was never going to be enough.
Mark Reynolds bowled eight overs for two runs and, at the other end, Nick Jewell was almost as economical.
I think at one time they’d scored 20 runs in 20 overs.
We knew, once we went into bat, if we got to 50, the match would be virtually over.
‘It was a good wicket with a slow outfield.
It was only fair that Mark (Reynolds) was named man of the match, for the start he gave us.
Fergus (Gibson) batted well, but in the end he ran out of partners.’ By the end of the Caesareans’ innings Gibson, who scored a clinical 56 not out, had run out of partners, and with the exception of captain Meeku Patidar, with whom Gibson shared a fifth wicket partnership of 70, the rest of the batting fell away tamely.
In a 40-over game, the Caesareans finally capitulated in the 37th when a tremendous catch by Paul Carberry saw Dave Gascoyne, the last Caesarean batsman, go for eight.
Caesareans weren’t helped, either, by going into the match with only ten men.
So, when it was Sporting Club’s turn to bat, they could do so knowing that they had the time - and ability - to play themselves in.
Both Matt Hague and Steve Carlyon did just that.
In the first few overs they rarely looked for boundaries, and had moved on to just 28 for 0 after nine overs.
After that both batsmen consciously began to take the bowling apart - especially against the spinners.
Within a 20 minute spell the score went fron 28 for nought after nine overs to 44 for nought after 11; 59 for nought after 12 and 78 for nought after 16.
Hague clubbed his way to his 50 not out with a thumping six before Carlyon put the Caesareans out of their misery with an easy four in the 22nd over to bring the score to 111.
‘We went from 28 to 58 in the space of three overs,’ said Hague.
‘But all of the work had been done beforehand.
Mark won this game for us; eight overs, six maidens and two wickets is a tremendous achievement at any level of the game.’ At the FB Fields Old Victorians enjoyed a comfortable victory in the Plate final, beating Old Codgers by 111 runs.
Batting first, OVs first three men hit half centuries, Jonny Gough 78, Chris Jones 67 and Tom Perchard 62 in their total of 258 for three.
Sam Dewhurst took five wickets for 19 as Old Codgers’ reply ended on 147 for 9, Dave Buxton top-scoring with 31.
In Division II Springfield made it ten victories out of ten league matches with a 116-run win over Old Victorians Res.
Springfield made 202-9 in their 40 overs, Alan Lesbirel top-scoring with 63 not out.
Richard Parker made a quick-fire 34.
Lee Meloy bowled for OVs, taking three wickets.
OVs were bowled out for just 86 in 30 overs, with Tim Kearsey taking four wickets for just 11 runs from his five overs.
Wayne Summers had a brilliant day for Sporting Club Reserves, hitting 102 of a 283 total against St Brelade, then taking two wickets for three runs.
Sporting won by 101 runs, with St Brelade youngster Miles Landick hitting an unbeaten 47.
Article posted on 23rd August, 2004 - 12.00am
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