Alveley Over 45s v Bedouins at Alveley – Sunday, 23 May 2010

Bedouins won by 10 wickets

It was a sunny and very hot recreation ground at Alveley that hosted this Sunday fixture against Alveley Over 45s. Originally intended to be a 40 over-a-side game it was agreed that due to the heat it would be reduced to 25 overs.

Alveley batted first and got off to a flying start. Pearson and George opened the bowling and got some stick from the Alveley batsmen which resulted in Alveley making 51 for the loss of one wicket off the first 8 overs. At this point it looked like the Beds were going to be chasing a hefty score.  George had removed the dangerous Mick Wall earlier but Pike and Butler were still clocking up the runs.

The first bowling change heralded a complete change in the game. Dewinski removed Butler in his first over and after that Alveley started to capitulate. The bowling and the wickets were shared around  – Dewinski weighed in with 2 for 9 from his 4 overs, Susman 2 for 10 and Johnston 1 for 5 but the plaudits went to Gregory with 2 for 2 and debutant Matt Hall with 2 for 1, one of which was Pike who had a great knock of 46 for Alveley.

Alveley were eventually all out for 94 in the 22nd over. Strangely eight of the Alveley wickets were clean bowled, the other two went to good catches (yep, things are looking up) from Bywater and Hancock. The champagne moment as far as fielding goes was Skipper for the day, George, leading by example and making a highly athletic stop at square leg when he looked to have been wrong-footed.

There’s not really much you can say about the batting performance apart from it was outstanding. Branch and Hall opened and finished the game off in the 16th over with 32 from Branch and a powerful display and some big hitting from Hall to finish on 52. An impressive debut from the youngster and hopefully we can secure his services again.

All in all an excellent day. Alveley looked after us well and they have some great facilities there. We’ll look forward to playing them again next season. From a personal point of view it is always great to play on the ground where my talents (or lack of) were nurtured as a youngster and to still see some of the old faces playing the game. Long may it continue.