Bedouins v Pedmore – Wednesday 17 July

Bedouins won by 42 runs

What a remarkable game. This was possibly one of the best Bedouins bowling performances ever and will go down in history together with the time Andy Hill took a hat-trick up in Halifax and David Thomas bowled the perfect spell in Worthing.

Pedmore always provide a stiff challenge and this game looked like being no different. Beds batted first and opened with Lippitt and Stanier (despite needing a hip replacement – we let anybody play in our team). The latter was little unlucky to be given out LBW on 4 when he had feathered the ball into his pads, but off he had to trudge. What followed was a fine partnership with Lippitt being joined by Ludlow. Both batsmen look in fine form and managed to find the boundary several times on what is these days a very large ground.

Pedmore were no slouches with the ball and indeed their youngest player, who looked about 12, had the batsmen playing thin air at times. It was great to see.

Not much of any great note happened during the Bedouins innings. Lippitt and Ludlow both retired; Susman continued his miserable form with the bat; Gregory flourished a couple of balls to the boundary before missing a straight one; and it was good to see Hill A back in the Bedouins ranks. His 6 not out together with Bastable’s 2 got Bedouins to a total of 108 for 3.

On the face of it, that didn’t really seem enough of a total to set a team like Pedmore. How wrong can you be?

With Beds being a couple of players light, Brain Pearsall was drafted in for his second appearance. He fits into the side well like he’s always been a Bedouin. He it was who opened the bowling together with Robertson. We we witnessed then was probably the most brutal spell of Bedouins bowling any of us can remember. By the time this pair of opening bowlers had both finished their  four over spells, Pedmore were reeling at 8 for 5. Pearsall was unlucky to only take one wicket, beating the bat on many occasions. He finished 1 for 5. Robertson brought carnage to the Pedmore side and finished with 4 for 7.

That was effectively game over. Only the Pedmore number 8 showed any resistance to a Beds fielding side that was in fine form. There were only a couple of blips. Hill A dropped a dolly and Susman came out in sympathy and also put one down.

It didn’t matter really. Pedmore limped to the final over and finished on 66 for 7. Well I didn’t see that coming.