Sat 24th May
Slaithwaite 214 vs Lepton 66
The Highlanders of Lepton were Saturday’s visitors to Fortress Hill Top. Rumours of a player exodus / absence, plus some very poor results suggested that Lepton might not be too competitive. On arrival, it was noted that most of their team was made up of previously 2nd team players.
Having won the toss The Welshman chose to bat and after a first wicket stand of 103 between The Bhavnagar Bicep and The Double-Agent we looked on course for a decent score. However, Lepton stuck to their task admirably and made it difficult with their slow stuff and mostly accurate lines.
Contributions from Agent Keeling 34, Bez 22 and the Skip 26 took the score to 192-3 with Kanay still at the wicket, and with the score at 209 when the 4th wicket fell there was still plenty of wood in the tent to post a 270+ score, so for the last 6 wickets to muster only 5 runs was somewhat disappointing.
Credit must go to Lepton who, having suffered some big defeats recently and considering the good start we had, showed exemplary character to see the innings through given the position they are in.
However, it was all in vain as The Accidental Angler was at his miserly best removing batsmen 1 and 3 without scoring. Ian Cooper managed to hold out for 9 overs before contributing to the score and, when the former Merrydown magician decided that the non-striker’s end was the place to be when Killer was wanging them down, turned down an easy single and ran out bread-thief Clark who had already run one and a half.
However, Master Clark can go back to the colonies with his head held high as he now holds the world record for uttering the most expletives from crease to shower (which will probably make him Mayor of Australia).
The two old ‘un’s, Cooper and Brian Close, then combined to hoover up some overs without any sign of run-scoring intent despite constant reminders from The Bicep that “it not test match?” Hmm, the words pot, kettle and black spring immediately to mind. It didn’t last long as Killer snapped up his 3rd and 4th wickets either side of Triso’s 1st, and then Pipes got in on the action nicking 2 late wickets (all bowled) with his in-swingers.
Triso and The Troutman mopped up the bits to close Lepton’s reply on 66, the latter finishing with figures of 13-7-23-5. Other points of note included The Delph Dingle managing to hang on to 2 good catches despite his head being inside-out after pissing it up on Friday with their Shadrack, and after last week’s flagrant flouting of the Public Loving Act 2008 FS Turner was, once again, in direct contravention of said Act with some completely unnecessary on-field cuddling and has been fined accordingly.