EMWCC 2’s vs Odiham & Greywell 2's

Skip Trev Foreman lost the toss (yet another fine!) and Eastons were asked to bat on a wicket with more than a little green grass covering and under heavy skies. Froome and Hall opened the bowling for Odiham and soon had the ball swinging and seaming around a lot, but John Sparks and Trev Foreman knuckled down and took the score to 52 for none off 14 overs when John was bowled by Froome for 26 (4 fours).

57 for 1 soon became 74 for 3 and 90 for 4 with Simon Struthers ( 2 ),Ethan Brackstone ( 13 with 3 fours ) and Dave Ling ( 14 with one 4 and a 6) contributing. Father and son combination Adrian and Arthur Lee,batting at 6 and 7,led the recovery with Adrian contributing 30 ( two 6’s and two 4’s) and Arthur 26 ( one 6 and two 4’s )to propel the score to 170 for 6 with the nearly forgotten Trev Foreman keeping one end going whilst the younger men put bat to ball. Both Ben Stanbrough and Matt Cooper died by the sword and a cameo 3 from Trevor Yeates took Eastons to 182 for 8 with Trev Foreman having batted through for 43 not out (four 4’s and another fine!).

A fine tea was consumed and Odiham commenced their innings against the bowling of teenager Ethan Brackstone and ‘young at heart’ Rae Lockyer who soon got his in-swingers going a treat. Man of the match Rae (and proud recipient of the Pink Hat) took the first 4 Odiham wickets to fall and finished with the very impressive figures of 10-2-20-4 whilst 70 odd runs were conceded from the other end.

Arthur Lee replaced Matt Cooper, who had taken over from Ethan, and bowled a hostile spell of fast bowing, swinging the ball away from the bat, to stifle the flow of runs and finishing with the impressive figures of 7-3-16-1. Runs kept flowing and by the end of the 40th over Odiham had progressed to 178 for 6 with victory in sight and Hall senior going well for Odiham with 40 to his name. Ethan Brackstone, in his second spell, bowled exceptionally well with his last and the 41st over going for 1 run.

So with 6 balls remaining Odiham needed 4 to win- Ben Stanbrough kept his cool, bowling a great over with the important run-out of Hall to restrict Odiham to 3 runs and a diving stumping by Dave Ling off the last ball of the 42nd over! Dave Ling had a great match behind the stumps with 3 catches in addition to this vital stumping.

So honours were shared with both Eastons and Odiham securing 16 points.