In and Out, The Tale of the Sam Allen Bench
Milton 1sts vs. Great Chishall 1sts
Milton 174 vs. Great Chishall 145
With the last game Milton played being a loss to Girton and the rained off game which proceeded that, this game took an extra dimension with Milton requiring a win on order to keep up the chase for promotion. The conditions seemed to favour the bowlers, with overhead conditions being overcast and the pitch slow and low due to the wet weather throughout the week.
The Milton line up was: 1. S. Allen 2. J. Major 3. A. Misra 4. G. Newton 5. J. Amphlett 6. N. Seaman 7. D. Clark 8. R. Carey 9. S. Costan 10. M. Barton 11. D. Costan A fairly batting orientated line up with only the specialist numbers 10 and 11 Mark and Dan being the only ones not considered being able to bat although Mark would dispute that and Dan would discuss his square drive for his single. Any score around 170/ 180 would be a good score and very defendable.
Jez lost the toss and Milton were put into bat on the damp Milton wicket, the first over was a great start with Sam getting off the mark and Jez scoring runs freely from the off with a 2 and then his first 4. Jez raced onto 30 in the first 9 overs before being pinned in the first over of the change bowler. During this quick innings Jez had played some exquisite shots, with repeated off drives right back past the bowler as well as his trademarked flick off leg stump for four. The score was 44 for 1 after 9 overs when he went. Ash entered the crease and continued where Jez had left off manoeuvring the ball around the field and dispatching the bad balls which came his way, but 5 overs later Sam got a leading edge and clipped tamely back to the bowler and after 13 overs went for 7. Ash and Gray lasted a few overs together before Ash fell on 23 at deep mid-wicket after attempting to play his favoured slog sweep for six with the Great Chishall fielder clinging on well. Gray and John then built a solid partnership of just under 50 before Gray fell for 20, out with a second caught and bowled from Great Chishall. Soon after John followed on 20 getting caught as well. Nick Seaman and Dave Clark were the last of the decent contributions from the Milton batsmen with Nick scoring a hard hitting 30 and Dave doing what he does best at the end of an innings and knocked the ball around intelligently as well as departing the bad balls. The last 3 wickets fell for 1 run with Ryan, Mark, Simon all going with the score on 173 before Dan played a supreme square drive which was stunningly stopped by a diving Great Chishall fielder but otherwise looked destined to race away, like a cheetah chasing a antelope for four.
During this time a bench had been dedicated the memory of Sam Allen getting runs. May Sam getting above 10 rest in peace, lol. Only joking mate, the runs will come, not very quickly but maybe eventually, lol. Love it!!!
The Great Chishall innings started with the pitch being in a similar condition to when Milton’s innings had begun although it did have a degree of damage on it due to the natural wear and tear that a pitch has to deal with throughout a cricket match.
With the return of Carey after a brief spell on the side lines due to pulling up in training with a shoulder injury, the usual opening bowling attack of Costan and Carey took the new ball with immediate consequences for Great Chishall. Dan bowled a maiden to start the Great Chishall innings and then after a wide and a no ball Carey picked up the first wicket of the Great Chishall innings with the Great Chishall batsmen going on the drive, yet only chipped it to John at point and he held a straight forward catch to his left hand side. In the next over Dan picked up the next wicket with the remaining Great Chishall batsmen chipping to the other Costan cousin Simon for Dan’s first wicket. Ryan’s next couple of overs went by without any real problems for any one and Dan bowled a maiden before in his fourth over picking up another wicket, this time the batsmen nicked the ball behind to Dave Clark who held a simple catch. Nick replaced Carey and set about his task well, causing problems for the Great Chishall batsmen, and Mark replaced Dan to pick up a wicket in his second over with yet another catch by Dave behind the sticks. The Great Chishall captain A. Gent had begun to build an innings though and in Marks third over dispatched him for 2 6’s and a four. Simon came on to bowl at Mark’s end and picked up a wicket for himself, a LBW which was actually given. Ash was bowling at this time from the Tesco end and was turning the ball around corners, with none of the Great Chishall batsmen or any of the Milton side themselves having any idea what he was going to bowl next. With this came the problems though, after some dodgy umpiring decisions Ash began to get a little angry, twinned with his normal exited behaviour the Great Chishall players began to take some offence. Dan came back on and cleaned the tail of Great Chishall up finishing with fine figures of 4 for 23. Great Chishall were angry at the result in this match but this could also be due to the fact that Milton have thrashed them both times we have played them, with both matches having Great Chishall in semi-decent positions before Milton had battled back to defeat them. As in last time when Milton had the giant trophy to take home, Milton this time had 20 hard worked and hard won points to take home, and keep the chase for promotion alive.
Another good match from two sides battling for a second successive promotion. A superb performance from the Great Chishall captain who bowled 12 overs and picked up 3 wickets before going on to make 53 with the bat as well. He without argument was the one thing which kept Great Chishall in the match, but on this day he was just not capable of being able to claw his side to victory as the Milton machine rode on to another victory. With the bat though Milton had a mixed afternoon with 6 batsmen getting to twenty yet none getting above 30, more batsmen will be required to go on to bigger scores if Milton are going to gain promotion. In the field Milton fielded half decently with 6 wickets being taken via catches, although extras do need to be rained in after 28 were given to Great Chishall, with 10 byes and a combined 15 wides and no-balls.
Writers Man of the Match: Dan Costan for fine figures of 9-3-26-4 and cracked the Great Chishall batting open before finishing off the tail.