Burton Leonard vs Ripley

Ripley 139 all out
BLCC 142-3

On the back of five straight victories interrupted only by the weather, Burton Leonard’s 1st XI turned up to Peter Lane with an air of calm confidence. After a spectacular Twenty20 tournament last Sunday the focus was back on 45 over cricket and on continuing the winning streak. With the gap between Burton and second placed Helperby at 9 points, and the two sides meeting next week, nothing but a win would do.

Skipper Neil Blaken decisively won the toss, and given the atmospheric conditions and the green tinge to the pitch, the choice to field first was made much to the delight of the home side’s bowling attack.

Following last week’s good performance in the field at Middleham, despite the dropped catches, an early breakthrough was hoped for. Rob Murray responded with the 4th ball of his second over, a quicker one just short of a length that the batsman guided into the waiting hands of keeper James Townsend. An outrageous prediction of 5-3 came from the inner circle, and despite the best efforts of Murray, whose next ball was a rank long hop, the number 3 seemed only too happy to prove Nostradamus correct. Mickey Wray took a good catch at point, and Ripley lower order batsmen went scurrying for their pads. The last ball of the over was, by all accounts, the perfect late away-swinger, and could only be nicked to second slip Dan Thirkell, who did the honours and provided Murray with his first hat-trick, leaving the visitors on 5-3.

Several overs passed as the batsmen attempted to rebuild the innings, but the persistence of Mark Fox paid off, and he was rewarded with a sharp stumping from Townsend. The floodgates appeared to have opened once again when Dan Thirkell came on at the pavilion end and duly made a mess of the batsman’s stumps with his first ball.

Alas, a more successful period of reconstruction ensued, and the score began to tick along, albeit slowly. Thirkell and Blaken began to turn the screw, and the pressure was all too much for the non striker, who called opening batsman through for an impossible single to Mickey Wray, who was all too happy to send Biker back to the pavilion after a measured knock of 40.

Wickets fell at regular intervals, and although some batsmen seemed intent on scoring from thick edges, the bowling point was never really in any doubt, Fox claiming a deserved second wicket, and Thirkell returning with a good lbw and later shattering the stumps twice more to end with impressive figures of 4-15. The visitors closed on 139 all out, and all were treated to a marvellous tea.

Burton openers Craig Eustace and Wray set about chasing the modest total, but in the second over the probability of an upset increased from 0 to 0.05%, when Wray edged his first ball to the keeper. Eustace and Stansfield put this right, latching on to some short, wide bowling, and Burton moved on. Eustace was however next to fall, in almost identical fashion to Wray, bringing Thirkell to the crease. Thirks soon departed, not without scoring a classy boundary and having some words with the Ripley fielders after his dismissal. Mike Crawshaw joined Stansfield at the crease, and no more chances were offered. Both batsmen were selective in their approach, selecting with ruthless efficiency which balls to send to the boundary. The only remaining competition was that between Stansfield and Crawshaw to see who would reach their half century first.

Both threatened to share the runs left to knock off without either of them reaching the landmark, until Crawshaw took a fancy to the tennis courts and powered to his fifty, ending on 52 not out with a straight six, Stansfield closing on a good 43 not out.

Six wins in a row then, and next week’s visit to Helperby could prove to be the defining match of the season.

This entry was posted on Monday June 22nd, 2009 at 11:00 AM and is filed under Sport. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response.

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