Burton Leonard 1st XI recorded their fifth win of the season with a comfortable 62 run over Ripley after posting a testing 275-6 thanks to useful contributions from Craig Eustace (68), Neil Blaken (45) and Ben Drummond (76*). Fine bowling from all the bowlers plus a great team effort in the field meant that Ripley could only manage 213-7 in reply after a good effort chasing. Meanwhile the 2nd XI were skittled out for a paltry 23 chasing only 78 to win the game, so the less said about this match the better. However the 3rd XI got back to winning ways against Studley Royal 4ths in the Deer Park, thanks mainly to Kris Burtwistle’s 88 with the bat which allowed Burton to post 197-9. In reply Studley Royal scored 134-7 with Wilf Wigglesworth finishing with magical figures of 3-21 off his 11 overs.
Muzza’s Report
Burton hosted third placed Ripley this Saturday, and, after a two week holiday, the good weather returned to allow 90 overs of cricket.
After skipper Neil Blaken turned up late, even by his own high standards, he lost the toss and Burton were in the not all too unfamiliar position of batting first. The pitch was typical of late, mainly due to the horrendous weather conditions, and was dry and hard underneath a soft top. This was seemingly a bad toss to lose.
Due to the absence of Mickey ‘the Mouse’ Wray, still camping, Craig Eustace and Mike Stansfield resumed their unbroken partnership started last week at Studley. Huge groans of despair echoed about the pavilion arose when it became apparent that the two opening bowlers were dibbly-dobblies, one of them, much to the amusement of the junior members of the club, had the appearance of a well known computer game character. Early uneven bounce was played well by the openers, and was duly noted by the Burton pace quintet.
An early respite was provided when Eustace was dropped off the bowling of Luigi, and Ripley’s fielding exercises prior to the game looked a complete and utter waste of time, becoming ever more apparent throughout the game. Both openers executed near-perfect pull shots to the short boundary, and all looked well. Stanners even treated the fans (a season best attendance of 5) to a master class in quick singles. This was not going to last and it did not. Both openers reverted to type, and the dobblers started to haemorrhage boundaries.
Ripley felt the need to liven things up, so brought on an extra medium paced junior. Craig ‘minus’ Eustace responded, and on the second, third and sixth balls of the over, sent the ball sailing into the tennis courts, reminiscent of Glasshouses earlier in the season.
Minus brought up his fifty with a well timed edge to the third man boundary, and Burton were on 65-0 after the first third. Two dropped catches later, and the breakthrough finally came. Stanners chipped one to mid off, was unsurprisingly dropped, then called for a risky single which was in the end too risky. There was more than a shred of controversy when the bowler did not appear to have control of the ball at the point at which the wicket was broken. 80-1.
Skipper ‘Blakes’ Blaken came to the crease, and began to form a partnership with Minus. Craig was having none of it, and soon played on to his stumps for 68. 101-2. ‘J Dot’ Wilson was the next man in, and never seemed to settle against the awkward off spin of their antipodean. Blakes settled some nerves imitating Eustace in dispatching the Aussie into the tennis complex. It was then noticed that their wicket keeper was standing at an unfashionable angle to the stumps, and it was this that was blamed for his conceding of eight successive byes. In a rehearsal of the main event, J Dot was bowled off a no-ball. Two overs later he was bowled by a legitimate delivery. 133-3 from 30 overs.
Dan Thirkell stayed at the crease for a short but entertaining stay, including a 7. After chipping another of Ripley’s seven bowlers over mid-wicket and running three, the fielders, not content with their dropped catches, gave Thirks four overthrows. A six came off the next ball. Surprisingly, this was not to be the end of spectacular events involving Dan. And so Thirkell departed, understandably making an effort to up the run-rate, which was predicting a score of roughly two hundred, widely believed to be nowhere near enough at Burton. 148-4.
Ben Drummond rectified the situation, and picked up the gauntlet thrown down by Eustace for the most sixes this season. Neil Blaken was bowled for a captain’s knock of 45 by the off-spinner. 186-5.
Chris ‘Cookie’ Parker was next in, and hung around well to let Big Ben continue to demolish the bowling attack. A new young bowler came on at the score box end, and a few onlookers commented that ‘he should have been bowling earlier’. Despite his ridiculously non-justifiable long run up, he proved us wrong with figures of 4-0-41-1.
Cookie defied belief when he was actually caught, and Rob Murray completed the innings with a streaky single to third man. Burton closed on 275-6 with Ben Drummond top-scoring with a swashbuckling 76 not out. I am reliably informed that, if dropped catches were worth a run apiece, they would have outscored the groundsman. ‘Pick’ of the bowlers was the Aussie, who took 4 for ‘only’ 73.
After a well earned tea, Burton set out to keep Ripley to below 275, and so win the game. ‘A Dot’ was top edged for six in the third over, and when the ball returned from the tennis courts it resembled that of a chewed up dog toy. No swing then. This did not dampen the batsmen’s spirits, who edged their way to 79 before Cookie made the Aussie look a fool by forcing him to mis-time a drive straight back to him. 79-1.
The other opener fought on, deciding that keeping his wicket was more important than keeping with the ever-demanding run rate. Thirks bowled a number of balls which were just too good for the batsmen to get anywhere near, as the number of mowing, airy strokes increased proportionately with the run-rate. Dan eventually got his man, clean bowled. 133-3.
Opening bowler Rob ‘Muzza’ Murray returned with a vengeance, trapping Ripley’s number 4 lbw for just 2. 148-4. Muzza then deceived the persistent opener with a second successive slower ball and was well caught by Neil Carass. 151-5. Wilson, Thirkell and Blaken then bowled well enough to force the remaining batsmen to play for the point, which they would not get without a huge scare from Thirks.
The tail-enders thought it would be a good idea to attack Thirkell, who responded to an uppish but nonetheless powerful drive by clinging on to a spectacular diving catch whilst travelling in the wrong direction in his follow through. 209-6. Next ball the new man somehow played onto the stumps, and a rare hat-trick attempt was made. 209-7. The vultures circled, three slips a gully and silly mid off all in place. The ball struck the pad, the vultures squawked, and the appeal was deemed not out.
The distant rain threatened to make six hours hard work all pointless, so in an effort not to be banned by the match official, the skipper upped the over-rate. Ripley closed on a respectable 213-7 and 5 points were in the proverbial bag. Next week the Burton Broncos travel to Burnt Yates, who only just beat Knaresborough Forest by 205 runs.
Rob Murray
Below are some highlights of the start of the Burton Leonard 1st XI’s innings and although it looks like they were playing a timeless test match, the runs were coming quite quickly.
