Archive for January, 2012

The toss was lost and Aythorpe were inserted by Tillingham. Gravatt and Bridger opened the innings, PG tried to land the ball into the viewing gallery and the ball dropped down to square leg who licked his lips and took the catch. Soon after Bridger paid the price too after forgetting how cold that ball still was and  was caught. This joined Clarke and Blackman together and AC was determined to add another theory about the cold ball. The theory that if you just smack it the temperature has no influence. And with his first two balls going for 6 this seems a fair point. The pair soon retired with Blackers using the side walls and Clarkie carrying on his fine form from last week with another flurry of boundaries.   Clarke did what he could in the last to finish on a smart 51not out.

Tillingham had a target of 133 and Blackers made ARCC history being the first ever player to bowl a wicket maiden indoors for them. No one has even bowled a maiden yet so for him to bowl a wicket maiden was quite incredible. An impressive over with some balls beating both the bat and the gloves.

Ford then struck in his second over with a smart catch from Matt Bridger behind the stumps. Another impressive spell from Ford who thrived on the chance to open the bowling. AJ finished with impressive figures of 1-16 and is becoming a hard man to get off that mat.

Then the ball was thrown to Paul Gravatt who was on a hat trick. Unfortunately an inside edge foiled the hat trick. He was determined to get another go though and a few balls later he struck again hitting middle stump. And number 6 had no chance with Gravatt in the sort of mood that he was, wanting to prove all critics that last week was not lucky. So 6 was bowled too to give him a second chance of a hat trick.

A very close run out finished the match with a lightning throw from man of the moment Andy Clarke. Unfortunately this on top of a great innings of 51 not out was not enough to get man of the match again. Tillingham finished on 85.

• A Clarke 51 no
• S Blackman 38
• P Gravatt 2 for 15
• S Blackman 2 for 23