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Harberton
versus Stokeinteignhead at Stonehills,
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Harberton
199 for 5 (40 overs)
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Stokeinteignhead
150 all out (38.3 overs)
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Harberton
won by 49 runs
¨
Man of the match: Jack Buckner.
¨
Champagne Moment: Ben Pyke’s
catch at short leg.
After a washout the previous Sunday, Harberton’s cricketers began their 2008 campaign at home
against Stokeinteignhead. Barry Goldsmith had ended
his captaincy reign in 2007 with five successive victories and his successor,
David Cook, was keen that 2008 would develop into a similarly enjoyable and
victorious campaign. Following the tragic death of Jim Maher (a Stoke stalwart)
over the winter, the winner of this biannual fixture is now honoured by
receiving the Jim Maher Cup, and Harberton were delighted to be the first team
to get their hands on the trophy.
Harberton had assembled one of their
stronger sides for this opening fixture and Cook was keen for his batsmen to
get time in the middle with a Shield match just two weeks away. That said it
was a surprise when Stoke captain Russell elected to field first on winning the
toss. The pitch was clearly low and slow but, as any seasoned observer will
know, wickets prepared by Head Groundsman Bill Scott
always play well.
It was the veteran Scott and the
left-handed Charlie Wing who got the first chance to get their eye in. Wing has
not played a full season for five years but intends to this year. His
explosiveness provides the perfect foil to Scott’s sedate mastery of technical
batting. And explode he did, as 3 sixes were launched in the first half a dozen
overs, all off the shocked Putman who was permanently
put out to pasture after his 3 overs disappeared for
27.
The partnership had reached 60 before
Wing (36) tried to smash a ball into a far off kingdom and lost his off stump.
These runs were scored at five an over and this high rate of scoring was to be
maintained throughout the innings as Bob Owers took
his chance at number 3.
Twice Owers was
dropped and both were eminently catchable chances at
mid-off and behind the sticks. However, either side of these and beyond he
looked in tip-top fettle. His cover driving is reminiscent of a bristling Gooch
and he combined well with Scott in their first ever partnership together. Scott
had dropped anchor in making 32 but his first attempt at anything out of the
ordinary saw him hole out to Russell at long on off
Bower (3 for 13) who was the pick of an ordinary attack.
Still, at 118 for 2 and with wickets in
hand, this was Harberton’s opportunity to set a
challenging total and they did not let themselves down. Owers
(48) blossomed with two mighty sixes of his own and Jack Buckner carried on
where he left off in 2007 with a boundary laden 26 as Burton’s bowling went at
9 an over. Even though both men fell in the final furling of the innings, this
gave the ever hopeful Toby Tobias a chance to wield the willow. To his great
pleasure he finally broke 20, finishing on 24 not out with a brutal drive to
the long-off fence.
The final score was 199 for 5 off the
allotted 40 overs and this was an impressive tally
for this time of the year. Encouragingly, although not one man passed 50, each
of the recognised batsmen bar one made solid contributions which will stand
them in good stead for future knocks. Stoke were left to rue the 26 wides which they bowled and their strange reluctance to
change a 6-3 offside field which gifted Harberton at least 30 easy runs.
With both Darren Stibbs
and Matt Culf absent, Buckner (4 for 10) was given a
rare opportunity to open the bowling with Keith Shephard
and he soon had both Stoke openers back in the cabin. First Pyke
gathered in a brilliant reflex catch at silly mid-on to dismiss
Although Bauer (14) and Vallance (44) dug in and eventually latched on to some of
Goldsmith’s shorter deliveries, once both men had fallen to the left-arm double
act of Pyke (1 for 34) and Cook (3 for 36) the game
was over as a meaningful battle. Owers (2 for 16)
became the third left-arm spinner to take wickets and whilst Streather (16) and Russell (27) were briefly successful in
chancing their arm, a required run rate of 8 an over for the final twenty was way
out of reach.
Cook took the opportunity of a guaranteed
easy win to give Tobias a twirl,but when this option
failed to bring proceedings to an end, Buckner claimed two more scalps in
successive balls to record career best figures. Stoke were all out for 150 and
Harberton had claimed a comfortable 49 run win.
Harberton had fielded and batted well in
their first match for 7 months and this augurs well for the rest of the
campaign. Occasionally there was a little ring-rust in the bowling but this
should be ironed out in the next couple of weeks. More worrying was the poor
fitness levels of a couple of the team. Both Owers
and Tobias were pinpointed as the most obvious examples of high lethargy and
winter sloth. The captain has warned them that any repeat of the ruddy
complexions which accompanied their innings will result in Fitness Development
Programmes being issued.