Fixtures and Results

Picture Gallery

Links

Rowlands Castle v Ashling

28th May 2006

Rowlands castle 112 for 7 (Khan 50 no, Edwards 3-11)

Ashling 109 for 9 (Colley 27, Cahpman 5-29)

A tremendous afternoon's cricket saw the initiative changing hands many times during the afternoon, and in the end Ashling had to abandon their quest for the required runs, settling for the draw four short of the target.

After the poor weather earlier in the week all of the players were grateful to be getting a game, but a pre-match inspection of the damp and sticky wicket suggested that it would be a good toss to win. Ashling duly did so and put Rowlands Casle into bat. The decision soon looked a wise one as wickets tumbled with Stuart Edwards (7-1-11-3) and Craig Mason (7-3-11-2) quickly getting into a rhythm. Once Rob Lawrence had chipped in with two wickets and the score stood at 37 for 7 there was already talk in the field of a beer match. The unbeaten eighth wicket stand of 75 between Nas Khan (50 not out) and Diprose (23 not out) was the result of tremendous application from both players in the face of accurate and determined Ashling bowling.

Ashling's response started badly; Nick Loubser went cheaply, and Mick Bleach went soon after. Only Matt Sleep (16) seemed to get the measure of the pitch, and at 40 for 6 the situation looked grim. Paul Colley (27) and Mark Crundwell (25) got their heads down and slowly closed in on the RC total. Mason carried on the good work when Crundwell fell, but when the 8th wicket went down with 93 on the board a lot depended on Colley. With number ten Steve Harvey holding up one end, Colley smashed Ashling to within four runs of victory before what appeared to be the winning blow with three balls remaining was instead a blinding catch at backward square leg. A visibly quaking Stuart Edwards came out with instructions to block, and as he patted the last ball down the wicket his relieved smile lit up the increasingly gloomy ground.