Stiffs Run Out Of Luck

The Stiffs crunch match against old friends and fellow promotion hopefuls Wilsons turned on a run out.

Boss Hogg took over coin tossing duties with regular skippers Boom Boom and Cowlard unavailable. August holidays had left our squad weaker than Kelly Sotherton's javelin and we had to make do with 10 men.

Winning the toss, Leggy took the new ball himself and immediately broke through with a regulation edge pouched by Beakey. At the other end Murali Burton was proving unplayable; mixing magical doosra's with unreachable wides as he struggled to grip the new cherry. Leggy pulled a masterstoke by resting himself and bringing on Bazzer who took a wicket straight away with a swinging yorker. Meanwhile Matt decided the only way to bowl with an older ball was to get dispatched into the Ashley Road gardens!

Duncan Disorderly quickly took over from Top Man. Leggy asked Dunc to concentrate on bowling six good balls, but it looked like he would need his full 12 overs to answer his Skipper's request! Still, not for the last time on the day, a rank bad ball took a wicket, Drurs gladly taking a catch at mid off from a rank long hop. Dunc then pleaded for an LBW, amazed that a ball pitching outside leg and fielded by leg slip could have missed the stumps. Leggy made a quick change to keep the red mist at bay. With the score on a promising 80-3, Murali produced an even more pleading appeal, down on one knee praying for the raised finger, which old friend Wassi just had to give.

Then the moment when the match turned. Dunc swooped at square leg and scored a direct hit at the non striker's end to run out opener Jeff Moore for a solid 35. At 90-5 off 30 overs we thought we could be into the tail. However we hadn't bargained for two of Wilson's first teamers to rock up at 6 and 7. Tim Caldwell batted beautifully smashing 60 in about 30 balls while his partner was equally fluent in an unbeaten 63. 100 runs came off 10 overs despite good bowling and fielding - the pair were simply too good for this Division. This allowed Wilsons to take the unusual step of declaring on 228-6 with 3 overs to bowl. Our bowling figures looked a bit ugly but everyone bowled really well: Leggy 1-40, Dunc 2-49, Baz 1-67 and Matt 1-69. Ground fielding would have made Sticky Palmer proud - especially young Chris Soar in the deep.

With rain a possibility, Wilsons chose to enforce a strict 20 minute tea interval - most unfortunate given another amazing spread from Jean! Smoked salmon sandwiches, special recipe bhajis, and clotted cream scones were wolfed down in double quick time. Though the highlight was Dimps presenting Drurs with a plate of fairy cakes in response to mickey-taking in these reports!!

Sadly Drurs had barely time for a mouthful before opening up with Evergreen Ern'. This was the best opening attack we'd faced all year, but the pitch was still good and the outfield fast as we raced to 33 off 8 overs. Then Ern was done for pace edging a pull to the keeper, wandering off muttering that the celebrations couldn't have been much louder if Lara had been dismissed!!

Butch was quickly undone LBW to a ball that cut back miles. And Barrie was another leg before victim to a vicious yorker. Wobbling at 45-3 we just had to weather the storm. Glassback and One-Gets-Two dug in and waited in hope of easier change bowlers. The opposition captain came on and bowled leg spin more erratically than Murali, but picked up a wicket with absolute filth - Paul toe ending a full toss to mid wicket! Top Man himself strode in at no.6 and pulled us back into the game with some lusty blows. Drurs passed 50 for the 5th time in a row, and at 129-4 we had a sniff. Sadly Matt then miscued a drive to mid on for 25, and Drurs somehow edged a full toss onto his helmet and into the keeper's gloves for 66. At 139-6 the game was gone.

Leggy hoped to get inspiration from Derek Randall signing his bat. But even the autographs of Bradman and Pietersen wouldn't have helped as Caldwell returned and polished off the tail to finish with great figures of 5-40. We were all out on 145.

A good team effort, but we were outclassed on the day. Our four points mean we hang on to second with all still to play for in the promotion race.