P collected the second trophy of the season having completed the double over
their Hampstead based neighbours with an emphatic win & curtailing what was
an all day game to completion 15 minutes before tea.
UCS OBs 96-10. Versani 18. M Ralph 11-4-21-3
P 97-3. J Campbell 33. L Yates 27*.
In truth, following the
previous day's rain, the toss proved to be crucial, & following 2 high
scoring matches in the previous 2 years - both successfully chased by UCS, P
Captain was keen to see his stand in opening seamers get first shout on a
drying pitch.
Indeed, Hollman had no complaints throughout as from when 3
wickets fell on the score of 42, UCS did not show the aptitude & patience
necessary to play out overs & capitalise on the continually improving
conditions. Matt Ralph extracted good bounce & away movement (again) & the
dismissal of Jamie Ward, a centurion in 2000, for 0 & his brother - Captain
Nick, for 0 broke the back of their middle order. Everything went the way of
Pacific, Tim Mileham taking a wicket 1st ball with a long hop to return with
2-6 off 4 overs, Hollman with 1-12 off 8 & spinners Matt Patel & Allan
Roberts bowling either side of lunch , saw the latter picking up 2. In
between , Matt Ralph added to his 3 wickets, incl. a caught & bowled, a fine
catch at point & a direct hit to dismiss Leigh Adams. P were simply
unstoppable.
UCS got an immediate breakthrough when Lay was dismissed by Rob Johnson for
1 lbw, but Jonathan Campbell celebrating a complete kit(make)over scored a
marvellously controlled 33 before a smart catch by Versani off Jamie Ward
for 33.
Leon Yates continued assuredly & David Murray returning to form saw the
target was reached with little fuss in a little over 29 overs.
Reflecting afterwards, Peter Hollman acknowledged that there were 2
incidents which could be seen to have changed the course of the game. At
41-2 Versani, flicked to leg & was "caught" at leg gully by Hollman but
although deemed as having bounced first, Versani was out 2 balls later
caught & bowled by Ralph, his concentration clearly broken.
In the second innings, Yates early on played one hard into the ground which
was "caught" by silly mid off. The umpire ruled a bump ball & Yates held his
ground to rumblings from several fielders. However, this incident had a
lesser impact as P still had considerable batting to come lead by the
formidable Jim Davies - the match winner at Ranulf Rd earlier in the
season..
" A fine day, we seemed to take wickets with good & bad balls, & the
fielding standard was considerably good & the batting was not put under
genuine pressure due to the lowish target. I felt sorry for Nick (the UCS
Captain) as everything went our way today."
