The Thighs Have It
South Woodford vs Wanstead Essex Premier League 23 July
N. O. Taiter
Saturday saw the first eleven put in one of their occasional poor performances which not infrequently occur in this particular fixture. Earlier in the season this same group of cricketers scored over 300 against this opposition but yesterday's efforts saw their score decline from a comfortable 50-0 to an unacceptably dismal total of 117. The bowling looked benign, there appeared to be no gremlins in the pitch, so presumably it was down to the old business of "poor shot selection". Only one batsman, John Chambers, performed up to standard as he compiled an aggressive, positive 50 which included two sixes and four fours. His first six, in the third over, was the cause of the loss of a perfectly good new ball in the dense undergrowth surrounding the field. His dismissal at 74 had a touch of the ludicrous about it as the ball lodged between the capacious thighs of slip. Regrettably the remaining batsmen scored only 62 between them with Zain Shahzad second highest with 12. Bowling honours went to Gary Neicho (21-10-41-5, after a start of 0-19 in four overs and Harry Shirt (21-4-63-4).
The bowling fared little better. An early wicket by Shaheed Saeed was not followed up and inexplicably Fayyaz was not introduced until the eighteenth over. He then bowled immaculately to take 2-21 in almost 10 overs, but decent batting by Nick Browne (32),Tom Yallop (25*), and particularly Max Shirt (40*) made the other bowling look innocuous.
For some of us,the final stages of a hard fought second team match provided excellent entertainment.