HSMCC v Effingham

Holmbury St Mary 178 for 9, Brockham Green 150 for 9.

We welcomed Seb Tallis back to the Holmbury side, and hope to see brother Charles soon.

Winning the toss, Andrew put us into bat on a spacious Effingham ground that, in the end, offered very little in the way of carry. In fact, at the beginning of our batting innings it offered very little full stop, with us facing a score of 10 for 3 after 10 overs. Our middle order provided much-needed stability and runs (Seb 36, Andrew 32, Nick J 27, Monu 20), and our tail (Ross, Tim and Martin) stood up to Effingham’s efforts to close our innings off, scoring further runs and taking us through our full allowance of 45 overs. A score of 178 was ahead of what may have been expected early on, but was it enough?

In response, our opening bowlers immediately pinned Effingham back, with Ross (9-2-4-14) forcing one of their opening batsmen out for a duck in the first over off a hustling, diving catch by Phil at mid-wicket. Effingham’s other opener (who scored a ton off us a couple of years ago) soon fell LBW to Ross, and our first innings score suddenly felt a bit more comfortable.

Effingham’s middle order emulated ours, providing a steady flow of runs and nudging the run rate above three per over. However once their number four batsman was caught off Martin by Andrew at mid-off, in contrast their tail offered very little resistance, and our aggressive fielding approach combined with continued excellent bowling very nearly earned us the win.

In addition to Ross’s stellar performance (which included a maiden and a wicket maiden at the end), others made significant bowling contributions: Monu (8-1-0-24), Phil (4-0-1-19), Martin (10-1-1-41), and Nick J (6-0-2-18). All were marshalled by JR’s energetic and athletic wicket-keeping.

So a solid team effort from which we took 17 points, putting us second in the VCL Division 1 standings, just behind Hambledon and just ahead of Abinger and Ashtead.