2013 Match Report: Royal Ascot

Pyestock Star in Classic

But Fall at the Last.

Royal Ascot CC Vs Pyestock CC

Sunday 19th May 2013

Weather Conditions: Mild, Sunny.

Pitch Conditions: Wicket: Dry, Green, Outfield: Green, fast.

Match Type: Time

After a week of fixture confusion, Pyestock eventually rolled up at Royal Ascot CC in picturesque surroundings. The visitors included Billy Leader and Taylor Newcombe who replaced Colin Butler and Kevin Schiffers from the previous week’s abandonment.

Fielding first, Pyestock were handicapped by injuries to front line bowlers Neil Butler and Chris Heath, who both took up the challenge to bowl through the pain barrier, and Jack Bromley, who was ruled out of the bowling attack completely with a knee injury. The opening pair of Kennedy and Prouse started slowly, struggling to take the game by the scruff of the neck with Kennedy in particularly offering enough chances to keep the prowling Pyestock fielders interested. In fact it wasn’t long before a peach of a ball from Neil found the faintest edge of the youngsters bat, and despite wicket-keeper Glenn Taylor looking odds-on to grasp the chance, the ball went down and Kennedy survived.

As the batsmen remained, their confidence flourished and the scoring shots became more frequent, Prouse batted confidently and surely, while the exuberance of Kennedy was providing runs at a faster rate.

By the 19^th over both opening bowlers were out of the attack and the Royal Ascot openers remained stubborn, as new pairing of Dan Heath and Billy Leader took the bowling reigns. The task however proved as difficult as ever as Kennedy brought up his 50 and looked hungry for more. Just as it looked as if Pyestock were in for a fruitless afternoon, Dan produced a ball that pulled Prouse forward and crucially out of his ground, With the turn deceiving the Royal Ascot number 2, Glenn pounced and stumped his man to give Pyestock there first wicket in the 24^th Over.

Any hopes that this may prove a platform for Neil Butler’s side to start tearing through the home teams batting order were unfortunately misplaced as Aatif Muneer showed undoubted quality resided in the middle order. Together he and Kennedy accelerated the run rate to a level Pyestock had no real answer for. There were however chances. Within the space of 2 balls Muneer had found the hands of both Chris Heath and Peter Harris, however neither could hold on and the batsmen remained.

The increasing run rate was a concern for the Pyestock bowlers as the innings moved past the 30 over mark, with wickets in hand and 137 runs on the board, Royal Ascot really were the front-runners in the match. As the tempo began to increase further, Billy Leader popped up with full away-swinging delivery that Kennedy could only edge through to Glenn Taylor. This time the wicket-keeper made no mistake and the opener was on his way for an impressive 77.

This gave Muneer and new partner Jason Carr free licence to accumulate as many runs as possible and they used the next 9 overs to pile on 79 runs before the declaration, leaving Pyestock requiring 228 for victory. This strangely was the same target that the visitors chased at Concorde, 2 weeks earlier.

After tea, Jon Ford and Glenn Taylor were put under starters’ orders and advised to set Pyestock off to an attacking yet solid start. Jon again seemed content to support Glenn’s more glamorous stroke play. Between them they moved the score onto 28 before Jon was dismissed following a catch in the outfield giving Hassan his first wicket. Glenn kicked into top gear following this dismissal and hit some powerful shots from both opening bowlers as he gallantly pushed Pyestock towards the finish line. At the other end, Jack was seemingly struggling for fluency whilst trying to attack, but was completing a job in preventing the Royal Ascot bowlers attack the depths of the Pyestock batting order.

Just as it looked as if Pyestock were move into three figures for the loss of only one wicket, a double blow threw the run chase into serious doubt. Change bowlers Naeem and Kashif Muneer both picked up a wicket as Jack and Glenn both holed out to ball that maybe should have been put away. Glenn’s 62 was superb to watch and the youngster left the field to deserved applause.

It was now up to Dan Heath and Vaughan Newcombe to keep up the tempo, and much to the delight of the visitors and any neutrals watching, they not only maintained, but they improved the run rate with some powerful hitting. 50 runs were added in just 9 overs to bring Pyestock to within 77 of victory; however by this time the final 20 overs were well in swing and in fact only 12 overs remained.

Just as it looked as if a photo finish might be on the cards, 2 wickets in 2 balls (albeit in different overs) forced the game into a more mundane finish.

Firstly, Dan toe-ended a lofted drive and was superbly caught on the boundary, before Vaughan was unlucky to deflect the very next ball onto his stumps.

All this left Chris McGovern and Billy Leader to bat out the remaining balls for a draw, and with no further incident, the pair did superbly to resolutely block out any chance of a Pyestock batting collapse.

Royal Ascot were the best side faced Pyestock have faced this season, and it is a credit to neil Butler’s side that up until around 10 over’s from the end, they were very much in with a chance of victory.

 

Deando-Ruxley CC 227 for 2 (Kennedy 77)

Pyestock CC: 176 for 5 (G.Taylor 62)

Match Drawn

Pyestockcricketclub.co.uk Man Of The Match: Glenn Taylor