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Borstal Occasionals v Strollers

Borstal won the toss and invited Frindsbury to bat.  Colts Matt Palmer (23) and Sam Collis put on 34 for the first wicket before Palmer - who had played a wide range of good-looking shots - was bowled by Keith Coleman.  Young Collis stuck around for 22 overs before falling for a solid 28, but the stars of the show were Raj Bassi and Sunny Singh.  Bassi played with flair and elegance to score a majestic 75.  Sunny carted the Borstal attack to all corners of the ground with his usual mix of raw power and aggression, losing two balls in the process and finishing on 97 not out from 46 balls. 

A shell-shocked Borstal were glad to see the 40^th over complete, but the Frindsbury score of 299-4 looked to be well beyond them.

Tom Smith opened the bowling and bowled a tidy spell of 5-1-9-0, which might well have included at least one wicket as Rob Peters failed to hold on to a chance low to his right.  John “Terminator” Tadman opened up at the other end and lived up to his reputation by removing three Borstal batters in his spell of 7-1-30-3.  Two of these were in successive balls as – encouraged by Ray Burt to show them his slower ball – Terminator displayed his full repertoire and bamboozled the home side.  One ball in particular cut back from the rough (on the pitch next to the one we were playing on) to miss off stump by a coat of varnish.  The hat-trick delivery produced a loud and confident appeal for LBW, which was turned down by the umpire on the basis that the ball probably wasn’t reaching the stumps.

Dan Tadman extracted plenty of life from the pitch and recorded figures of 5-0-15-1 – his solitary wicket being colt Tom Coleman who scored a fine 31.  And Paul Bistoquet turned his arm over for the first time this season, bowling three interesting overs for 20.

After drinks, skipper Rob Peters decided that it was time to call upon wicket-taking machine Ray Burt, who duly obliged by removing the gloveless Raj Patel first ball.  He then blitzed his way through the rest of the batters, taking 4-26 in 3.4 overs.  Jug avoidance was duly ensured by Harry Horsfall and Rob Peters, as Miles Huppatz nicked one to the keeper in the penultimate over.

As well as the batting and bowling performances, the visitors were sharp in the field, with Raj Bassi running his socks off at mid-off, and Sam Collis holding on to three catches.

A comprehensive win by 178 runs, with Frindsbury producing an excellent all-round display. 

Many thanks to Liz Smith for scoring.

Rob Peters

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