After a weekend of sporting highs and lows the main event took place at Higginson Park Marlow as The Woodpeckers flew into town to take on the heavily South African biased Marlow Park. Weather against the odds was set fair, the pitch spicy and damp and the grass long.
A usual contingent of Woodpeckers led by Paddy, supplemented by the Marlow contingent of Donny ‘ Metal Micky , Milky Milky and Mr Skinner took to the field. A good toss to win saw the Park put into bat and the match started promptly at 1pm.
Peppa came to Marlow too and loved her play-date with Bila and Ziggy, and I enjoyed staying with my oldest mate Don and family in Marlow
There was an early wicket for Tiddles as Lav got his first touch with a low catch at cover. Lav in spite of wearing designer trainers bowled tidily and sharply and induced a faint edge from the hard hitting opener Ikky Ikram caught Lambert bowled Lavers for 11.
At 29/2 the Peckers had a number of chances to make further inroads as the ‘Tiddles in the Lav’ combination took advantage of the spicy conditions, We again managed to drop quite a few chances - and we could have been granted a stumping on another day. Park captain Brent Lombard rode his luck and struck the ball cleanly to race to 50 with his fourth six and Marlow raced to 80-2.. The Beearon broke the partnership though removing Goosen, and. Young Leo’Milky Milky’ Pennant got his reward with one that reared of a length and caught the edge.He’s mainly a hockey player and we wish him well with his England trials next week..
90-4 at drinks and as the bowling battalions looked unusually light we did a keeping switcheroo -Lav for Lamby. We had a thrifty three overs before Lombard really began smashing into our Milky Beearon combo, striking. 41 off 4 overs and at 137-4 in the 27th, it looked ominous for the Peckers . Lav had accepted the gloves from and returned the favour to Lamby , as skipper Brent finally edged behind caught Lavers bowled Lambert for 86.
Runky snaffled two more quick wickets (3-42), Lamby bowled an excellent spell(2-16 0ff 6) and bowled Donovan, Cannon showed some rhythm and chipped in with a cheap wicket , and then the man who began it Tiddles wrapped it up with one ball to spare. Badger got off the ‘drops’ with a tidy take on the boundary, I think he prefers it out there as he had a good truffle around in a hedge earlier. Special mention to our two tidy keepers Lav and Lamby and a rock solid bowling performance as we restricted Marlow to just 42 runs on the last 13 overs, and they finished on 179 all out. It was a competitive score on a tricky wicket , but it could have been much less with more ‘ball to hand’ and ‘finger to sky’
From L-R B-F, . Lav,Metal Mickey,Peppa, Pobsy, Tiddles, Beearon, Cannon…Macca, Mr Skinner, Milky Mikly, Badger, Lamby,
Last year at Marlow Park we were chasing 221 on a drier wicket, and had collapsed from155-3, to lose a thriller by three runs Our batting lineup couldn’t have been described as deep, but the unlikely opening combination of Macca and Cannon saw off the new ball well before both being bowled for a handy dozen runs each . Badger was more aggressive and hit a quick fire 26 and he and Lamby(13) put on 44 before three more Peckers clean bowled left us reeling on 106-5. .
Lav was joined by the Captain at the crease the pair set about knocking off the remaining 74 runs. Deft hitting, brilliant running and aggressive stroke making saw the winning runs hit with 5 overs to spare. A stunning 76* from Lavers rightly earned him MOM but the superb supporting 26* from Paddy was crucial in putting to bed the bitter memories of last year.Fortunately Metal Mickey,Skinner,Tiddles and Runky were not called upon to swing the willow.
Our opposition were generous in defeat and beers and pizza were shared as the sun set on Higginson Park. The audible South African accents tended to dwell on next week's decider rather than the awesome and dominant cricketing masterclass put on by The Woodpeckers. Well done boys. It was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon and good luck in your forthcoming matches.
Well done indeed a great team effort (around Lav) and breaks the season sequence…WWWLLLWWWL….W
