Headley CC v Woodpeckers CC – Match Report

The Woodpeckers took the short trip to Headley, Mumbai Surrey for the next game of the season. The run up to the game midweek was a stressful situation, with the game being nearly called off due to lack of a team. Somehow, someway, with the help of 75 whatsapp messages, we managed to assemble 11 of the finest gentleman. Well make that 10 as ‘Deggsy’ overslept so opted to take a cab from the station that never arrived.

Now back to the game, it was a perfect 24 degree day, and we were up against a formidable Headley team that the Peckers havent beaten since 2018. The ground has great history, and even has a bench for Pobsy’s parents on the national trust land. The pitch looked a serious dust bowl batting wicket, but the skipper Pobsy opted to offer a non contested toss and let Headley bat first given his lack of faith in our batting line up. A decision that may come back to make him look rather silly? Find out soon…

Spinach and Chuck took the new ball and it was clear this pitch would offer nothing to the bowlers, we had an early chance from Chuck with their opener chipping one up but it was dropped horrifically by debutant Scampi on 8. Hopefully this drop wouldnt be too costly and that would be the last fielding error of the day…

After ten overs Snax and Bison were introduced, with Headley going very nicely at about 80-0 at this point. They both plugged away but the scoreboard was getting bleaker and bleaker, that opener who got dropped on 8 was compounding our misery well on his way to an unbeaten century. Annoyingly our fielding was going from poor to downright shocking. Debutant 'Corn Cob’ was marinating in his own butter and couldnt seem to stay on his feet, generating a few angry mumbles from a hungover Bison as chance after chance went to the rope. Can we agree to use this weeks kitty to pay for some spikes for Corn Cob Bambi as he will now be known? Headley reached 142-0 off 16 overs and the outlook was bleak

On a bright note - also on debut Andrew ‘Biscuits’ Crawford a friend of Pobsy’s from Outwood fielded very tidily and provided positive chat. His first date with GF Claire was in the car park at Headley and she brought her girls to watch which was very apt

The Biscuiteers on the Owen-Browne bench

The breakthroughs eventually came from none other than Snax who finished with a superb 3 wicket hall. The key wicket came after his last ball of his spell that should have been a no ball but wasnt given, after much persuasion, they agreed to the no ball, and with Snax’s last ball of his spell, claimed a key wicket beautifully caught by Spinach at mid off. Snax finished with (7-3-41). Bison (6-0-37) deserved a wicket with his bowling but was let down by the fielding, much to the hungover Bisons annoyance.

The opener eventually retired on 100, (thanks Scampi) and we were well into them after Snax spell. Pobsy and Scampi then came on and the wickets kept tumbling. Scampi (4-1-29) got his first Pecker wicket with a massive edge that he had no clue about, he had turned around by the time the batter began to walk.. Pobsy (5-1-31) then claimed a key wicket of their big hitter who was dropped earlier in that over by Chuck, but then caught in the exact same fashion by Chuck two balls later, safe to say I wouldn’t have been seen again if that second one was dropped. I want to shout out the two highlights in the field, with Biscuits particularly sharp at mid off all day and Kwakka very tidy behind the stumps. Also Headley kindly lent us a succession of sub fielders who all did a grand job, including the Twins Connor and Harrison who got us very confused.

To wrap things up, Chuck and Spinach came back in put the squeeze on, with Chuck cleaning up the middle order and tail to get his first wickets for the Peckers, finishing with (7-3-40) Pobsy returning the favour to grasp one in the deep.. Spinach finished with (6-0-55), however it must be said, Spinach should have had a wicket at the end but Scampi wanted to make his mate Corn Cob feel better …as a ball that was going straight to him, he panicked running in , then tried to turn but slipped on some of the melted butter left by his mate Corn Cob and the ball went for four.

All in all, a tough day with the ball on a wicket that didnt offer much, Headley finished on 247-9 and would be the happier of the two teams. With the Peckers wondering what could have been if the catches had been taken and that the majority of the team owned spikes. The chase was looking bleak given the batting depth we had at our disposal.

For F Wood read Charlie ‘Scampi’ Websdale

TEA

Tea was a fairly standard affair, i’ll leave it at that, the highlight being a cupcake.

Now into the chase, with Felix ‘ Cat’ Wood and Luke ‘Bison’ Marjason opening. We all knew we needed to get off to a good start to chase this, and with not many recognised batters, the message at tea was take your time, play yourself in. Cat obviously knew he had 9 lives to play with as first ball his eyes lit up and he chipped one to mid off which was shelled as it missed the hands straight into the stomach of Saffer Marsh.. You would hope he would learn from this, but two balls later a similar shot and he was shelled again a tougher chance dicing with death and two ducks dropped, he now needed to go on and go big. Not to miss out on the action, Bison also had a few shelled in the opening overs leaving me with two thoughts, what was in the air in the field that day, and secondly, could this be our day? The both delivered and set us a great platform with a 132 run partnership, Cat top scoring with 74 of 57 balls, and Bison a lovely 57 off 65. The chase was well and truly on.

Next in was debutant Andrew ‘Biscuits’ Crawford, an old Outwood friend of Pobsy who hadn’t picked up a bat all year, and the experienced Karl ‘Kawakka’ Knights, they showed little sign of rust and nerves with a crucial 81 run partnership featuring some glorious back foot drives. The drama wasn’t over, with Snax taking a tumble umpiring at square leg, hope the knee is ok mate.

The Peckers chased down 247 in 28 overs, the highest run chase since 2018, oddly enough, the last time we beat Headley. What was the biggest worry in our batting, turned out to be our strength with a chase that stunned the oppo (and us)

Batting heroes the four-legged friends Bison, Cat and Kwakka with Biscuits on the side

The outlook for the season is bright, we have now won 11 and lost 2, with 5 games left, we need 3 more wins to equal the all time record of 14 wins, we can’t, can we?