Scorecard

Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham 2XI- Saturday v Farnham Royal on Sat 14 May 2016 at 1.00
Thatcham Town Cricket Club Won by eight wickets

Match report Thatcham Town’s second string continued their solid start to the TVL 4B programme with another convincing win, this time against Farnham Royal 1st XI at Brownsfield on Saturday.

Having been relegated from Level 3 last season, Farnham Royal should have posed a good early season challenge but were unable to compete with the home side in any department as the Thatcham bowlers dominated proceedings from the outset after Chris Shave had earlier won the toss and decided to bat.

Whilst early wickets were not the order of the day, debutant Mike Keg-Ball and George Armstrong turned the screw from the off and restricted openers Field and Shave to few attacking opportunities in a fine opening spell.

Shave managed to break the in-field on occasion but Keg-Ball (0 for 21 from 12) in particular produced some marvellous deliveries to keep the visiting batsmen quiet and slowly built the pressure for change bowlers Tim Mahoney (3 for 34 from 16) and Steve Bartholomew to reap the rewards in a productive change spell.

Bartholomew’s swift left arm over kept the visiting batsmen in all sorts of trouble and, with the evergreen Mahoney at the other end, wickets started to tumble as the Farnham Royal top order collapsed from 46 for 0 to 81 for 8 in an outstanding 20 over period of total control from the Thatcham pair.

As per the previous week, Mahoney proved too good for the best opposition batsman taking the top of Shave’s off stump within another trademark leg cutter. Meanwhile at the other end, Bartholomew made decisive inroads into the middle order and was duly rewarded with fine figures of 5 for 29 from his 15 over stint.

Not satisfied with that, having given way to the returning Armstrong, Bartholomew then swooped for a brilliant direct hit run out to remove the stubborn Nicholas for 12 and whilst Dutta added a useful 22 to help the Farnham tail wag, the visitors innings closed on 122 for 9 from their maximum 52 overs, a total clearly well adrift on an encouraging early season Brownsfield track.

Keg-Ball was unlucky not to make an impression in the wickets column, with his lack of luck epitomised by the missed chance of the last ball of the innings, although Peter Spriggs can be considered unlucky to drop what would have been an outstanding sharp running catch at mid-on, the ball just bouncing out of his grasp as he hit the ground with some force.

In reply, Kieran Lynch mis-timed a long-hop from the otherwise useful Head to offer the visitors some early encouragement but Spriggs (29) and Ben Copeman set about nullifying any potential threat and then knocking the ball around with ease to post a useful 47 run second wicket partnership.

Spriggs fell victim to a leg-side strangle and walked as he gloved a ball that he will have felt should have found its’ way to the backward square boundary but this proved to be the last blemish on the Thatcham scorecard as Copeman was joined by Jamie Young (25 not out) and the pair marched on at 7 an over to see the home side to a 25-point victory in 31.5 overs.

Copeman’s innings was flawless, from an impressive first sweep shot against Shave’s bouncing off-spin, to his outright battering of the hapless Howard who failed to learn when he saw his first ball attempted bouncer smash into the boundary boards and kept trying to pepper the St Bart’s teacher with a succession of short deliveries that all received similar treatment.

With a thoroughly deserved maiden half-century completed, Copeman will be pushing for an immediate return to 1st XI duty this weekend, whilst Thatcham can be delighted to have posted another strong all round performance.

Farnham Royal Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
7w 2b 6lb 
for 9 wickets
15
122 (52.0 overs)		     
C Shave b  Tim Mahoney 35
N Field ct  Steve Bartholomew 7
B Howard ct  Steve Barhtolomew 10
G Bucknell lbw  Tim Mahoney 0
B Rylance ct  Steve Bartholomew 1
M Shave lbw  Steve Bartholomew 1
B Pulsford b  Steve Bartholomew 3
C Bruce ct  Tim Mahoney 15
E Dutta Not Out  22
B Nicholas Run out  12
A Head Not Out  1

Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham 2XI- Saturday Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Mike Green12.052100.001.75
George Armstrong9.023000.003.33
Steve Bartholomew15.072955.801.93
Tim Mahoney16.0434311.332.13

Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham 2XI- Saturday Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
7w 5b  
for 2 wickets
12
125		        
Peter Spriggs Caught  29 66 60 5 48.33
Kieran Lynch Caught  7 19 19 36.84 1
Benny Copeman Not Out  52 87 65 7 80.0
Jamie Young Not Out  25 40 26 3 96.15
Steve Bartholomew   1
Eddie Wylie  
Stephen Bird   1
Nick Monger  
Tim Mahoney  
Mike Green  
George Armstrong   2

Farnham Royal Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
C Shave11.013700.003.36
A Head6.0215115.002.50
B Nicholas5.021200.002.40
E Dutta2.00200.001.00
B Howard4.0034134.008.50
B Pulsford3.512000.005.22

  • Umpire :
    Mr N Bishop
  • Scorer :
    Mr P Armstrong