Sunday
8th. May 2011 v. Aveton Gifford - at home
lost by 4 Wickets
We opened our 2011 season playing Aveton Gifford at
home. Sadly we managed to lose by 4 wickets.
They won the toss and put us in to bat and Alex Browne got off to
a solid start making 62 runs before he was bowled by P Cooling. Julian
Brazil gave us another solid innings with the bat, putting on 35 runs.
Only three other Prawle players made double figures - Captain Pete
Burner, 19, Shaun Taylor, 18 and Alex Tucker, 10. At the end of our
35 overs we had made a useful 186 runs. Pick of the Aveton Gifford
bowling were James Shepherd, Cooling and Joel Innocent, the latter
in his second spell taking 3 wickets for only 6 runs. Cooling took
two for 3 runs and Shephered, one for 9.
P Shepherd and M Bagley opened the innings for Aveton Gifford and
put on 31 before Shepherd was stumped by Steve Tucker off the bowling
of Browne for 9 runs. Bagley played an anchor role, picking out singles
and twos or just blocking. He didn't need to do anymore, because James
Shepherd at the other end was attacking the bowlers as if he hated
them. At the end the feeling was mutual as he went on to make a stunning
127 that included 14 fours and eight sixes. Ironically, he was out
with the visitors needing only one run to win. He was easily the man
of the match, but sadly the second highest scorer was extras. Bagley
made 22 and the rest hardly troubled the scorers but didn't need to.
The visitors reached the winning total of 187 with the first ball
of the 33rd over. Shaun Taylor once again was the most economical
bowler for Prawle giving away only 7 runs in 4.1 overs. Dave Hampden-Smith
took two wickets but was expensive, giving away 32 runs. New boy Jamie
Watts took two for 21. Ansell and Browne both took a wicket.
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Sunday 15th. May 2011
v. Malborough - at home
lost by 6 Wickets
The cricket team played host to Malborough this week
The last time we played them their opening pair of Gareth Morgan and
Mike Martindale put on 200 runs and they, of course, won. This time
they only managed an opening partnership of 69 but they beat us by
six wickets anyway.
Our captain for the day Julian Brazil won the toss and elected to
bat. Tim Johnson opened with Alex Tucker. Johnson faced four balls
before he was clean bowled by Aaron Chandler on the fifth for a duck..
Wickets tumbled to some good bowling and only Captain Brazil put up
any sort of opposition. He was 48 when he was finally bowled by Nick
Martin and we were on 114 for eight wickets. It didn't look good and
it didn't get any better. We were all out for 125 with one over to
spare in our allotted 35. Alex Tucker, Shaun Taylor and Phil Thomas
were our only other batsman to hit double figures. Tucker made 10,
Thomas 12 and Taylor 14. Nick Martin was the pick of the Malborough
bowlers taking three wickets for 14 runs in 5 overs. Andy Morgan took
two for 14 and Gareth Morgan, Adam Burke, Mike Martindale, Nick Burke
and Aaron Chandler all took a wicket apiece.
When Malborough went into bat Gareth Morgan was the first to fall,
caught and bowled by Richie Thuel for 33 runs. Martindale went on
to make 60 with 10 fours and a thundering six that had everyone hunting
in the bushes for the ball. He was out with the visitors needing only
9 to win with six wickets standing. The winning runs came with a boundary
on the first ball of the 20th over. As to our bowlers, Johnson took
a wicket when Captain Brazil made a fine catch in the deep to dismiss
Adam Burke and the Tucker brothers, Roger and Alex, accounted for
the other wickets to fall.
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Sunday 22nd. May 2011
v. Slapton - at home
Won 3 Wickets
Last Sunday East Prawle Cricket Club entertained Slapton
Cricket Club to the first of what we hope will be numerous encounters
this season! The match was played in the finest traditions culminating
in a social pint in the Pigs Nose at stumps.
Charlie Ansell, captain for the day, won the toss and put Slapton
in to bat. A steady start by Matt Hammet (30) and Nick Mathias (43)
saw 66 runs on the board before the first wicket fell; Matt Hammet
edged Shaun Taylor to Julian Brazil at first slip where a superb catch
was taken. This brought Andy Pratt to the wicket. He batted well and
selected scoring shots carefully before falling to Shaun Taylor, bowled
for 64. In the mean time Nick Mathias had fallen lbw to Julian Brazil.
With 5 overs to go and 2 new batsmen at the crease, Rich Mitchelmore
(0) and Dan Mercer (16), 164 runs on the board it looked at though
Slapton could reach 200 runs, however with some tight bowling from
Richard Thuel and Shaun Taylor East Prawle faced 178 to win. Pick
of the Prawle bowlers were Shaun Taylor, 2 for 7 off 6 overs and Richard
Thuel who conceded only 13 runs off 5 very tight overs.
After the usual sumptuous Linda Tucker tea, Slapton took to the field.
Wayne Kovacic and Alex Brown opened the batting and put on 43 before
Wayne was bowled by Simon Garner. Julian Brazil joined Alex in the
middle and continued his impressive start to the season. The pair
put on over 80 runs for the 2nd wicket before Julian was bowled by
John Edgecombe for 34 runs. Things were looking good! However, 129
for 2 quick became 137 for 6 with John Tucker, Alex Tucker and Ben
Broomfield departing without troubling the scorer and Alex Brown bowled
for 85 by Slapton skipper Rich Mitchelmore. This was a time for cool
heads; Stephen Tucker and Charlie Ansell steadied the Prawle ship
taking the score to 167 before Stephen was caught in the deep by Nick
Mathias. Out to the crease came Shaun Taylor, just the experienced
cricketer the situation called for. He and Charlie Ansell saw Prawle
home to a close victory in the 32 over. A good victory for the home
side after a match that had swung first one way and then the other,
in true Prawle v Slapton fashion. Pick of the Slapton bowlers were
Nick Mathias, who took 2 for 15 off 4 overs and John Edgecombe, 2
for 9 off 3 overs. Congratulations to Alex Brown for his 85 and to
Julian Brazil for his supporting 34 and agile, diving catch in the
slips.
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Sunday 5th. June 2011
v. the Edwards Wedding Party - at home
Lost by 17 Runs
Most bizarre game of the year-a 12 a side 36 over event
against the Pete Edwards Wedding Party. Edwards is lead singer of
the Red Bullets band, a very popular group in the South Hams despite
coming from one of the home counties.
The day after he was married - on Beesands Beach - he brought a team
over to play us, and they won by 17 runs. Tim Johnson captained for
us because he had introduced Edwards and his band to our village when
Johnson ran the Providence Inn pub.
We won the toss and elected to field. Pete and his new father-in-law
Tony Nainamarika opened for the wedding party but Richie Thuel put
a damper on it when he clean bowled Nainamarika for 5 runs. Edwards
went on to make 49 before he was bowled by Adrian Martin and the visitors
were on 75. A good partnership between Ian Chapman and Simon Edwards
put on 30 more runs before Chapman was caught by Jamie Watts off the
bowling of Mark Lister. He'd made 31 before his dismissal. New batsman
Jamie Trembath made 7 before he was bowled by Lister and Simon Edwards
followed shortly after when Johnson bowled him for 12. Johnson took
a second wicket of the day when he bowled the groom's brother, Mark,
for 13 runs. Stuart Chapman gave the bowlers some grief with five
4s in his 28 before he was caught by Lister off the bowling of young
Patrick Trinick. Father of the groom, Ken Edwards, put on a stylish
14 before he was stumped by Thuel, who had taken over wicket-keeping
from Alex Browne who wanted some bowling practice. Colin Mack was
not out on 13 and Nick Chapman on 11 when they ran out of overs but
had an impressive total of 210.
Alex Browne and Phil Martin opened for us and put on
48 before Browne was caught by Trembath off the bowling of Ian Chapman
for 23. Martin went on to have the innings of the day making 66 before
he was caught and bowled by Trembath. John Swaddle batting at 6 also
had a good day at the crease, hitting two towering sixes in his 20
runs before Trembath (again) caught him off the groom's bowling. Second
highest scorer for our side was Extras, 36 and Thuel was the only
other batsman to make double figures. Still, we only ended up 17 short
of their total.
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Saturday
18th. June 2011
v. Llanwrda - away on tour
Lost by 60 Runs
The village cricket team went to Wales last week for our
annual tour. And as usual we played some unorthodox cricket. The first
game was against LLanwrda at Llandovery. Because of inclement conditions
we opted for playing 22 overs and to accommodate everybody 12-a-side.
We were aided by an artificial pitch that was easy to brush off when
bad weather came, which it did.
Capt. Pete Burner won the toss and put the home side
in and when they were quickly 17 for 2 we were optimistic. Short-lived,
though, as Llanwrda skipper Adrion Davies with four 4s, a three and
a handful of twos and singles went quickly to 27. Fortunately for us,
the two captains had decided that any batsman reaching 25 had to retire.
Davies was the first of three Welshmen who were sent for an early bath
for the sin of being too prolific. Josh Archer, who had a towering six,
and James Moran, batting 5th and 6th respectively, were the other two.
We only managed to take 2 other wickets, Sion Nicholas bowled by Burner
for 19, and Owen Davies, caught behind by Steve Tucker off the bowling
of Julian Brazil for 10. In between those wickets a heavy rain storm
drove the players off the field for a short respite. By the end of their
22 overs Llanwrda had made 149 for 4. Best of our bowlers were James
Millard, 2 for 1 and Brazil 4 for1.
A total of 150 to win seemed doable, but our openers Jeremy
Stephens and Julian Bates were soon out for ducks. Only 3 of our batsmen
managed double figures. Mark Lister who was run out for 19, Willy Potts
who was obliged to retire on 25 and Brazil who was 15 not out. We had
lost by 60 runs but a sumptuous feast at a local country pub washed
down with Welsh beer helped ease our pain.
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Sunday 19th.
June 2011
v. Christ College Brecon Staff - away on tour
Lost by 44 Runs
The second game of the tour was against the Staff of Christ
College Brecon. The College is one of Britain's oldest schools and was
founded by royal charter in 1541. Tucked in the back of the school is
a wonderful cricket pitch that you could even play first class cricket
on. We are not used to such luxury. There was even a scorer's box that
kept our two book-keepers warm and dry and happy for once. The two captains
opted for playing 13-a-side over 30 overs, weather permitting. In order
to do that we had to lend them four players.
Home side captain Peter Shannon won the toss and elected
to bat, a wise choice. He went on to make 49 runs, top scorer, before
he elected to retire himself and allow someone else to have a go. Wickets
fell deceptively quickly with numbers 2, 3, 4 and 5 only adding 15 to
the score between them. But then Hugo Shaw came on, scored 40 before
he was retired by his captain, much to the relief of our bowlers. From
then on we seemed to have them on the run, knocking over batsman for
not many runs until Jose Maria Miguel del Corral Rubio marched onto
the field at number 12. Naturally, he teaches Spanish at the school
and none of us expected a Spaniard to do much and his ungainly style
seemed to indicate we were right. Twenty-four runs later he was finally
bowled by Burner. They ended up with 183 and we had a hill to climb.
Charlie Ansell and John Tucker opened the batting for
us but didn't stay around very long. Suddenly we were 34 for 6 and things
were looking decidedly tricky. Mark Lister tried to steady the ship
but wickets tumbled around him. And when he went for 12, caught Ali
Copp, bowled Alex Tucker, one of our players on loan, we were 45 for
7. Julian Brazil refused to give in and he made a very good 44 before
he was caught Davies, bowled Shaw. Julian Bates at 11 managed 26 runs
before he was bowled by Copp. The situation became so desperate we co-opted
Tim Trumper, the PE teacher at the college who helped organise the whole
tour, to come in at 14 to try to salvage some pride for us. He was clean
bowled by his son, Will, before he troubled the score board. James Millard
who had come in at 13 despite dislocating a finger earlier was left
standing on 14, and we had lost by 44 runs. Sad to say the best bowler
for the college was our own man Willy Potts who had two for 4 and just
missed a hat trick. Young Will Trumper finished with 8 for one, Ali
Copp had 2 for 9. Alex Tucker, another loaned player from our side,
took 1 for 6.
We ended the tour in another fine Brecon pub, eating hamburgers
and, if you can believe it, singing the Welsh national anthem in Welsh.
Well, some of them did.
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