England Seniors take on the Welsh dragon in EPIC encounter.
The England Seniors Exciting Summer programme got under way Last Friday when we took on the Wales National over 60’s Side at Dumbleton CC in the beautiful County of Gloucestershire. Our Captain Richard Merriman had promoted our Season to come under the banner of EPIC.The initials from our motivational Categories.With the main objective to beat the Aussies in this Summer’s ‘Grey Ashes’ series of Test matches. Richard was using this preliminary fixture to promote the Importance of everyone in our Squad to support each other in this singular objective.Whilst of course practising the Values in firstly beating Wales on Friday.
The Toss was Won by England and RM elected to bat First. After first presenting England Caps to Two New players. Nick Gaywood, and John Whiting. Richard opened the batting with Nick Gaywood. After a steady Start both batsmen started looking to attack the Welsh bowling.Although at the 30 Over stage the Scoreboard read only 142-1 the stage had been set for 15 overs of batting mayhem! First Nick Gaywood and then Tony Birbeck starting flaying the rather ‘Sheepish’ Welsh bowling to all parts of Dumbleton. All in all the last 15 over’s yielded 228 runs at an Average of over 15 runs per over.An impressive return in any form of Cricket and perhaps more so at Senior level. Vice Captain Chris ‘Noddy’ Dearden who followed the wkts of Nick Gaywood and the unlucky Monte Douglas perhaps exemplified the EPIC nature of the last 15 with a 36 ball 85 not out.Taking our final score to 370-3 off our 45 allocated overs. Whatever the Captain said to the Batsmen at the 30 over drinks mark certainly spurred them on to a great and rather ruthless attacking display. The Bazball era seems to have translated down to the 60+Consciousness as well. Our main Contributors with the Bat were in order of appearance. Merriman 45, Gaywood 80, Birbeck 136 no and Dearden 85 no.
The Welsh lads left the field a bit shell shocked after they had restricted the scoring admirably for the first 30 overs but the Force was definitely with the English batters for the last 15.
After the delights of a Local Tea featuring Scones and cream alongside the savoury Salads and sandwiches. A positive looking England side took to the field. Understandably the Welsh batsmen looked a little jaded after their exertions in the field. Our Opening Bowling attack of John Whiting (Hants) and Tony Rhodes (Herts) bowled containing and attacking spells and Tony Rhodes took 1-10 0ff his opening 6 overs. Chris Deakin (Lancs) and Jim Phillips (Kent) also bowled very tidy and threatening Spells and Jim ended up with figures of 9-0-24-2. Graham Shaw also chipped in with two wickets as well. A good and steady all round bowling performance, which really stifled the Welshmans reply before they really got into their stride. Exceptional knocks by Mike Caden 66 and a Cameo 42no from Richard Harris brought the Wales total to a respectable 204-7 in reply but at no point was it threatening the England total.
So all in all a Good Team building performance from England with some stand out individual performances.What remains now is for the England Squads to take their form into the 5 Test Series with Australia. The First Test is on 12th July at Thame CC in Oxfordshire. In an ‘Ashes’ Summer which promises to be ‘EPIC’ all round. Bring it on! England are Certainly ready.
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John Butterworth England Seniors at The World Cup in Chennai, India 