Week 3 Match Report
Grewer rediscovers fantasy form
Askham Bryan I had a comfortable victory against Ovington on a day of mixed weather at the Knavesmire. Initially sunny during Ovington’s innings, then clouding over (according to John McCullogh’s scorecard), there was rain during an extended tea interval before the sun shone for Askham’s run chase.
Ovington lost early wickets, compiling only 84 runs in total as Mark Grewer took a five-for with some crafty seam bowling. Woody contributed 3 wickets at the other end with some fine pace bowling on a pitch that offered little bounce. After some brief resistance from the Ovington tail, Chris Copeland claimed a much-deserved wicket before an astute bit of fielding from John McCullogh saw the last man run out.
After a fine tea and the first hearing of the fines appeals committee*, Mr Grewer and Mr McKenzie took the strike to start the run chase. They started positively with both batsmen scoring delightful boundaries, before Mr Grewer was bowled for 10 and Mr McKenzie followed for 11. This brought to the crease Chris Copeland and Pete Wood, the Trescothick and Gooch of the batting order. They faced some excellent bowling – in particular from the younger Ovington players – which saw a lot of seam movement and some very close LBW shouts. However, the two stayed in and Pete Wood hit a six to win the game, with possibly one of the heaviest bats to grace the Vale League.
View Mark’s Photo on the York Press site.
Thornton Special but no sinking Thorpe Willoughby
The second team unfortunately suffered almost reverse fortunes to the first team. They managed to bowl out Thorpe Willoughby II for 150, with Paul Thornton claiming 8-33, including four wickets in his final over.
Unfortunately the team couldn’t make the run chase, finishing 70 all out. However, there was some good news – Steve Mason top scored on 22 whilst John Lewis recorded his personal best of 9. Bradley Wood also made his first runs for Askham Bryan, scoring 2 not out.
This week also saw debuts for John Moore and David Earl.
View reports on the vale league site.
* The fines hearings committee listened to two appeals from Chris Copeland – one for his fine for wearing a tweed jacket, the other for his quote on modern technology – “There is no achievement on getting somewhere using Sat Nav”. The former was upheld, the latter overturned. Justice, however, was the true victor.