Little Bardfield Village CC vs. Long Melford CC 1st XI
Date: 29th June 2024
Venue: Fortress Bardfield
Toss: Little Bardfield won the toss and chose to bat
On what was one of the more glorious summer days of 2024 so far Little Bardfield welcomed Long Melford to their glorious corner of the Essex countryside.
Skipper Rory Hitchcock won the toss and decided the conditions favoured a bat so Matt Graham and Mohammad Khan padded up and made their way out to the middle to face Long Melford's opener. After a cautious start Khan (8) tucked away a couple of 4's but Joshua Burgess caught him off a ball from Long Melford 1st XI debutant Otto Norris. This brought Rory out to the middle, he and Matt went about trying to get the runs flowing and put the early dismissal to the back of mind.
The veteran Little Bardfield batsmen were ticking along nicely until Rory (20) found the hands of Burgess once again, this time off fellow 1st XI debutant Hayden Ambrose. Daryl was up next to bat on the wicket he spent approximately 103 hours of his week preparing. Matt (44) was going nicely, prompting the Bardfield scorer to alert his fellow Oxslips that their opening batsman was approaching his half century. This however, was quickly followed by Matt's bails being removed by Ambrose and a long trudge back to the changing room.
Joe Owen walked out with Bardfield 89/3 from 22 overs and the home side needing to add runs. Joe and Daryl did not disapoint putting together a great partnership and lifting the Oxslip spirits. As Daryl (48) approached his half century the LB scorer once again let the rest of the team know he was close to his 50 and to get ready to celebrate but this again prompted a fall of wicket. A Burgess delivery was plucked out of the air by Matt Hoadley, finishing Daryl's spell at the crease and the home sides scorer was left wondering if he was jinxing things...
LBVCC were 189/4 as Will Slemmings (4) took to the field. However, his time was brief and he also fell to a Burgress delivery, caught by Harrison Walsham. Joe (48) was now approaching his half century and the Oxslip scorer was keeping very quiet about it. Any thoughts of a jinx were dispelled as Joe was bowled clean by Hoadley and left the field to the applause of the spectators.
This left Jack Davies and Tom Graham to get 1 run to help Bardfield achieve full batting bonus points which they achieved. Tom (2) was then caught by Kieran Pettitt from a Walsham delivery, an enthusiastic Ben Hounslow met Jack in the middle with the goal of denying Melford any additional bowling bonus points.
Mission accomplished and Little Bardfield finished their innings 207/7.
This weeks tea was a joint effort from the Oxslip squad, a notable contribution from Ben who provided enough pasta to feed an army.
After a carb heavy affair the home side geared themselves up to bag a full 20 points. Long Melfords openers strode out intending to kill that dream, Sam Blackman (who is also one of Little Bardfields Junior Cricket coaches...) and Nick Wright opened. Wright (7) fell early to a Khan ball, to Bardfield celebrations.
Burgess joined Blackman in the middle and they steadied things, ticking the run rate up nicely and finding gaps in the home sides field. The pace of Jahan Zadram, Matt and Rory were not able to dislodge the Melford partnership. Rory decided spin was the way forward and bought Tom into the bowling attack.
In his second over Tom delivered the goods, with the assitance of Jack, sent Burgress (32) back to the pavillion. The elder Graham brother struck again on his next over dismissing Blackman (42) with a that left the visiting batsman flummoxed and the Oxslips in awe.
The visiting side were now 107/3 from 21 overs, Bardfield needed to take more wickets, tighten their fielding and stop the flow of extras being given away...unfortunately this was something the boys struggled to do. The Suffolk side made it to 166 before another excellent delivery from Tom dismissed Phillip King (33). With the away side 166/4 from 30 overs the Oxslips knew the only path to victory was by taking the remaining 6 wickets.
Sadly this wasn't to be, Rory managed to take bowl Hoadley (14) but the visitors were 192/5 with 11 overs remaning. Pettitt and Walsham saw the visitors over the line and Long Melford finished 211/5 from 37 overs, winning by 5 wickets.
Little Bardfield travel to Sudbury next week, hoping to do the double over the team currently sitting 3rd in the league.
