TH lose narrowly to Cavaliers

A truly beautiful day at TH on Saturday with the thermometer hitting 25 degrees surely had to mean good cricket alongside the lavish application of factor 50. Fortunately there was good cricket and nobody got burnt.
Cavaliers won the toss and decided to bat reflecting the fact that they were fielding a strong team with a number of rather large chaps who could give the ball a bit of a smack – I guess they have had weaker teams in earlier weeks given their position towards the bottom of the table. One of their bigger boys hit a crucial 74 having survived 1 or 2 very close lbw calls. For TH David J continued his recent improvement with 9 decent overs. Stewart K looking threatening in his first game for a couple of weeks claimed 4 wickets in his spell.
The fielding ? Hmmmmm! Couple of good moments but too many sloppy moments – the fact that the team hardly managed to get the ball back to the bowler without someone dropping the thing or someone lobbing it 2 feet over someone as tall as AK was a good reflection of the standard. The old people have the excuse that they physically can’t bend down anymore or judge distance very well but no excuses (not even David J getting distracted by a topless sunbather 100 yards away) for the 4 14-17 year olds. I hope they and other U18s turn up for BKs special fielding session on Monday night. Gavin M’s keeping exempt from any criticism as he kept tidily and kept his concentration for 50 overs in the heat.
Cavaliers final total of 251 appeared to be slightly too many to chase but in the end the team got very close falling for 236 in the 49th over. If the fielding effort was disappointing there was a lot to be positive about in the batting effort. Shaid (39) and Stewart K (29) gave the innings a strong start despite Shaid deciding he’d pulled a muscle part way through the innings. A runner was duly called and the first ball after the runner was installed Shaid hit into a gap and went sprinting down the wicket ; he then had to turn to get back into his crease and moved faster than anyone has ever seen him move before – not that we’re saying he was just tired !! It was then the run of Andy K (51) to finally turn his obvious batting ability into an important innings with shots all over the place. If he can manage his head (pretty big job) there’ll be plenty more of that to come. Gavin M (28) played his second strong innings of the season which included a crowd pleasing 6 back over the opening bowlers head. Should be clearing the trees when he moves from pipsqueak to pipman. Arjun L also played a decent innings despite being very tired from playing a school game in the morning (don’t tell Headcoach Matt Kellett - he’d have played 2 games of cricket and popped down the mine for some coal by lunchtime when he was 15) and Mark W refused to be intimidated at the end of the innings playing solid straight bat shots to the final few overs.
Having got close it was disappointing to suffer a second defeat in a row but in the context of the club’s drive to continue developing and put in place a strong youth section there was enough good news to offset the disappointment. Looking forward to continuing the education on the concrete strips of Hamilton and Active Life over the next fortnight!!