Thursday July 14th, v Clayesmore Cormorants, at Sherborne

Sherborne Pilgrims 184 (A Dike 4-19); Clayesmore Cormorants 185-7 (T Hicks 51 not out). Lost by 3 wickets

In my opinion the Upper has never looked as good as it did on this cloudless morning: the perfect setting for a game of cricket. The toss was won by Sherborne, and in typical fashion they elected to bat. The Pilgrims had a very balanced side, batting to 11, in the hope that
with runs on the board we could put sustained pressure throughout through tidy fielding and tight bowling.

Archie Mackay-James was caught behind in the second over, arguably being the only batsman to be "got out" in the innings (Henry Cheal will say differently) and Tom Gibbs was caught off a leading edge for three a few overs later. At the other end George Wayman proceeded to tuck into the opening bowlers and the score raced to 60 for two from 10 overs. He somehow manages to make agricultural hacks look elegant, especially his first of two sixes which flew comfortably over the midwicket boundary. The elegance usually subsides after each shot as he swaggers back to the striker's end. Unfortunately he has a tendency to hit the ball in the air, which, eventually was his demise falling for a very well compiled 49 (36 scored in boundaries).

This left Theo Cooke (18) and Charlie Carline (13) to rebuild, which they set about doing. At 83 for three the game looked tightly poised, but both fell in quick succession and after a further three wickets the Pilgrims found themselves in the bizarre position of 110 for seven with only 24 overs having been bowled. This brought Simon Lamb and Rupert Bagnall to the crease. After seeing off the left arm chinaman bowling of Dike who had by this point bowled 10 overs, taking 4 for 19, Lamb accelerated and started striking some pleasing boundaries. The best of the bunch was one on the up splitting cover and mid-off with marked precision. We made it to lunch, saving some embarrassment, and Bagnall’s beer obviously had effect as he missed a straight one bringing in last man Alex Willis.

He made 27 with only 5 dot balls, punishing the bad ball and knocking the good ones for singles. He and Lamb put on 43 for the last wicket before Lamb was bowled for a priceless 35. The Pilgrims had scored 184, but criminally six overs had been unused. Henry Cheal floated down the hill for his opening spell, bowling seven overs for just 15, including a wicket. Bagnall battled up the hill with similar success, in the process of displaying some phenomenal exhibits of appealing. 19 for two became 48 for four which soon was 87 for six with the Pilgrims right on top. Simon Lamb and Theo Cooke bowled 20 overs of
off spin, Lamb three for 33. With Clayesmore in considerable trouble, the two Hicks brothers came to the crease (one being captain of Dorset).

They never got away from the rate and played with evident skill and experience. Eventually 11 were needed off the last two overs. Henry Cheal bowled a tight over, but unfortunately Will Fegen couldn’t quite limit them to fewer than five from the last. In the end a good game of cricket that we were just on the wrong side of.

Theo Cooke