South Kelsey v BARTON TOWN CRICKET CLUB 2nd X1 on Sat 20 Jun 2009 at 13.30pm

Scorecard

South Kelsey v BARTON TOWN CRICKET CLUB 2nd X1 on Sat 20 Jun 2009 at 13.30pm
BARTON TOWN CRICKET CLUB Won by 9 wickets

Match report And here is me complaining that I have never done well in this Cup since I came to these parts six years ago now!

It was an absolute pleasure to travel to the quaint, beautiful and idyllic cricket ground presented by South Kelsey (please note, as my future in-laws found out, this ground is to be found in Nettlham and not South Kelsey!)

It is clear that the home club have worked tirelessly to produce a cricket ground worthy of premiership cricket and a wicket, despite the damp conditions, that performed excellently!

It is always a pleasure to greet Barry Potter and his team and when toss went the homeside's way they elected to bat knowing they had an understrength team (I could empathise with this as last years Cup Fixture against the same side found me 6 - 7 regulars short and we were duly hammered!)

This day will be remembered significantly for the return of Paul Bell to his home Club. An extremely talented cricketer - his opening spell of 7 overs for 7 runs was too good for the South Kelsey batsmen and as a result only produced 2 wickets. Tom Palin suffered early on going for 20 runs off 2 overs (but this lad is made of sterner stuff and will bounce back in the season no doubt). Al Sanderson was excellent with 9 overs for 14 runs for a return of 3 wickets. Tester did not quite complete an over before running out the last Kelsey batsman with the home side back in the pavillion for 70 runs.

The rain delays (4 in total) did nothing to help either side. Once again, the fast emerging "player of the season" Phil "the Barrell" "the Hulk" Burrell performed excellently to take three wickets for 26 runs off 5 overs.

The Barton fielding performance was solid and this was capped off by two incidents that spring to mind. First of all, an excellent (yet again) slip catch by Mellors. Secondly, the Captain's attempt to run as fast as he can underneath a ball that was travelling to deep-mid-off in an attempt to at least try and catch it only to find himself, head down, running towards mid-on and feeling like Uncle Bryn from Gavin & Stacey (you know who you are).

I pause here for a moment only to let you know how difficult it is to Captain characters like Mellors. There is an extremely fine line between team moral and taking the mickey out of team mates for sheer self-indulgence and/or the cheap laugh. I make this announcement now, and those of you that know me realise that once I have said something I never regret it (I refer to my profession), but I will never play under his captaincy so long as I live). I hold myself largely responsible for bringing him back to the game of cricket that he had neglected for the previous decade and suffice to say boy did I regret it on Saturday!

Lover's tiff over.......

Whittaker got out to a skyer having scored 7 and Burrell (38 not out) myself (25 not out) made fair weather of the Kelsey bowling.

So a victory and a semi-final that will be played on Sunday 26 July 2009 with opponents, as yet, unknown.

A quick word for the excellent wicket keeping by Matthew Waller who really has demonstrated maturity behind the wickets this season. He is a prime example of a youngster who has worked hard at his game, at times, with very little help from senior players, and is developing into a good club cricketer. I would also like to thank Mark for his excellent scoring.

With no league fixture this coming Saturday the Club hopes it can count on your support to watch the firsts in action against Broughton, I in particular am looking forward to watching Mellors put into action the game of cricket that which he so often shares with others.

Most importantly, it is a big day for the current 2nd team pro's son, the one and only, the gifted, and supporter of all things Welsh (I am told this is merely a passing phase) John Burrell who will celebrate his birthday this coming Friday but will be down at the Club late on Saturday to share a few beers (let's hope he does not take after his dad). Those of you who attend, please be prepared to bowl tirelessly at this little whippet of a left hander!

Second Team business resumes with a trip to Broughton in a fortnight then a crunch match against Leaders Haxey which will no doubt have a great bearing on our season.

South Kelsey Batting

70 for 9

Player name		Runs

BARTON TOWN CRICKET CLUB 2nd X1 Bowling

Player Name	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets	Average	Economy
Paul Bell	7.0	3	7	2	3.50	1.00
Thomas Palin	2.0	0	20	0	0.00	10.00
Alan Sanderson	9.0	3	14	3	4.67	1.56
Phil Burrell	5.0	0	26	3	8.67	5.20
A.N. Other	0.5	0	2	0	0.00	2.40

BARTON TOWN CRICKET CLUB 2nd X1 Batting

72 for 1

Player Name		Runs	Catches
Jeremy Evans	Not Out	25	1
Nick Whittaker	Caught	7
Phil Burrell	Not Out	38
Elliot sampson
Gaz Mellors			1
Thomas Palin
Alan Sanderson
Paul Bell			1
Matt Waller
Billy Wright
A.N. Other