DOMINANT BOWLING DISPLAY DOES FOR TWINEHAM AS GREYS GET THEIR DAY IN THE SUN.

The sun was shining, the birds were singing and eleven mighty Greysmen strutted into the metropolis of Twineham with all the verve and poise you would expect from a team comprised of such handsome gentlemen. Unhindered this year by dead wildlife in the changing rooms, their preparations were relaxed and the team remained unfazed as they were asked to bowl first in the early afternoon heat.

The formidable opening partnership of Ally Gally and Good Ben, set the tone of what was to become an entirely dominant bowling display. Ben (6-0-23-2) splaying the opener Trollope’s stumps asunder to take the first wicket with a dipping full toss. The batsmen graciously walking with no complaints despite Ben’s loud, foul-mouthed berating of the ball before its full potential was realised. At the other end, Alan (8-4-16-1) produced an incredible display of fast bowling, varying lines and length to induce playing and missing countless times. It was a spell that at a higher grade of cricket would probably have yielded many more wickets, but as it was the Twineham bats couldn’t get their edges anywhere near the majority of deliveries.

As the innings progressed, the bowlers changed but the standard didn’t. Robbie and Eeyo (that’s how I’m spelling it) barely bowled a bad ball between them and reaped the rewards as wickets began to tumble with increased regularity. Eeyo (9-2-18-4) clean bowled two of his scalps, and were it not for some hapless fielding from Ashton who dropped an easy one in the covers, would have claimed a deserved Michelle. Robbie (8-1-38-3), matching his partners consistency, claimed three for himself including the dangerous-looking, Edwards, who had added 44 much-needed runs for the home side.

Like the Four Greysmen of the Apocalypse, all the bowlers displayed deadly accuracy and got the ball to move an almost horrifying amount. Dismissing a good batting line up for a paltry 103 runs was quite some achievement and made life much easier for the Greys batters, who tried their best not to eat too many of the delicious scones at tea.

The Greys openers took the field in confident mood but, knowing they’d never claimed victory at this most picturesque of stadia, were not counting any chickens. This turned out to be a wise move, as the Twineham bowlers started in an uncompromising mood. Biff was the first to fall being rather unlucky to get the faintest, feathery tickle on one down the leg-side, but Jerry and Tel ‘The Shadow’ Burgess then dug deep and played well to see off the majority of the bowling from the very good opening pair. Zack (3rd spelling of the year – pretty sure this is correct) was unlucky, having started positively, to get a nick on one that landed on a very tricky length.

Unpanicked, the Greys began to assert some control with Ashton thick-edging and playing-and-missing his way into double figures under the guidance of Sensei Felton. Alex, having already taken 3 catches earlier in the day (including one sensational take down the leg-side), batted with a calm assurance and with no little panache, dispatching one beautifully-timed textbook sweep to the boundary and pulling another into one of the surrounding hederows. After the Twineham fielders had failed to punish some overly-enthusiastic run calls, the Greys closed in on their total with time to spare. Ashton finally connected properly with one, sending it over the man at deep square-leg to claim his 50 and the Greys the match. Lovely.