Shipwrecks Run Aground On Haymeadow

Shipwrecks lost their first round Midweek Cup encounter to the aptly named Kingholm Meadow by three wickets last Wednesday, but the real winner was the outfield, which clearly hadn't seen a cutlass for several weeks and severely frustrated the efforts of both sides to play reasonable cricket shots.

Cut down by a mixture of battle scars, leave commitments and an outbreak of scurvy, the 'Wrecks could only field nine players.  However, they did manage to muster debutant Derek "Shabba" Rankine against their First Division opponents, who themselves seemed short of a few old hands.

In the strange, lowscoring but not uninteresting game that resulted, Shipwrecks lost the toss and were invited to bat.

Alex Goes Aerial
(note ankle-high grass)

Torn between defence and attack, Mike Service gave an early caught and bowled to Harry Potter (aka Mark Wharton) and Jim "Lad" Worthington was quickly becalmed on 1 for six overs before he was bowled. Alex Taylor broke the deadlock with a couple of titanic sixes, but was then unluckily bowled off his pads by a delivery from Harriman that was passing well down leg side. Rankine soon steered one straight to point off Willie Woodhouse, at which juncture Shipwrecks were 21 - 4 off 9.1 overs and it looked like the opposition would be home and dry.

Colin Taylor and Skipper Alasdair McEwen determined to bat out the overs and made some slow headway until Taylor was lbw for 7 trying to part the waves in the 17th over.  McEwen had more success with some late support from Andy Cameron and Donald McCuaig, as Shipwrecks reached a hardearned 49 - 6.

Kingholm Meadow were even slower to get underway, as Rankine completely tied up one end whilst clean bowling openers Dougan and Muir.  Andy Cameron meanwhile took a spectacular one-handed catch to remove David C off McEwen and Tom Woodhouse was neatly taken by Alex Taylor off his father's first delivery.

Cameron followed up by bowling R. Raverty and Craig, at which point the favourites were still foundering in the twenties, and the feverish on-pitch excitement was even enough to catch the attention of the occasional dogwalker on the towpath.

Unfortunately, Peter Harriman, the only opposition batsman to reach double figures, stood firm after Taylor dismissed Irving and managed to secure victory off the last ball off the nineteenth over. Nevertheless, it was a creditable performance by a scratch Shipwrecks team in difficult conditions against nominally stronger opposition and could easily have produced a different result.

The Man of the Match Award will go to whoever cuts the grass before our next game.

Scores: Shipwrecks 49 - 6 (A.Taylor 16, A. McEwen 15 n.o. ; W. Woodhouse 2-4, Harriman 2-7, Wharton 2-10) : Kingholm Meadow 51 - 7 (Harriman 24 n.o. ; Rankine 2-2, Cameron 2-11, C. Taylor 2-13)