Foul Weather Affects Shipwrecks' Progress

The Shipwrecks went down narrowly in their final League fixture, a top of the table encounter with Dalton at the Kingholm on Thursday in which the home team got the worst of some stormy conditions.

Scores: Dalton 90 - 6 (Barnes 25 ret, Irwin 25 ret, Scarfe 17 ; Hutchinson 2-14) : Shipwrecks 85 - 5 (R Raverty 22, P Raverty 21, Hutchinson 17 n.o. ; Newport 2-12)
Dalton won by five runs

Having lost the toss, Shipwrecks took the field and restricted the run rate until a heavy westerly gale set in causing dangerously slippery decks and a number of no balls that should probably have resulted in an abandonment. Complicated navigational calculations however suggested that the Second Division Championship probably depended on the outcome so the match was continued with some enthusiasm - at least from the visitors - after a brief interruption.

Meanwhile the match ball had started to ressemble a bar of Wright's Coal Tar Soap and the Shipwrecks accordingly dropped a fistful of takeable chances.  Nevertheless, Davey "Jones" Fallas ran out the mysteriously enrolled FGc by kicking the ball onto the stumps and Andy Hutchinson removed McCutcheon with a slow yorker.  So Dalton had to run hard to record any sort of decent score.

Shipwrecks innings was marred by an early incident when John Dougan retired offended by an insulting remark from an oppostion fielder after nearly having been decapitated by a dangerous no ball. Fortunately the matter was resolved by an exchange of semaphore signals between the two captains and the rest of the game was played according to the normal rules of engagement.

Newport fell over twice on the by now soaking artificial as the Raverty brothers made steady progress without running each other out. But at the end of the game Shipwrecks best batters, Hutchinson and Fallas, were left stranded with not enough balls to mount a decisive final attack.

A mighty six by Hutchinson off Newport's last over gave momentary hope but Dalton ran out winners, helped by two sharp catches by a shoeless and padless unnamed Aussie freeloader behind the sticks.

The Sailor Jerry Man of the Match Award went to the cheery Andy Hutchinson for his strong overall contribution.

Tragedy At Sea

If Wednesday's cup performance was one of the Shipwrecks' better days, Thursday's league fixture against Dalton was one of their worst - a day when everything that could go wrong did go wrong and no amount of maritime puns can do justice to the full horror of the carnage that resulted.

First Mike Lumb had to be dispatched to pick up Danny McBryde at 6.00 pm, with the result that they did not arrive until four overs have been bowled.  So instead of ten men in the field against Dalton's eight batters, there were effectively six as continuing injuries to Colin Taylor and Donald McCuaig limited their mobility in the field. On a murky evening where batting first would have been a clear advantage as well as buying some time to get organised, the toss had of course been lost.

Not only that, opening bowlers Alasdair McEwen and Peter Cooper lapsed into a series of half trackers on the slowest pitch in the League so that the score had rocketed to 44 - 0 as the Dalton openers Steele and Barnard gleefully helped themselves.

Cooper's second two overs did improve, enabling him to bowl the Dalton figurehead, Amanda Creedon who played on first ball and was followed shortly by W. Jack, but Chris Lumb also started poorly with a number of wides before settling down.

Colin Taylor struggled to get to the wicket at all and his first three deliveries were dispatched for four. There was a brief moment of hope when he caught and bowled both Scarfe and Graham-Campbell in quick succession, the former with a particularly good catch.

At this stage there was still a possibility that the game could be brought back in control, but it was effectively lost when Davey Davidson was dropped with the score on 79. Shipwrecks contrived to drop him twice more as he piled on the runs with Richmond and the returning Creedon, who wittily remarked that she would be keeping her legs together in future.  Davidson was eventually very well taken by Chris Lumb at cover but by now the damage had been done.

Although there were plenty of runs to be had on a fast outfield, Dalton's 138 already looked an unlikely target.  Sid Oates and Danny McBryde made a slow start, amassing 10 off four overs as McBryde ran two short runs.  Both were quickly bowled by Davidson in his first over. The same bowler eventually accounted for Chris Lumb, who top scored with 17 after looking promising.

A little before that Richmond removed Mike Service, who had already clouted a couple of boundaries, with his first ball and Mike Lumb with his second.  There was some resistance from Cooper, Jim Worthington and McCuaig but McEwen capped a poor night by getting out for four and Taylor was the second to record a golden duck.  By this time anyway, Shipwrecks hopes of retaining their unbeaten League record had subsided far beyond the darkening horizon.

Home advantage on a pitch like Dalton is an important factor but Shipwrecks were completely out of sorts and, for the most, played like a team suffering from jetlag.

Scores: Dalton 138 -7 (Richmond 28 ret, Barnard 25 ret, Steele 25 ret, Davidson 22, Scarfe 12 ; Connor 2-22, Taylor 2-32) : Shipwrecks 88 – 8 (C. Lumb 17, Worthington 11 n.o., Connor 11 ; Davidson 3-16)