Warm temperatures and clear skies greeted the players for the penultimate match of our Shropshire League Regional Central East Division campaign. This was a crucial game between the top two in the league with the winners having the opportunity to win the division with one game remaining. Wellington is a big club so it was a shame that the pitch was poorly presented - clearly not having been cut, swept or re-painted since the previous use.

Our usual duo of Arran and Harvey opened the batting for Church and immediately it became obvious that the pitch was far too dry - a slow deck with poor carry as the ball didn’t come onto the bat nicely and offered only slow turn for the spinners. This made for a slow start against quality opening bowling but stand-in skipper Arran and Harvey were superbly controlled and knew what was at stake. They built a very steady partnership which slowly built momentum as the overs ticked by. They never looked in trouble and by the time Arran retired not out on 52 from 65 balls the first target of 100 runs and 3 batting points had already been achieved.

Stand-in keeper James came in to join Harvey in the middle and knowing that wickets were very unlikely on this pitch I asked them to try to get us a fourth batting point which would still keep us in the hunt for honours even if we lost this match. Harvey was of the opinion that this feat was unlikely but nevertheless (due to poor fielding) they managed to score 6 leg-byes in the final over to bring up our innings total of 125 and four batting points - Harvey not out with 45 off 54 deliveries.

I felt that our total was the best that could have been achieved given the slow pitch and quality bowling. There was no doubt that we would have to bowl very well to win and I asked our bowlers to try to get us just two wickets so that even in the event of a loss the title would be in our own hands. Arch & Arran took the ball and bowled the first 6 overs between them and Wellington got off to a good start notwithstanding our quality with the ball. Arch was very economical as usual with his first three overs only going for 10 runs but apart from one dropped catch off Arch’s bowling neither he nor Arran looked like getting the breakthrough in terms of taking two wickets. Arran kept himself on for his full allocation but Arch was held back in the hope that he could pick up a wicket or two late in the day.

I thought Arran’s captaincy was very sensible given what was resting on the result and he only used the older bowlers in an effort to get us over the line. First change bowlers Harvey and Emelia kept things tight for their full allocation of 4 overs each but Wellington’s best player - their skipper - was starting to control the game once beyond the midway point. Jack and Lauren were third change with 5 overs remaining and Jack was getting big but very slow turn whilst Lauren bowled nicely with good control. Nevertheless by the time Arch was given the ball for his final over it was too late and after only two balls Wellington had won the game with 10 balls to spare. A very strange game indeed and one I don’t think I’ll ever witness again - no wickets in over 38 overs of a 20:20 match!

Everyone contributed either with the ball or in the field but Harvey was man of the match for his performance with the bat & ball - run close by Arran with the bat. A special mention must go to Jack D who on debut for the U15s fielded exceptionally well.

Thanks go to all parents for giving their support but in particular to the parents of our four U11s players who very kindly gave up their Monday evening to help us out with so many of our usual players missing.