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Champions!
Martyn Smith21 Aug 2023 - 20:35
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by Ed Price
On Saturday afternoon RWCC 2s welcomed Ebbw Vale CC 2s to the Welfare for a showdown to secure top spot in Div 9. This penultimate game in the league season would prove to be a cracker!
Skipper JT and the usual suspects worked hard to ensure covers were put on and we had the best possible chance of getting a game on. Once the rain stopped, a quick roll of the track (well done Tommy) and we were good to go playing 35 overs per innings.
Of all the tosses to win throughout the whole season, with damp conditions and against our closest rivals, this was the one we needed! JT fell at the first hurdle, clearly not putting enough revolutions on the coin when he flipped it, the opposition captain called right!
Stuck into bat, the now legendary opening partnership from our last division topping team of Alan and Jiffin were reunited! Both looked in good touch and were scoring freely and rotating the strike well. In the 11th over Alan missed a straight one and was bowled for 14. Ed Price arrived at the crease for a very short stay, losing his head after facing only 5 balls, bowled attempting to hit the ball out of the ground for a duck. JT joined Jiffin and he looked very comfortable against some surprisingly average bowling. Just as this partnership looked set to kick on, JT nicked one behind and departed for 15. The mercurial Ed Ryall now joined Jiffin and with two aggressive bats at the crease the scoreboard ticked on at a far greater pace. The next 11 overs flew by with Jiff showcasing his best shots and Ed his superb timing. Eventually Jiff mis-timed one and was caught, ending a superb knock of 79! Looking to set the biggest target possible Ed also holed out on the boundary of cow corner shortly after, for a well hit 44. The last 3 overs saw some clever running and nice shots from Tommy Trinder (10) and Tom Watts (9), ensuring the scoreboard kept ticking until the last ball was bowled.
With a target set of 207, JT was delighted! A score of over 200 in damp conditions would be excellent even in 40 or 45 overs, and Ebbw Vale only had 35 in which to reach the target.
The club mathematicians kindly informed us that if we could bowl our opposition out for under 130, then we would cement first place in the division.
Gareth opened the bowling, with Ferman at the other end. It briefly became apparent why this Ebbw Vale side have had so much success, their openers were not afraid to put the bat through any bowling outside the line of the stumps. For a brief period they scored well and the odd eyebrow was raised amongst RWCC fielders. Thankfully this did not last with their Skipper chopping onto his own stumps off Ferman in the 8th over. As the old saying goes, 1 brings 2 and Gareth duly obliged the very next over scattering their no3 batsman’s stumps all over the place. With everyone in the outfield now pumped up Tom Watts took a simple catch to remove the very dangerous looking left handed opener. From 42-0, Ebbw Vale were now 48-3 and the Rogie pressure was telling. Not wishing to be out of the spotlight for long Gareth bowled an outrageously slow slower ball and with the batsman completed his shot before the ball was halfway down the track and could only listen for the sound of leather on wood as his wicket tumbled too. Jiffin and Jamie Harley were next to bowl and kept things tight, Jamie in particular putting the ball in just the right spot. The pressure told and Jamie picked up two wickets for his efforts, both bowled. Young Harri Williams and JT finished up the last of the Ebbw Vale batsmen. Renowned for his liking of tail end wickets JT surprisingly took a middle order batsman’s wicket and the even more impressive Harri took 3 wickets to finish things off and win us the game.
For the 2nd time in 3 seasons RWCC 2s are Div9 Champions ?. A huge congratulations and well done to everyone who has played a part in our success. Hopefully we can keep the majority of this group of players together and achieve even more success next season.
Before signing off this last match write up, I would like to thank Jiffin for his superb match winning final innings for RWCC as he heads off for a new adventure with his family in Australia. I am sure I speak for everyone at the Club by saying your smiling face will be missed on a Sat afternoon and we wish you and your family the very best of luck for the future.
Skipper JT and the usual suspects worked hard to ensure covers were put on and we had the best possible chance of getting a game on. Once the rain stopped, a quick roll of the track (well done Tommy) and we were good to go playing 35 overs per innings.
Of all the tosses to win throughout the whole season, with damp conditions and against our closest rivals, this was the one we needed! JT fell at the first hurdle, clearly not putting enough revolutions on the coin when he flipped it, the opposition captain called right!
Stuck into bat, the now legendary opening partnership from our last division topping team of Alan and Jiffin were reunited! Both looked in good touch and were scoring freely and rotating the strike well. In the 11th over Alan missed a straight one and was bowled for 14. Ed Price arrived at the crease for a very short stay, losing his head after facing only 5 balls, bowled attempting to hit the ball out of the ground for a duck. JT joined Jiffin and he looked very comfortable against some surprisingly average bowling. Just as this partnership looked set to kick on, JT nicked one behind and departed for 15. The mercurial Ed Ryall now joined Jiffin and with two aggressive bats at the crease the scoreboard ticked on at a far greater pace. The next 11 overs flew by with Jiff showcasing his best shots and Ed his superb timing. Eventually Jiff mis-timed one and was caught, ending a superb knock of 79! Looking to set the biggest target possible Ed also holed out on the boundary of cow corner shortly after, for a well hit 44. The last 3 overs saw some clever running and nice shots from Tommy Trinder (10) and Tom Watts (9), ensuring the scoreboard kept ticking until the last ball was bowled.
With a target set of 207, JT was delighted! A score of over 200 in damp conditions would be excellent even in 40 or 45 overs, and Ebbw Vale only had 35 in which to reach the target.
The club mathematicians kindly informed us that if we could bowl our opposition out for under 130, then we would cement first place in the division.
Gareth opened the bowling, with Ferman at the other end. It briefly became apparent why this Ebbw Vale side have had so much success, their openers were not afraid to put the bat through any bowling outside the line of the stumps. For a brief period they scored well and the odd eyebrow was raised amongst RWCC fielders. Thankfully this did not last with their Skipper chopping onto his own stumps off Ferman in the 8th over. As the old saying goes, 1 brings 2 and Gareth duly obliged the very next over scattering their no3 batsman’s stumps all over the place. With everyone in the outfield now pumped up Tom Watts took a simple catch to remove the very dangerous looking left handed opener. From 42-0, Ebbw Vale were now 48-3 and the Rogie pressure was telling. Not wishing to be out of the spotlight for long Gareth bowled an outrageously slow slower ball and with the batsman completed his shot before the ball was halfway down the track and could only listen for the sound of leather on wood as his wicket tumbled too. Jiffin and Jamie Harley were next to bowl and kept things tight, Jamie in particular putting the ball in just the right spot. The pressure told and Jamie picked up two wickets for his efforts, both bowled. Young Harri Williams and JT finished up the last of the Ebbw Vale batsmen. Renowned for his liking of tail end wickets JT surprisingly took a middle order batsman’s wicket and the even more impressive Harri took 3 wickets to finish things off and win us the game.
For the 2nd time in 3 seasons RWCC 2s are Div9 Champions ?. A huge congratulations and well done to everyone who has played a part in our success. Hopefully we can keep the majority of this group of players together and achieve even more success next season.
Before signing off this last match write up, I would like to thank Jiffin for his superb match winning final innings for RWCC as he heads off for a new adventure with his family in Australia. I am sure I speak for everyone at the Club by saying your smiling face will be missed on a Sat afternoon and we wish you and your family the very best of luck for the future.
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