Luck of the R's (ish)

With dark rain clouds in the area, Rowington visited Bidford with a team with 4 regular players away with minor excuses such as a dislocated ankle, broken fibula and tibia. Captain Scott Rogers showed his consistent form this year and immediately lost the toss and was inserted to bat on a green looking pitch. In protest, opener Haywood decided that if Scott wanted to bat so badly then he could, and promptly lost his middle stump so the skipper could come into bat. This proved a masterstroke as he and the other opener, Alex Smith, batted with growing assurance and started to put the Bidford bowlers to the sword. With the score on 100 at 25 overs the skipper needed to change his shirt and dry his hair after a little light shower, so promptly gave catching practice to long on, for a fine 52. Alex Smith continued to impress but was unlucky to be given out lbw for 53. The Bidford bowlers tightened their lines and Rowington finished on 183-5 with Greg Pryor scoring 26 not out and Simon Cross 34. However, with wickets in hand and only 83 scored off the last 20 overs, the score looked a little light. Gretton with 10-1-22-2 was the pick of the Bidford bowlers.

With the darkening sky still looking threatening and an occasional light shower passing over the ground, the Bidford openers started steadily but were never ahead of the run rate with tight bowling from the Rowington attack. The pivotal moment came when an lbw appeal was turned down, with the umpire making the mistake of making his own decision and not asking Steve Jay first. This seemed to spark Steve (Lazarus) Jay into action and he then proceeded to take lbw out of the equation and clean bowled batsmen numbers 2, 3 and 4 with his last four overs going for 3 runs with 3 wickets, all with stumps cart wheeling out of the ground (they were very loosely put in!). With Leon Clarke producing an immaculate spell of 8-2-18-3 Bidford were in trouble at 69-7. Billy Sly continued the good work and, on a day when the luck was with the Rs, took a stunning caught and bowled. Scott Rogers brought on Steve Griffin whose flight and guile was too much for Bidford and, charging down the wicket, took a well worked caught and bowled leaving one wicket to get. Another good bowling change, where he bought himself back, saw the skipper bowl the last batsmen and leave Bidford all out for 93 to give the Rs an excellent victory built on a superb display in the field, with all the catches taken and even another from Simon Cross at long on. Faultless scoring from Mr Shaw recorded that only the Bidford openers T Edkins and K Downing reached double figures.

Rowington bowling figures, Jay 3-24, Rogers 1-17, Clarke 3-18, Sly 2-16 and Griffin 1-10.

An excellent afternoon’s work where, unlike last week, the rain gods were definitely on Rowington’s side.

Clive Haywood