Tour 2008 -- Sheffield
When: Monday 28th July to Thursday 31st July
Match Days: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday
Organisers: Christian Brain (07734051222)
Charlie Brain (07739172522)
Steven Carvey (07764740825)
Fixtures all 2pm starts
Monday: Norton Oakes CC, The Pavilion Norton, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S8 8BA, Pavillion: 01142 557 118
Tuesday: Rotherham Town CC, Clifton Lane, Rotherham, S65 2AA, 01709 361739
Thursday: Sheffield United CC, Graham Solley Sports Centre, Bawtry Road, Tinsley, Sheffield, S9 1UA, 0114 2431099
Tour 2008 Photos HERE
Monday 28th July
8.00am: Just finished packing and all players playing today are meeting at Sainsbury's at 9am to leave for Norton Oakes CC. I will endeavour to keep this page up to date with some pictures and news on all the games.
9.00pm: Arrived and checked in to the Riverside Courthouse hotel (after some confusion) and getting ready to hit the town.
A good day so far, we lost the game against Norton Oak by 10 runs but it was played in good spirit, with plenty of banter and everyone batted or bowled.
There was some confusion with the fixture as their was a youth fixture at 6.15, so being the innovative chaps Shipton-under-Wychwood are renowned for, we invented a new format of the game, Thirty30!
The first over went BIG with Ian Lewis going for about 927 runs from 6 balls. More followed against Brad Bryant and Norton Oakes were suddenly 27 for 0 off two and Shipton were very quiet. Then Man of the Match Ian Lewis got into gear and bowled a further four overs with a heightened sense of purpose and took an opening salvo of 3 wickets including their ex-Berkshire opener, the main cause of the damage early on; apparantly he "rushed" him?!?
Shipton's fielding was generally good, Digger the only real misfield entertainment, although he did take a dolly of a catch off Lewis to dismiss the ex minor county player. Catches were also taken by Ian Lewis at point and Justin Hemming off Hexty at mid-off. Joe Kelly cleaned up the tail with a 4-fer. Only one batsman scored 50, retired, then came back to face 2 of the last 3 balls iin the final over of play, scratching a single -- averages!.
In reply Shipton's chase of 156 stuttered with Tim Senior going for 1 and Andy Thompson for 0. Justin Hemming (23) and Christian Brain (18) steadied the ship for the first 10 overs of this Thirty30 game, but then both gave their wickets away. Joe Kelly strode to the crease to provide the anchor as Ian Lewis (top-score 30) and skipper Charlie Brain attacked the bowling. Lewis managed to clear the pavillion TWICE for maximums, with one fielder declaring "That's big fer round 'ere!". After a spell of gaining ground, wickets fell regularly so it was up to Joe Kelly and Steven Carvey to try and get the 14 required off the last over; unfortunately the pacy Aussie skipper brought himself on and bowled a good death spell, despite Carvey's classy cut to backward-point for four.
Major banter points so far: Andy Thompson promising to meet us at Warwick Services, then Leicester Services, then Woodhampton Services, before meeting us at the ground!
Back Row: Ian Lewis, Joe Kelly, Justin Hemming, Charlie Brain, Andy Thompson, Digger
Front Row: Bradley Bryant, Tom Hext, Steven Carvey, Christian Brain, Tim Senior
2.15 am: A good night so far, first back I'm afraid, bad stomach from Prawns at tea! The Leadmill providing much entertainment, particularly their SMS screen's... can't go into further detail, what goes on tour stays on tour and all that ...
Tuesday 29th July
When we all eventually found Rotherham Towns ground (SatNav was confused by the post code) a couple of things were clear. 1. most of Shipton's players were significantly affected by the previous nights antics and would not be performing to 100% of their ability. 2. The Rotherham Town players could play, were sober and clear-headed, and had no intention of letting us off early! Their 18-year old opener took centre stage with some powerful hits, particularly one shot that was driven straight past Ian Lewis on his follow through at about 200mph. Their Sri Lankan pro (a bowler who knows Wiji, small world) opened the batting and also played several lust blows before being caught on the boundary by Justin Hemming off Ian Lewis. Runs were being scored freely and even tho wickets did occasionaly fall, Steven Carvey misjudged a simple opportunity for their number three when he was on four who then went on to make fifty, and a couple of other misfields from the slightly-worse-for-wear Shiptoners only embroiled Rotherham Town in further runs. Shipton did end up getting them 8 down with Steven Carvey in particular bowling two superb spells, with Tom Hext also providing good support to the attacke, following on from his great spell on Monday, although his last over (20) ruined his figures slightly. Joe Kelly also bowled a superb spell, adding two scalps to his 4-fer the previous day and had two good chances dropped off him as well.
In all Shipton were set a target of 278 to win from 40 overs, so 7's from the off. Things did not start well as in the second over Justin Hemming was caught cutting at point. However Christian Brain then strode to the wicket and despite not accumulating too many runs himself (14) formed a battling partnership with Tim Senior (40). However Brain and Senior, who played a couple of magnificent drives and pulls, fell quickly and Shipton were left to rebuild 3-down. Andy Thompson had scored 1 before chipping a simple catch to round of an awful two days of cricket for himself (a very good evening tourist tho!). Charlie Brain and Ian Lewis added some fire to the innings and scored multiple boundaries to push the total into some respectability before both falling, and it was left to Joe Kelly to try and guide the tail to a respectably total, but Digger was triggered by Hexty, Brad played a great shot to point and Carvey smashed the ball into his foot before getting bowled. The final wicket was an indictment of our performance as Tom Hext saunted down for a run, attempted to go wide of the bowler, and a good through ran him out by a couple of metres.
The good news from all this; we've managed to rope four of the Rotherham Town players into playing for us on Thursday against Sheffield United as we now only have 7 Shiptonites in Sheffield after Digger, Bradley, Andy Thompson and Joe Kelly all had to return to Oxfordshire.
A good evening was had by the remnants of the tour, and by returning to the Hotel between 3 and 4 in the morning, and then promptly staying up until 5ish debating the meaning of life, Shipton ensured a quiet day could be had tomorrow in front of the Test Match... COME ON ENGLAND!
Back Row: Joe Kelly, Justin Hemming, Bradley Bryant, Tim Senior, Tom Hext, Christian Brain
Front Row: Digger, Andy Thompson, Steven Carvey, Charlie Brain, Ian Lewis
Wednesday 30th July
After some confusion as to where we were going to watch the Test Match (Charlie local knowledge did not include venue opening times) we found the Varsity bar which provided us with a hearty lunchtime-breakfast and surround sound footage of the cricket as Vaughan and his men were duly reduced to 160-odd for 6 at tea. At this point three tour light-weights (Justin Hemming, Tim Senior and Tom Hext (first Tour sickness)) returned to the hotel to regain some stamina for the nights frolics as the remaining players powered through their tiredness with seveal daytime pints of Bulmers Pear Cider (other brands are available). Departing the hotel for 20:30 (it's 19:55 as I write this) for food and further exploration of Sheffields boistorous nightlife, I had best get myself ready...
Thursday 31st July
Unfortunately the rain hit; whilst breakfasting in the local ASDA we saw some green rain turn yellow and absolutely hammer down. When we eventually arrived at the ground (Me and Hexty couldn't believe there was more than one cricket ground on the same road, whilst sat at the wrong one), it was blatantly obvious there would be no play. Which, judging by the state of B-I-N-G-O and one or two others, might not have been a bad thing! We were offered the chance to use a great indoor facility they had, which was basically a sports hall with a floor completely covered in matting (no seperate net strips to get crinkled a la Burford School) which could be used for an indoor game, or had 5 nets to pull out and train in. Ian and Chaz had a bat before we headed for home, getting back to the Shire around 4ish.
Writing this bleary-eyed on Friday morning, should be adding my final set of photo's shortly.
Conclusion
Despite a damp ending everybody appeared to enjoy themselves, and thanks goes to the Brains for organising it all.
Best Tourist: Emile Hexty. Most Alcahol Consumption: Steven Carvey. Most heard phrase: Where's Bingo?
Tourists, please feel free to drop any comments, ratings or other stories I've missed so I can add them all in.
Want to keep up-to-date with goings on at Shipton Cricket Club? Enter your name and email address below and receive all the latest news as it happens!
Alternatively all our news is available in an RSS Feed: Use this shortcut.
Copyright ©2006-2007 Shipton Cricket Club. All Rights Reserved.
Designed & Maintained by sWychMedia.
Admin