1st XI win big at Godalming

Saturday 13th June 2015
Surrey Championship Division 5
Stoke D’Abernon 281 for 8 declared (46.2 overs)
Godalming 56 all out (29.2 overs)
Stoke D’Abernon won by 225 runs

A club record Surrey Championship margin of victory for Stoke’s 1st XI with a dominant performance over a Godalming side still very much in transition. Results elsewhere also saw Stoke move top of Division 5 for the first time this season.

Will Gudgeon’s toss record dropped to 50% so we batted first on an unusually slow track for this part of Surrey. Nick Lo and Billy Newman took guard and saw off the first 10 overs before a ball from Horne stopped on Newman who scooped up a catch to Hale at mid off for 19.

In a change to the regular batting order James Whitmarsh came in at 3 and added 69 for the 2nd wicket with Lo. With Horne and Davies seen off Stoke tucked into the change bowling which didn’t measure up to the standard of the openers. Whitmarsh was particularly confident on the off side as anything with width was punched to the boundary. Lo took the aerial route a few times, but accumulated well and the shorter square boundaries were hit several times by both batsmen.

Whitmarsh perished for 35 with the score on 100 trying to hit Sewell over the top and Lo brought up his half century in the next over with 1 of 3 consecutive leg side boundaries. Ian Hopton joined a now expansive Lo at the crease for a quickfire partnership of 38 before Lo was lbw to Sewell for 70.

Will Gudgeon came in and almost immediately went on the offensive. The pair hit aggressively, pushing the run rate past 5 per over and at one point scored 45 off just 3 overs. They appeared to be in a race to see who could get to 50 first, until a problem running gifted the hosts a wicket. Hopton turned the ball to leg and called no, Gudgeon called yes and very soon they were at the same end before Hopton trudged back for 41.

Gudgeon made sure this was a minor setback in the innings and passed his 50 soon after from just 25 balls. 2 ball changes were needed after the local gardens took the sort of pummeling we normally associate with the houses on Blundell Lane before Gudgeon top edged the ball to Clarke behind the stumps on 78 from 43 balls, an innings that included 7 4s and 6 6s – no mean feat at this ground.

Tom Frost demoralised the opposition further with a quick 20 from 14 balls as Greg Routley (in his last Stoke game), Will Thomson and Mike Carty all swung their bats for the team, and all got out to the returning Horne who finished with 4-49, and will have to wait to bowl his hat-trick ball (although he would face a hat-trick ball later on in the day). The result was 281-8 in 46.2 overs.

Adrian Mills and Toby Tarrant took the new ball and it was a while before the runs column overtook the overs column, Mills starting with 4 consecutive maidens.

If you’ve played against us this year you’ll have noticed we talk a lot in the field (usually winding each other up) and the radio stations related chat this time around was probably about as nonsensical as we’ve got so far. With this in mind you’d be forgiven for thinking Tarrant in particular lacks focus with the ball in his hands, but his pace and good variation in length put paid to that theory on Saturday, the fuller ball earning 2 of the first 3 wickets to fall during his best spell of the season so far.

In between his 2 wickets was a run out. An ambitious second run was made to look very silly indeed when Hopton swooped, turned and threw in 1 motion for Carty to whip the bails off at the bowler’s end.

Number 5 Hansen looked to be positive hitting 2 of the 3 balls he faced from Mills back over the bowler’s head for 4 before being discombobulated by the change up delivery and succeeding only to drop the ball onto his own stumps.

Tarrant left the attack after 9 overs having taken 2-17 and was replaced at the pavilion end by Hopton who claimed the next 2 wickets before the drinks break, Dawson dancing down the track only to be stumped by Whitmarsh and Stow picking out Thomson at mid wicket.

There was an element of the end being only a matter of time after drinks as more shots were played by the home side. We know from previous encounters they are a better side than they showed this time out, but for whatever reason they didn’t seem to have the patience to stick around.

Mills took wickets with consecutive balls thanks to a well judged catch looking into the sun by Hopton and a leg before decision, but couldn’t make the number 10 batsman play the hat-trick delivery. He finished with figures of 15-8-23-3.

Hopton finished the game off, in the process returning his best figures of the season to date with 4-14. A bowled and a catch at mid on for skipper Gudgeon being the final action on the field.

The result was the perfect end to his Stoke playing career for Greg Routley who was presented with a shirt signed by all the players at the end of the match.

Scorecard : http://sdacc.play-cricket.com/website/results/2468910