Detail: 10-08-2008 -

Result:
The Blues made the most of an uninterrupted Sunday of sunshine in Sussex to record an impressive victory against Loxwood after an impressive run chase inspired by skipper for the day M. Corcoran.

Winning the toss, fearless leader M. Corcoran elected to field first, and threw the new ball to Freeman on a pitch that was sure to offer assistance early on following the heavy rain in the previous week. Freeman produced an impressive opening spell, with much of the credit surely going to Corcoran for his shrewd field placing. From the other end, Appleton came in at great pace and peppered the Loxwood openers with a succession of short balls.

Having failed to find the breakthrough Singh came on for Appleton and produced an impressive 6 over spell, bowling with control down the hill. Only a series of dropped catches prevented Singh from claiming the crucial wicket – if only one of those catches had gone to M. Corcoran.

The breakthrough finally came when T. Corcoran managed to induce a miss-timed drive off the well-set opener, the thick edge well caught in the covers by Rolfe running backwards. Again, much of the credit went to the skipper M. Corcoran for positioning Rolfe in such an underused position and encoraging the bowler to pitch it just were he did for the wicket ball. Everybody crowded round and jumped on M. Corcoran despite his insistence that T. Corcoran and Rolfe deserved at least some of the credit.

Singh finally got the wicket M. Corcoran deserved when the skipper himself caught a quite superb diving catch, off balance with one hand, as the second opener like the first drove a good lenght ball in the air into the off-side. He must have known that was where the imperious M. Corcoran was prowling, but from the moment it left his bat he must have thought “four”, only to be denied by a moment of brilliance. It was only a half-chance at best and it was fair to say that the rest of the team certainly took inspiration from the captain leading from the front.

Despite the M. Corcoran’s best efforts, Loxwood consolidated after the fall of their second wicket and, despite a good spell of off-spin by Ahmed and an interesting spell of spin/medium pace from McCarthur, further wickets eluded the fielding side. With Loxwood slowly gaining the upper hand as the two batsmen started to feel comfortable at the crease, M. Corcoran brought Rolfe into the attack. While Rolfe ‘blocked-up’ one end, M. Corcoran himself took the ball at the other end for a super spell of fast, swinging, seaming bowling. Alas, he simply did too much for the batsmen and he too failed to find the breakthrough. The team however took some consolation from the two batsmen acknowledging it as the best spell they had seen that season. 2 – 0 – 19 – 0 certainly did not do him justice.

With the Loxwood score threatening to creep up to 250, M. Corcoran brought Freeman back to stem the flow of runs. Freeman did just that with only 7 runs off the last two Freeman overs and, despite a hat-trick of dropped catches in the final over (off successive deliveries), Freeman bowled the Loxwood no.4 with a fast yorker to dismiss him for a very impressive 94, including some strokes M. Corcoran himself would have been proud of. The final wicket and good late overs from Rolfe and Freeman meant Loxwood posted an imposing 235 for 3 as the Blues settled down for an excellent tea.

All the chat at tea was about how M. Corcoran maintained such an impressive figure despite seemingly ‘troffing’ on the food on offer. M. Corcoran put it down to luck, but most of the team knew it was because he clearly worked-out.

The run chase didn't unfortunately get off to the best start after Burchfield edged behind in the first over. Freeman came to the crease and both Appleton and Freeman did well to survive an excellent spell of bowling by both openers for Loxwood who were moving the ball in the air and off the pitch. Perhaps only Corcoran M. of the team had the game and technique to score freely against such quality bowling.

Needing 7 an over at the start of the innings, the Blues found themselves well behind the required rate after 15 overs, having posted about 50 runs.

Despite losing Appleton to a good ball by the Loxwood opener late in his spell, the good work of Freeman and Appleton in seeing off the new ball started to pay dividends as Freeman, now joined by Rolfe, started to 'see it big' and up the rate against the change bowlers of Loxwood. Whilst not as aesthetically pleasing as M. Corcoran, Freeman's innings was as destrucive as it was ugly, one flat bat smear to a half volley back over the bowler's head particularly upsetting the purist Rolfe at the other end. It was however brutally effective, as Freeman motored past 50, and then accelerated (much to the surprise of the opposition who didn’t think an acceleration from 20 an over was possible – they’ve never seen Freeman bat) to a fantastic 100. After raising his bat to the team and dedicating the knock to the skipper, Freeman lost concentration and edged a legside ball to the keeper (who took a good sharp catch) immediately afterwards and promptly walked after being declared “not out” by the umpire. When praised by the opposition for walking (they themselves had not really appealed) Rolfe pointed out that it was quite easy to “walk” when you have 100 against your name in the book!

With the game in the balance, Rolfe was joined at the crease by McArthur. Rolfe continued to hold the innings together as McCarthur, after playing some good looking shots was bowled by the excellent Loxwood opener who had been brought back for a final spell to drag the game back in Loxwood’s favour. Liddell now joined Rolfe at the crease and played what in hindsight was perhaps the crucial innings. Four quick boundaries eased the pressure on the Blues and put them in a position where, after the brilliant innings by Freeman, they looked the most likely to win. Liddell was bowled again by the fast opener, bringing T. Corcoran to the crease. After two very close LBW shouts, T. Corcoran saw off the last over from the returned opener. T. Corcoran however came and went for only 2, a farcical “yes…no….yes….no” run-out meaning he would not get the not out score he so badly craved.

Batting too low at 8, in came Carter and, with Rolfe continuing to play the supporting role, hit the winning runs to seal a highly impressive victory for the Blues with about 10 balls to spare.

Man of the Match could have gone to Freeman for his bowling and batting but the team were unanimous in giving it to M. Corcoran who had been excellent in every department. If pushed, M. Corcoran would have given it to himself also, but had at least pretended Freeman deserved some of the praise before justifiably accepting the accolade.

Thanks to everybody for playing on Sunday, it was a good day with beautiful weather at certainly one of my favourite grounds.

Next game Blackheath CC on Sunday.

MC

[updated 30 Jul 18]