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Tight last overs secure victory
Fallopians pip Grasshoppers at final post

By the Editor (Tim Castle)

To lose one leading batsman to an 11-year old bowler might be considered careless... lose two and it must be the Old Fallopians.

Yet despite the embarrassment the Fallopians managed to pull off a famous victory by the narrowest of margins.

Schoolboy Jake Sharland began the embarrassment right from his very first ball 

The match's second over had just begun when he let loose a well pitched and pacy delivery that completely fooled opener Jeremy Clarke, dismissing him for one and with just four on the board.

Cut to the eighth over and Sharland unleashes a similar ball which Ozzie banker Jonathan Stebbins should have driven back over mid on. Instead a wild swipe and it was all over, with Stebbins tramping back to the pavilion (well...) after a scoring what had been a confident 16 off four boundaries.

The other opener, Jon Idle, stayed for 18, but it was the partnership of skipper Andrew Wardle and sometime spinner John Rooney that saved the day.

Between them the pair put on 65, with Wardle fininshing on 45 and Rooney ending undefeated on a season's best of 31. Chris Nagle added the icing on the cake with 13 not out.

The short boundaries of the Victoria Park number two wicket had helped, but with 144 behind them the Fallopians might have thought the game was all but won.

All but... the Grasshoppers proceeded to bash the ball across the boundary with alarming regularity and suddenly Victory looked like she might smile on the insect-loving side.

Wardle bowled himself for one over and then removed himself in disgust after conceding 14. Luckily he plucked up the courage to return to the bowling crease later and took two scalps - one the vital wicket of giant slogger Russ Garside, on 16 from one six and a four.

Garside played his usual huge welly, miscuing a swift and on line ball, which fizzed skywards and plunged, captured just inches from the ground by Wardle, hero of the moment.

Nagle took an excellent high catch near square leg off a loose full toss from an otherwise tight session from Tim Castle (it was..!. apart from that six but that was exceptional!).

Nagle's bowling was punished despite being consistently on-line, conceding 49 runs, including 10 fours and one six.

The scores remained dangerously close but as the final overs neared the Grasshoppers began to run out of wickets and ability. 

Wardle's decision to rest both himself and Stebbins for the last overs paid off. The last three overs went for just 11 runs, Stebbins removing Don Bodie's balls on his last ball, and Wardle saving his most economical over of the season (conceding five) for the final six balls.

Simon Brodbeck struck the match's last ball past a hapless Andrew Barrow on the boundary, who, unclear of the score, slunk guilt-ridden off the pitch thinking he had lost the game for the Fallopians.

Luckily not (for him). A margin of four runs meant the Old Fallopians had scored their third straight victory this season against the valiant, but ultimately vanquished, Grasshoppers.

P.S. Stebbins achieved the Fallopians first, and only, maiden over this season.

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