Sat Jul 28th Victory at Parham by 7 wickets!
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Players
Match report
On the first fine day after unprecedented floods, the Grannies at last had the chance of a full day's cricket. It was a good toss to win and with a 40 over contest, we chose to put the opposition in to bat on a slow, soft wicket, where runs would be difficult to accumulate.
Our opening pair of Waldren and Knight bowled very tightly and after the first 20 overs Parham had only scored 40 runs with Oli W. unlucky not to get a wicket with prodigious inswinging bananas, ending up bowling 10 overs for 18 runs. Big John Rayer continued to apply the screw with a mean 8 overs for 19 runs and at the other end Martin Bagley puffed his way out of retirement ;>)to break the opening dogged partnership, ending up with 3 for 20.
Thereafter, in their last 15 overs wickets started to tumble with great spells of 4 for 12 off 4 overs from Tim Haynes and veteran Martin Emmison, bagging 2 for 5 off 3 overs. Martin claimed that this was the first time in 20 years, as an off-spin bowler to get a wicket with a leg break followed by one on its second bounce! Plus ca change!
Parham ended up all out for 100 off 39.1 overs, which was a reflection of a "sticky wicket", tight bowling and pretty good fielding especially from Paul Knight not to mention Tim Begg's slow motion dive for a lobbed catch at short leg which he would have taken with ease 10 years ago!
After a scrummy tea and nervous of being bogged down by accurate bowling by Brian Huffer, a cautious start was made, but after getting half way towards our total through Knight (30 N/O) and Begg (20) we only needed another 10 overs to polish off the runs with some lusty blows from Andy Carr (24 N/O).
It was a great win on a lovely ground with 10 overs to spare and 7 wickets in hand.
Match info
Lovely country estate with gardens that may be open on the day of the match. The house is also open to the public. To find out more about the House and Gardens go to http://www.parhaminsussex.co.uk/
Location
The Parham Estate,
Parham Park,
Storrington,
RH20 4HS,
United Kingdom
How to get there
The cricket pitch can be reached via the A283 out of Storrington towards Pulborough. Go past the main entrance on the left hand side and after about a mile take the first left signed Greatham. Continue for another mile and take the first left to Rackham. After a further mile turn left through white bar gates and at the first fork bear right towards the ground.