Stork News

On a glorious Sunday afternoon, Fillongley welcomed Hagley to The Parks for the first round of the nationals in the village knockout cup. Having not played against them before, and knowing they’d defeated Astwood Bank in the previous round, Fillongley we well aware of the threat Hagley posed. What followed was a game of cricket neither player on either team, or the spectators for that matter, could have imagined.

Captain Skelding won the toss and decided to have a bowl, in spite of an exceptional batting wicket, in order to use our batting depth for the chase. Daud (8-2-36-0) and Jack (8-1-35-2) got things under way, with Young Jack picking up the first two wickets of the innings, dismissing the opener Trinham and number three McDonnell for 8 and 4 respectively. On Hagley’s part however, opener Joe Lennon continued on his merry way, defending the good balls and depositing anything loose from the bowlers to the boundary. Brendan (5-0-58-0) and Saj (4-0-29-0) were the change bowlers and unfortunately neither could find their radars, and as a result Lennon capitalised along with captain Michael Stead to push the scoring rate along at a more than brisk pace. Lennon was dropped off Waq (8-0-45-4) which proved to be costly, as he ruined skipper Skelding’s (5-0-45-0) initially tidy figures. He eventually departed for a brilliant 121, quickly followed by captain Stead for a well-made 50. Harry (2-0-28-1) chipped in with a wicket at the death as Paul Morgan’s quick fire 37 took the visitors to 279 off their 40 overs.

Tea, made by Lucy, was exceptional and yours truly was extremely glad to have already bowled first with such a fine spread laid out. The Fillongley players were certainly well nourished, as they needed to be in order to tackle such a big ask. The message was to keep wickets in hand, run hard between the wickets and put away the bad balls.

Easy, right?

Well…
Openers Franks and Carty started exactly as planned, running well between the wickets with Carty finding the gaps on a more regular basis. Carty was the first to go, caught at deep mid-wicket for 30 trying to up the ante. Captain Skelding joined Franks in the middle and both continued the good work, however the required rate was gradually increasing. Franks was out LBW for a very good 39, which brought star man Ahsan Sayed to the crease. The running between the wickets may have slowed down, but boundaries were now being scored more frequently. Both Skelding and Sayed paced the innings through the middle overs with quiet precision, ensuring the scoreboard never became static. The required rate, although slowly creeping, was never out of reach. After hitting the biggest six of his life, Skelding was caught on the boundary for a fantastic 72; a true captain’s knock. Ten overs to go, just over 100 required for victory and Waq was joined by H Tregonning who looked fluent from the word go. After making a quick-fire 15, looking comfortable and handling the pressure of the situation with great maturity, H was bowled. Brendan was next to come in, forcing Waq to run hard and risk having a heart attack. By now, 36 overs had gone with Fillongley on 233-4 (46 required off 4). Some lusty blows from Waq and the odd boundary from Bren brought that down to 17 needed from 12 balls. Brendan hit a timely 4 but was out the next ball. Daud strode out to the middle with the situation favouring the home side, 13 off 10. He merely stood and admired as older brother, after a wide ball, smashed captain Stead for a 4 and a 6 in the penultimate over to bring Fillongley to the brink. A leg bye was run to slip meaning we needed 1 to win. No last over dramas as Waq smashed the next ball for 4, finishing on a magnificent 97* to see Fillongley home by 5 wickets and record our highest chase in NVKO history.
A breath taking game of cricket, cheered on by tremendous spectators at the most picturesque ground, on a beautiful day and celebrated with team mates who’re second to none. Not much more you could ask for really…

Daud Sayed