Match
reports
While the final blow wasn’t
struck until 7pm, arguably the Cavaliers defeat to Essendon
on Sunday can be pinpointed to two earlier occaisions: First,
at 5pm on Friday, when it was confirmed that only 7 ‘regular’
cavaliers and 2 ringers would be available to play and second,
at 2.15pm on Sunday, when skipper Gareth Lloyd lost his
4th consecutive toss and inevitably found his side batting
last on a pitch that invariably crumbles like a badly-made
flapjack.
Clearly, little can be done about
the latter, and the law of averages suggests that the coin
will eventually land tails-up and Lloydy will be able to
choose the best of the conditions for his men. The former,
however, was disappointing. “Yeah, I know it’s
the weekend after the tour and lads have other commitments”
said Lloyd afterwards, “but it seems that the same
old lads make themselves available week in week out. Essenden
is always a winnable fixture and it’s a shame that
we shot ourselves in the foot by turning up a couple of
men short.”
With gaps in the field, the Cavaliers
were always going to find it hard to keep the score down,
especially on the hottest day of the year and with there
being as yet little life in the pitch. Tim Firmin and Nick
Francis opened up gamely with the ball, but soon found that
edges went where a second slip might have been, that false
shots spooned up where a midwicket would have been stationed.
Firmin made a breakthrough as he so often does, but Francis
remained wicketless, as did Fraser Tant whose 6 over spell
was, frankly, dire. Chances were few and far between, although
a soft drops from Simon Foster and Jamie Wise ensured that
they – like the costly Tant – would have to
score some runs to avoid the Orange Cap of Ignominy.
The one bright spark with the ball
was debutant Matt Penhaligan, the Truro Express, whose impressive
spell of 10-0-61-4 kept the Cavs just about in the game.
As ever, Simon Foster chipped in with a couple of late wickets
to keep his average looking tidy, and Jim Burton took a
good caught and bowled, but when the declaration came at
209/8, it looked a tough ask.
Openers Wise and Foster started off
slowly but surely, knowing that a middle order of debutant
Julian Gent, Tant, Lloyd and Burton looked rather week on
paper and, as it would turn out, on grass. Wise soon chipped
a return catch to the bowler on 10, and when Gent was bowled
on 12, the Cavs were 58 for 2 and in trouble. Things looked
even worse for the Cavaliers when, the ball before the drinks
interval, a seemingly innocuous delivery rose off a length
and ballooned off the shoulder of Foster’s bat and
into the keepers gloves for a patient 32. From nowhere,
the pitch was starting to disintegrate.
As the last semi-recognised batsmen,
the onus was on Tant and Lloyd to get the Cavs in to a position
from which an attack could be mounted. They put on 31, including
four consecutive fours at the start of an over, before Tant
(22) was undone by a shooter that left the batsman bemused
and the fielders apologetic. Jim Burton promptly followed
next ball, and when Lloyd holed out at mid-on a couple of
overs later, the Cavs were in the death throws. A duck for
Francis, 3 for Tim Firmin and 2no for Penhaligan later,
and it was game over – the Cavs 120/7, which for a
team of only 9 equals ‘all out’.
So, a disappointing turn-out and
a disappointing result. The Cavs have a week off to lick
their wounds, before a chance to avenge defeat to the Players
and Jesters with a return fixture on the 3rd July.
