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Lowe century powers Conisbrough to victory.
On yet another moist looking May afternoon
Stainborough's finest gathered to do battle
once more. If the weathermen were to be
believed the game may not finish without
interruptions.
Londt lost the toss again and the Stainborough
took the field. The batsmen came to the
wicket as a light sea fret (or was it moor
grime!) drifted across the ground. Blakemore
faced the first ball for Conisbrough with
a fetching pink handle to his bat with a
seemingly matching pink streak in his hair.
Londt's first delivery from the Strafford
Arms End was a shortish loosener which was
guided straight into MacFadyen's gloves.
Out came Steel and caressed Londt's second
ball to the cover boundary. The third ball
was again edged to MacFadyen who this time
made a least three attempts before holding
the catch. After a bizarre start Conisbrough
were 4 for 2 after only 3 balls. Rushforth
soon joined in bowling Green, leaving Conisbrough
19 for 3.
Conisbrough's skipper Johnson (25) and
Lowe stopped the rot and played some powerful
shots keeping the scoring rate at 4 an over
and above although there always seemed the
possibility of a wicket. Singh (11-3-55-2)
was brought on to take the pace off the
ball and got Johnson caught at gully by
Pepper. Hemingway soon followed bowled by
Singh but Lowe kept on scoring interspersing
powerful hitting with solid defence. With
Paul Jackson (35) he added 74 for the 6th
wicket including some big sixes from Jackson
over mid wicket.
Londt came back on at the Tractor Shed
end bowling Hughes. Singh then pulled off
the best catch of the season so far diving
low to his left on the fence to dismiss
Ben Jackson. Rushforth (15-1-68-2) came
back on at the Strafford Arms end and had
a weary Lowe stumped immediately after reaching
a valuable 100. Londt (13-1-53-5) then bowled
Kelly closing the Conisbrough innings 1
ball short of the 46 overs on 224.
As Stainborough trudged off to sample
Tinker's tea which he graciously donated
Ward made the mistake of asking Pepper to
describe in slow motion his attempt to catch
an innocuous lobbed shot at extra cover.
The response was a hairy arm around the
neck and a few choice vernacular words discouraging
further discussion.
Stainborough's response was slow with
tight bowling from Paul Jackson (18-6-49-1)
and centurion Scottious Loweus (10-1-26-2)
(Excuse the Python pun). Stainborough lost
both openers on 13 and slumped to 16 for
3. Londt and Archer (27) rescued the position
with a stand of 64 to reach 80 before Archer
was run out by a direct hit. Scoring was
slow with the home side reaching 16 for
2 after 10 overs, 38 for 3 after 20 overs
and 80-3 after 30 overs and from quite early
on it was a matter of reaching batting point
landmarks. Londt (46) was out with the score
on 107-5 and some late runs from Ward (20)
and Rushforth (18 not out) took the score
to 145-7 after 46 overs.
So it was back to Cutters Caribbean Bar
for the usual refreshments. The second team
arrived fresh from 9 points at Whitley Bridge
and Cammie handed round a photo of a Stainborough
touring side and asked everyone to guess
the players and year. A youthful looking
Archer and Millward were spotted and an
even younger Campbell but there was dodgy
haircuts and even dodgier facial growth
which made others indistinguishable from
1970's porn stars. The year was 1981/82
according to Cammie. It must have been a
southern hemisphere tour!
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