2008-08-23

Foreman Grills Chelford

Chelford 139 all out, Lindow 142 for 7

Lindow (20pts) beat Chelford (8) by 3 wickets

A nervous relegation dogfight saw Lindow eventually triumph on the back of a fine bowling display and a commanding display with the bat by Dave Foreman. Another successful toss for James Bracewell saw Chelford asked to bat first, and Homi Masud struck early, clean bowling the tentative Smith fro 0. The visitors batting seemed hesitant all day in the face of a confident Lindow attack, and it soon became apparent that Chelford skipper Dickenson, intent on batting positively, would be the main stumbling block for the home side. Masud continued to threaten, and also hit the stumps of Oliver (9), Duffy (7) and Hamilton (4) and was unlucky not to claim Dickenson as well, when an early edge flew quickly through between ‘keeper and slips. Masud’s spell finished with his figures showing 4 for 36, but Sutton and Barratt continued to make life difficult for the visitors. When Barratt (3 for 24) took his first wicket, Chelford were tottering at 73 for 5, but Dingle (11) provided stout support as Dickenson passed 50, before Sutton (1 for 42) took a very sharp caught and bowled low to his right, and then Slepikowski helped the score to a worrying 134 for 6 with four overs left. Bracewell persisted with spinner Barratt into the last few overs and was rewarded when Farmer completed a simple stumping as Dickenson tried to force the pace, and he left the field with a real Captain’s knock of 85 under his belt. From there the visitors folded, as Hume returned to claim two quick wickets, one to another fine stumping, and Barratt also claimed another and Chelford were all out for 139 in the last of their 45 overs.

If Lindow were confident of getting the runs, they soon found themselves in real trouble as Slepikowski and Shallcross came back hard with the ball for the visitors. Four successive maidens were followed by a frustrated swish to cover by Ed Farmer (0) and Smith (9) was unluckily trapped LBW to foreshadow a mini-collapse as Baltrop and Slinn were both also removed to ill-judged shots for ducks. After 18 overs Lindow’s hopes seemed in ruins with the score at 15 for 4, but Bracewell and Foreman had other ideas and a partnership began to emerge, gathering pace as change bowlers Cook and Prentice allowed the runs to flow more freely. The two added 85 in 17 overs and Lindow had just regained the edge in the game when Bracewell was finally bowled by Cook for 49, with the score 100 for 5 and 11 overs left. But for a while Lindow lost impetus as Foreman, despite passing 50, was left without the strike and runs were once again hard to come by as Shallcross manfully returned to the attack. It was Slepikowski (3 for 36) the made the breakthrough, though, with a very good catch off his own bowling to remove Dave Farmer (5) and Barratt was quickly LBW to Shallcross (3 for 48) to leave the home side 7 down with 15 still to get and overs running out. But Foreman decided that enough was enough and smacked 3 quick boundaries off Shallcross to end the match and walk off with an imperious unbeaten 67 (12x4) to his name.

So a critical derby victory enabled Lindow to leapfrog Chelford in the table and keep out of the relegation places for another week.