Thomson Reuters

22nd May 2018 - Alexandra Palace
Won by 2 wickets - NRR = 0.64

It was a glorious afternoon for the first game of the season against Thomson Reuters. The sunshine was marred only by Great Northern’s inability to operate a functional train service, meaning that the game was not able to start until the sun had almost retreated behind the trees.

No-one knows what happened in the toss, but CIPACC were bowling first. The bowling was opened by J A Kemp’s dynamic duo of Tim Headley and Chris Milton, with a trusted approach of “speed first, accuracy later”. It was therefore appropriate that Headley took the first wicket with the ball ploughing through the bat before gently knocking the (fortunately featherweight) bail off the stumps. The pace was too much for the opposition’s batsmen, but sadly also too much for Headley, who conceded more runs via extras than off a bat.

First change brought on George Pidgeon and Andy Spurr. Despite being hit for 6 in what was a rare display of dynamicism from the opposition batsmen, Pidgeon managed the best economy figures of the team from his four very tidy overs.

In what must be a first for CIPACC, there were no dropped catches. It must be said, however, that this incredible statistic was caused by the opposition’s tendency to play proper shots that went along the ground, rather than outstanding athleticism in the field. Athleticism (of sorts) was provided in other forms, with three run outs caused at least in part by the opposition’s hesitant attempt at “running”. With the 20 overs up, CIPACC had restricted the opposition to 118 runs. An easy target, proclaimed Grant.

In went Justin Wilson and Nick King. Wilson attacked well, with the runs flowing for, er, the first five balls when Nick King lofted one to mid wicket to be out for a duck. Torrance showed him how it’s done, scoring 24 runs of not very many balls. He was hindered by his various batting partners who managed to keep him off the strike for about 3 consecutive overs. With the rest of us hoping he’d get his 25 and retire, our favourite Scotsman decided to sky one to mid off and get himself out. The middle order took inspiration from this and faltered, allowing the required run rate to get uncomfortably high. Grant was eating his words and King noted at the sidelines that he’d never been part of a successful run chase (it generally helps if you can score some runs). All this was until Mark Dean came to the crease. Arms and legs flailing he ran, and he swung, and he hit. Some quick runs over the top of their ever encroaching field brought us to within sight of our target with three overs left. After Milton threw the kitchen sink (and missed) at a ball angling into his left stump it was again up to Spurr to try and lead the team home. In a somewhat selfish batting display he managed to both keep the strike and score all of the 20 runs required runs in 11 balls to guide us to the target. A neutral observer might say he led by example - the rest of us wouldn’t want to inflate his ego.

The beer was beery and the food was beige.

Report by Tim Headley

Batting

Player	Runs scored	How Out	4s	6s	SR
Justin Wilson	11	Bowled	1	0	138
Nick King		Caught	0	0	0
Bruce Torrance	24	Caught	3	1	160
Irwin Sarif	2	Bowled	0	0	25
Ben Hunter	1	Caught	0	0	17
Andy Grant	13	Caught	1	0	72
Chris Milton	10	Bowled	2	0	91
Mark Dean	12	Caught	1	0	120
Andy Spurr	20*		4	0	182
Tim Headley	0*		0	0	-
George Pidgeon					-
Extras	28				-

CIPA - 121 for 8 off 18.3
Scorebook

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