2nd XI Match Report

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DATE: Saturday 7th July 2001
OPPONENTS: Aston Manor
VENUE: Church Road, Perry Barr
TOSS WON BY: Aston Manor
MATCHBALL SPONSOR: N/A
RESULT: Lost by 3 wickets
POINTS: Atherstone points, Aston Manor points

Atherstone seconds suffered a bitterly disappointing defeat away to table toppers Aston Manor on Saturday in a hard fought ding-dong battle in the gloom at Perry Barr. Five points was scant reward for this side who gave plenty of effort against a team who on league position should be streets ahead of Atherstone but in reality, there was little to choose between the two.

After weeks beset by availability problems, Atherstone were able to call upon something more like a decent strength side, skipper Adi Williams returning after a fortnight at a Health Farm. Put in to bat first on a green and lively wicket with one gigantic boundary, the visitors got off to a dismal start when Ray Faulkner holed out to point with just one run on the board. Mike Brooks came to the crease and offered an easy chance to first slip without a run to his name which fortunately for Atherstone was put down. Together with Chris Horton, he helped to rebuild Atherstone's innings and the pair were scoring abundantly before Horton fell to an incredible catch on the deep square boundary. Matt Wood joined Brooks and the two added a crucial third wicket stand of 96, despite being slowed down by the introduction of spin. Rolling back the years, Brooks was stroking the ball around sweetly against one of his former clubs and when he fell for a brilliant 66, Aston Manor were relieved and Atherstone in trouble as from here on, nobody seemed able to really get bat on ball with any consistency. Wood battled hard for his 40 but an excellent spell of spin bowling from Warwickshire under 16's bowler Minton put the brakes on Atherstone, who missed a number of easy runs in reaching 170-8 at the close. This was at the time thought to be thirty runs short of a good score.

In reply to this, Aston Manor began in style as the dangerous Betty hit Niblock for nine in his first over. A wicket in his second over was Niblock's response but Aston continued at four an over until Williams removed Betty care of a smart piece of keeping by Brooks. Spin was introduced from both ends and suddenly the game turned on its head. No-one looked comfortable as both Martin Riley and Geoff Farmer turned the ball prodigiously and while Farmer was unlucky to grab just the one wicket in his 17 over stint, Riley cashed in by taking four. With ten overs remaining, a home win seemed out of the question and even later at 134-7 with five overs to go, many sides would have settled for a draw but as the rain came down, the hosts had a swing and for once in the game Atherstone's fielding let them down. The game was still in the balance entering the penultimate over but a cruel top-edged shot that trickled between the wheels of the sight-screen was controversially declared four and from here Atherstone lost composure and as a result the game, with just three balls remaining.

Atherstone must take heart from this performance and realise that similar efforts will reap them more points in future than the five they picked up here. A defeat was undeserved and cruel but with half of the season left to play, Atherstone will play worse sides than this Aston Manor one and so long as availability is retained, will surely begin to climb up the league.

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