1st May 2010

Terry hits purple patch to sink Hordle

Horlde 146ao, Sway 148-6. Sway won by 4 wickets

Sway made the short trip to Vaggs Lane to take on Hordle in a pre-season warm up game.

Due to the New Forest Ashes game and other unavailbilities, Sway were missing a number of first team regulars - but so were Hordle so it was a potentially even contest.

Hordle batted first on the artificial wicket and Sway opened with the pace bowling combination of Carl Osborne (7-0-38-1) and Robert Steadman (5-0-11-0). Both bowlers bowled quickly and accurately but the surface offered them nothing. Although Osborne managed to remove the leg stump of one opener, that was as good as it got for Sway in the early stages of the Hordle innings. Indeed Horlde's Booth and Jenkins put on a partnership of 85 - and with the score at 100 at the half way mark, Sway looked as if they were going to be chasing a total of 200 plus. Jenkins (40) however chipped a straightforward catch to Nilantha Atapattu off Steve Thistleton. Booth seemed all set for a ton when he surprising holed out to Rob Steadman off Terry Patch's second over.

Hordle then proceeded to crumble - unable to deal with Patch's combination of pace, bounce and "skid". He claimed four further wickets to complete his 5-wicket haul - all catches including a corker by Dave Marshall at gully (sorry but very proud of that one! - Ed.). Patch's figures were 7-1-18-5

With Hordle reeling James Howard entered the attack and bowled some fine deliveries to claim two wickets in two overs for just 8 runs to end the Hordle innings - much to the frustration of Dave Hurrell who was just 4 balls away from deploying his inter-continental ballistic missiles! In the event Hordle were all out for 146 - a great recovery including some excellent fielding - a remarkable 9 catches in total including 4 for Atapattu and 3 for Steadman. Atapattu's four catches equals the club record (Marshall, Grasham and Keen) of catches in a game by an outfield player.

In reply, Sway opened with Barry Jones (5) and Steve Thistleton (5). The innings unfortunately did not get off to a very auspicious start - firstly Thistleton being bowled whilst attempting to flick a full length ball down leg side, and Jones chopped a ball onto his stumps. Steve Hannibal (3) at number 3 did not hang around long either before being bowled by the impressive Jamie Rikard (8-2-10-3). 

Atapattu and Marshall were now at the crease and began to expose the weakness of Hordle's change bowlers and were thoroughly enjoying themselves. Atty hit 7 fours and 2 sixes before retiring at 50. Marshall hit 5 fours and 3 sixes on the way to an unbeaten 48. Robert Steadman and Carl Osborne did succumb fairly cheaply and Howard chipped in with a cuck, however Patch and Marshall steered Sway to a 4 wicket victory with a full 15 overs remaining.