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26th June 2010 1st XI bounce back with a maximum
Compton 159ao,
Sway 164-3. Sway won by 7 wickets
Sway got back to
winning ways with a fine win at high flying Compton. Facing a
long trek to West Sussex the day got off to a sticky start when
the team got stuck in a traffic jam on the motorway in searing
heat, only arriving at Compton's picture postcard ground 5
minutes before the scheduled start. To make matters worse Sway
lost the toss and had to go immediately out to field. From the
start Compton only knew one way to play - to attack. With the
ball flying in the, air, it seemed inevitable that a ball would
go to hand. Compton's efforts were hampered early on when their
opener pulled a muscle and required a runner. No long after,
with the score on 38 he was hobbling back to the pavilion after
chipping a simple catch to Terry Patch. Steve Thistleton
(7-3-23-3) replaced Jack Walton into the attack and got an
excellent spell of to a great start trapping the Compton number
three with a rather dubious LBW. There was nothing fortunate
about his next two wickets however with excellent catches being
taken by Jack Walton and George Thornton. Compton were now
struggling at 58-4 but carried on playing their shots
regardless, frequently giving the ball-retrieving spaniel plenty
of work. Grasham turned to Thornton (7-0-26-3) who was champing
at the bit to get into the action - cleaning up the stumps with
his very first ball and followed it up with two further wickets
during his spell. It could have been more if not for the almost
unknown sight of Nilantha Atapattu dropping a simple catch.
A combination of some slack fielding and doughty resistance by the Compton meant that they kept battling intending to bat out their overs. Atapattu (8-1-3-2) got in to a fascinating battle with G Turner, Compton's last key batsman, at one point being hit for two sixes in a row; however, almost inevitably Atty got his man, deceiving Turner in the flight. Sway eventually wrapped up the Compton innings for 159 with four balls to spare as Grasham cleaned up the tail ender.
Sway's reply got off
to a disappointing start when Alex Hall was caught behind for
just 5, however, a decent partnership developed between Adam
Clark and Atapattu moving the score on to 68. Clark looked to be
in fine form playing some excellent strokes, however, was
stumped for 42 when seemingly all set for a half century. Stevie
How also looked to be paying well, however, when on 15 a hard
off drive unfortunately picked out the excellent Turner in the
deep. That was about as good as it got with Atapattu (68no) and
skipper Grasham (27no) steering Sway to victory and maximum
points with relative ease with 6 overs to spare. Next up, a top
of the table clash with Fawley II.
Nilantha "dolly drops" Atapattu - 68 not out |
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