Sat 28th May 2011

HCL RD1S

Sway & Burley lock horns in forest thriller

Sway 160-9, Burley 146-8 (target 149 off 39) Sway won by 2 runs

With previous games between these two having been played with a  good competitive spirit, the Sway vs Burley clash was set up to be a cracker on what was a rather glacial early summer’s day. The Sway skipper lost the toss and it was no surprise that Burley elected to take to the field, donning copious amounts of warm clothing. The Burley bowlers had the ball talking early, with plenty of swing and seam for the Sway openers to contend with. The lateral movement proved too much for the skipper Clark who was bowled off of his pad for a duck by the impressive left armer P. Yates. With Attapatu running late it was up to Barry Jones to step up to the number 3 slot but it proved too much of an ask as a slower ball which moved in off the pitch from J. Edworthy dislodging the bails, putting Sway into some early trouble. The situation became more severe for Sway when Attapatu and R. Clark were both dismissed without getting out of single figures, and when the resilient opener Hall was dismissed by J. Edworthy for 38 it looked as if the home side would be drowning their sorrows early down the local. However, ex-skipper Jon Grasham (21) and new signing Kev Glass (48) stuck around and built an indispensible partnership for Sway, displaying good levels of discipline, combined with some clever shot selection.  The innings was closed with quick blasts from D. Steadman (11*) and Thistleton (13) which helped Sway to reach 160-9 off of 42 overs, a total which the team were disappointed with, but slightly hopeful about.

After tea Burley started their run chase slowly, struggling to get anywhere near Grasham, who had elected to have a short leg, the Sway trademark for an aggressive approach to their bowling. After much leaving and missing, Grasham finally had the opener Munroe LBW for just 3, giving Sway early hope. Then in came Edworthy who had troubled Sway with the ball, and was equally bothersome with the bat in his hand, building a good partnership with the Burley skipper Kieran Hudson who was the stand out batsman for the visitors. It was the ever reliable Attapatu (10-3-27) who produced a wonder spell of bowling, making the breakthrough for Sway dismissing Hudson for 31, who chipped his catch straight to R. Clark who took a sharp catch at short mid-wicket. Edworthy followed shortly after, playing a solid drive straight back at the Sway bad boy Steve Thistleton (9-3-50), who took an exceptional caught and bowled.  Wickets continued to fall at regular intervals for Burley, however, their lower order batsman showed good fight, in a tough and worsening situation. The game then faced controversy as the Burley batsmen and umpire were certain that rule 42.16 of the MCC did not exist, with the non-striker almost performing a run before the bowler had delivered the ball....! The Burley batsmen at the non-strikers end was warned then run out but allowed to continue his innings amidst the confusion.  This aside, Burley always looked in control of the game and going into the final they need 4 runs for victory with 2 wickets in hand. However David Steadman (10-1-36) displayed experience and maturity beyond his 16 years to deliver a beautiful piece of at-the-death bowling, clutching victory for Sway from the jaws of defeat as Burley could only scramble 2 singles from the over. It needs to be noted however that no single instance in the match was an overriding factor in Sways win, and they displayed a characteristic team performance, with high standards of fielding and a never say die attitude.